Building a weaver ant nest takes two operations. First, chains of workers grip leaf edges and pull them together, sometimes forming living bridges of ants spanning a gap wider than one body. Then a second group fetches larvae from an existing nest.
A worker holds a larva in her jaws and taps it against one leaf edge, then the other, in a shuttling motion. The larva releases silk from its labial glands and the thread stitches the leaves. Adult ants have no functional silk glands, so the larvae are the only source, and they are spent on construction rather than kept for their own cocoons. Weaver ant larvae pupate naked as a result.
The species is the oldest documented biological control agent. Chinese citrus growers were recorded buying nests of Oecophylla and installing them in orchards, with bamboo bridges between trees, in texts dating to roughly the fourth century. The practice continues today in parts of Southeast Asia and Australia, where the ants suppress a range of orchard pests.