Ants - the aphid's defender!

If you ever find aphids on your plants at home, before squirting them with something toxic, take another look. 

Where there are aphids there are usually Black Garden Ants.

Why? Well, they've learnt that teamwork can benefit them both.

Aphids are a great meal for a hungry Ladybird, but they've found an ingenious way of protecting themselves. They produce a sweet nectar from their bodies which ants just love to drink. 

The ants stroke (or "milk") the aphids which respond by producing blobs of "honeydew" for the ants to drink. In return, when a hungry Ladybird comes a-hunting, the ants see it off!

It's been proven that this sugary substance gives the ants an addictive high - they get "drunk" on it!

More amazing ant facts (not UK species, but definitely worth a mention):

Leafcutter Ants are the foragers & gardeners of the ant world. Leafcutter ants are capable of carrying over 50 times their own body weight. They carry leaves back to their nest and use them to make a fertiliser to grow their own special fungus-food in! They tend this fungus garden which is their only food source.

Fire Ants form living rafts to move the colony away from flooded areas. 

Fire Ants have developed the ability to team together to form a raft to survive the flooding of their habitat. The entire colony links arms and legs and floats above the water's surface - incredibly, even the ants on the bottom layer stay dry! 

Harvester Ants Vs Night Ants 

In the Arizona desert food is scarce & the only things ants can eat are seeds. Harvester Ants collect the seeds during the day, but have to be fast as the desert heats up quickly. 

By nightfall they are back in their nests having filled their underground larders with seeds. 

When they are safely tucked up for the night another species of ants wake up & start to forage - the Night Ants. But, seeds are scarce in the desert & more often than not there are few about by nightfall because the Harvester Ants have collected them all. 

The Night Ants though, have a cunning plan. They spend the night shifting stones & plants to block up the holes of the Harvester Ant's nest - by morning it's clear why - they've trapped the Harvester Ants in the nest! 

It takes the Harvester Ants most of the next day to clear away the rubble, which means they have less time for foraging, which in turn means that by nightfall there are still seeds on the ground for the Night Ants to collect! 

Fantastic!