How Important are Ants in the Environment?
Ants can be beneficial to the environment in a variety of ways. Ant colonies aerate and enrich the soil, creating a stable ecosystem by recycling dead animals, insects, and decaying matter, placing nutrients back into the soil. Ant tunnels enhance water infiltration and circulate air in the ground which is beneficial not only to the soil, but plant roots as well. Ants also help with pollination by crawling over one flower to another; in the home and outside, ants are natural pest control agents for termites (ants eat them). Certain species such as Seed-harvesting ants collect and unwittingly spread seeds, providing a new harvest of plants. When the seeds they have store inside the mound sprout, harvester ants toss the sprouted seeds into rubbish heaps around the mound. A few culls take root and grow. As beneficial insects, ants eat pests which are harmful to crops and orchards. Ants are beneficial in the garden. Ants are not a significant garden pest and can actually be helpful; they hunt, herd, and farm with amazing organization. In the garden they destroy harmful pests to your plants by killing small larvae and newly hatched plant-eating bugs. Ants also kill a good percentage of flies, making ants more effective than some pesticides! The typical garden variety ant doesn’t eat plants or actively destroy them like caterpillars do. Their main source of food is sugar, usually found in nectar, sap, or the honeydew excrement from aphids. Garden ants will kill off pests like caterpillars and the ants themselves are food for birds and lizards which will encourage wildlife to flourish in your garden.
Ant receiving honeydew from an aphid.