Ants are as effective as pesticides

[Becky]

I read an interesting article yesterday and thought you folks would be interested in reading it too... A study has been done looking into whether ants are as effective as pesticides, and the results are very interesting!

Published 31 August in the British Ecological Society’s Journal of Applied Ecology, a review of more than 70 scientific studies provides evidence that on many crops from cocoa and citrus to palm oil and cedar, ants can control pests as efficiently – and more cheaply – than chemicals.

All farmers need to do is collect ant nests from the wild, hang them in plastic bags among their tree crops and feed them a sugar solution while they build their new nests. Once a colony is established, farmers then connect the trees that are part of the colony with aerial ‘ant walkways’ made from string or lianas.

After that, the ants need little, except for some water in the dry season (which can be provided by hanging old plastic bottles among the trees), pruning trees that belong to different colonies so that the ants do not fight, and avoiding insecticide sprays.

The review shows that crops such as cashew and mango can be exceptionally well protected from pests by weaver ants.

Read the full article here.

 

[Chuck]

Interesting article. I just wished we had that type of ant in the US. Unfortunately the only carnivorous ant we have is the fire ant. Some of our ants actually harbor and safeguard destructive insects while others literally harvest the leaves of plants. Maybe we can import some

 

[Rajesh Sethi]

My garden ants should read this article, they should be attacking other insect instead of sucking honeydew.

May be they sometime have special occasion on which they plan to have a grand feast, they become aggressive and kill other ants of different species or other colony, all insects, even frogs.

 

[Verdun]

Hmmmmm! Not convinced Becky.....dont feel I want to encourage more ants. As summer progresses so will the activities of the ants we already have.

 

[headfullofbees]

I have a live-and-let-live kind of attitude to ants.
If they come into the house or farm blackfly on my fruit trees, I fight them off, but if they're doing no harm, I leave them be.

 

[Daren]

I have No problem with UK Ants as long as they stay in the garden I'm happy to share it with them. They are Cool in my world.................just stay out of the house

 

[tbendl]

UK Ants don't bother me either....

 

[Gardy]

it gets annoying when ants don't just stay in the garden