Abstract. This paper proposed a bio-inspired model for information diffusion in complex networks using ant colony optimization. This model introduces selfishness in forwarder nodes and unacquainted nodes. Ant colony optimization important parts are finding shortest path and managing the selfish nodes and disjoined nodes. The proposed approach is simulated in two types of networks: lattice network and scale free network. The simulation results show that the proposed approach has higher performance and higher reachability than epidemic model.