Ant males aren't trash, they are extremely efficient tools for a very streamlined mating process.
Unlike termites ants do not have to bother with keeping both males and females alive, by disposing the males immediately after the mating they have less mouths to feed which is a great thing during the founding process. Also ant males usually are thin, agile, very skilled flyers (unlike the fat queens) and due to their thin stature and their one-use nature the ants can minimize the resources going into their breeding and feeding program until they fly off to fulfil their purpose. Usually the colony doesn't even need to dispose of them because that's already part of the flight process (unlike bee drones which often return to the hive when they didn't manage to find a queen ant males usually don't do that, they just stay outside to try on the next day until they succeed, get eaten by a predator or die from exhaustion).
Edited by Serafine, April 26 2020 - 12:03 PM.