Ants act as decomposers by feeding on organic waste, insects or other dead animals. They help keep the environment clean. Carpenter ants, which make their nests in dead or diseased wood, considerably accelerate the decomposition process of timber. After the ants leave, fungi and bacteria grow in the galleries and break down the lignin and cellulose on large surfaces.
In terms of their effects on our gardens, plants, trees, and crops, ants can actually have quite a few positive effects. For one, as this study published in PubMed shows, ants can have multiple beneficial effects on soil fertility, as they dig through the soil, make it more water-absorbent, relocate refuse, and so on. Ants such as the black garden ant are also predatory animals that feed on other insects, many of which are actual plant pests. Even tree ants, plant-ants, and most other ants eating plants tend to consume the mildew that forms on plants and not the plants themselves.
At the same time, however, there is a definite symbiotic connection between aphids and ants in which the aphids help feed the ants and the ants protect the aphids from their predators by being the predators’ predators. And since aphids are pests that are highly damaging to our crops, their symbiotic relationship with ants is not something a gardener or a farmer should tolerate.
Credit : Insect Cop
Picture Credit : Google
