One of the most striking characteristics of social insects is the sophisticated collective behavior that arises from the interactions of individuals. The strategies and abilities of individuals in a colony are the building blocks of collective behavior, and they may shape social behavior even in the absence of mechanisms such as mass recruitment. In my project, I focused on the contribution of individual behaviors on the whole colony. More specifically, I investigated strategies of ant foraging that do not include mass recruitment or communication between foragers outside of the nest. Temnothorax rugatulus is characterized by small colonies (usually not more than a few hundred individuals) and small individuals. Accordingly, the activity of a whole colony can be observed in the laboratory. Additionally, T. rugatulus does not engage in mass recruitment, and thus, independent individual behavior upon foraging is displayed. Polydomy constitutes a special case for the foraging of an ant colony, and has also been described as dispersed central place foraging. To investigate both, individual foraging strategies and polydomy I coupled computer simulation with laboratory experiments using ant colonies.