  We investigate a type of bistability where noise not only causes transitions
between stable states, but also constructs the states themselves. We focus on
the experimentally well-studied system of ants choosing between two food
sources to illustrate the essential points, but the ideas are more general. The
mean time for switching between the two bistable states of the system is
calculated. This suggests a procedure for estimating, in a real system, the
critical population size above which bistability ceases to occur.
