Hooray Ants! & aphids

Susan W · Sat Jun 30, 2012 8:22 pm

As I was picking herbs for the market, noticed a mess of ants on one of the mint pots. Aphids! I was tired, towards end of picking. I did pinch off the tops of several stems infested and tossed them aside to the concrete. I need to go back and check, wash, remove etc.

I mentioned this to a fellow farmers market vendor, and usually more knowledgable than me. She thinks ants EAT aphids. We have our weekly Bug chat, as in What's eating Yours!

From this wealth of info with you people, do ants EAT aphids, or just the sticky goo?

RogueRose · Sat Jun 30, 2012 8:47 pm

I don't think ants eat aphids - but some "farm" them.

dustyrivergardens · Sun Jul 01, 2012 12:08 am

I agree it's more likely those ants are farming the aphids..

!potatoes! · Sun Jul 01, 2012 4:43 am

yep, farming them. there may be a few specific ant species that eat aphids, but they're the exception and not the rule. (thinking central american army ants, argentine fire ants...)

rainbowgardener · Sun Jul 01, 2012 7:52 am

Farming them means that they tend the aphids to get the honeydew the aphids produce ... a sweet sticky substance that is the aphid's way of getting rid of the excess carbohydrates it consumes. The ants like this nectar like stuff, so keep aphids around for it. So it may look like the ants are eating the aphids, but not so.

I have seen a tree trunk in my yard where ants were farming aphids. They had the aphids packed in shoulder to shoulder, denser than you usually ever see them, and they were aggressively guarding them--I got a bunch of stings before I realized what was going on.

jnunez918 · Sun Jul 01, 2012 1:41 pm

I have a dwarf orange tree I found ants on. Would u says its a good bet that it has aphids then??

RogueRose · Sun Jul 01, 2012 3:18 pm

jnunez918 wrote:I have a dwarf orange tree I found ants on. Would u says its a good bet that it has aphids then??

On the orange tree I'd say you have scale or sheild bugs or aphids or something to cause it to be "sticky" - and the ants are attracted to that.

Susan W · Sun Jul 01, 2012 8:43 pm

Thanks for the tips, and what I was thinking. Ants can give us a heads up on something else going on. We see the ant, but not often the scale or aphid, so a clue to check things out.

rainbowgardener · Mon Jul 02, 2012 6:12 am

RogueRose wrote:
jnunez918 wrote:I have a dwarf orange tree I found ants on. Would u says its a good bet that it has aphids then??
On the orange tree I'd say you have scale or sheild bugs or aphids or something to cause it to be "sticky" - and the ants are attracted to that.

aphids, whiteflies, and scale insects secrete honeydew. Shield bugs, aka stinkbugs do not.

Ants sometimes actually "milk" the aphids for the honeydew, adding to the (false) impression that they are eating them.

bangstrom · Fri Jul 06, 2012 12:39 am

One year I had an apple tree with aphids and some highly aggressive ants but the damage appeared to be minor so I let them be. Later the ladybugs moved in and kept the aphid population in check and surprisingly the ants didn't seem to mind as long as they kept their distance from the aphids they were tending on the tender branch tips. A bad gypsy moth infestation later that summer went hard on my fruit trees but the tree with the ants and aphids was untouched. I suspect the ants may have protected the tree.

Here is a video of ants milking aphids.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TJT90MJmQg&feature=related

shangib74 · Fri Jul 06, 2012 10:48 am

I was weeding my garden yesterday and picking a few pickling cucumbers and noticed there were ants in the garden is this ok? Or should I try and get rid of them? I have so much to learn lol. Thanks

rainbowgardener · Fri Jul 06, 2012 1:03 pm

Ants are not a problem in the garden. They do not eat living plants and their tunnels aerate the soil. But read the posts in this thread about farming aphids.

shangib74 · Fri Jul 06, 2012 1:52 pm

Thanks so much I am happy to hear they are not a problem. I did read about them farming aphids thanks.

Lianne · Mon Sep 03, 2012 2:45 am

help! three or four days ago I noticed ants on my cayenne pepper plant. After closer examination, the poor plant was covered in aphids. I had a spray bottle of garlic/pepper tea, so I doused the plant. the next day, the population seemed to have decreased so I thought I was winning the battle. the day after that, I noticed a few aphids had made it to another nearby pepper plant, so I sprayed the tea mixture on all pepper plants in my 4x8 raised bed. this morning, I found aphids ALL. OVER. my eggplant. it is a huge plant (well, huge compared to everything else in my little garden). it's about 5 or 6 feet tall and takes up about half of one 4x4 bed. The aphids are everywhere. I sprayed a combo of dish soap and water on everything today, but I know it did not blast all of the aphids off. what can I do to stop them from taking over the whole garden? I also have okra and watermelon growing in the ground nearby just outside of the bed and would prefer they don't take over those as well

rainbowgardener · Mon Sep 03, 2012 5:09 am

You can keep dealing with the aphid problems on a short term basis for now. When I have one or two plants that get pretty covered with aphids (usually my rose and honeysuckle trumpet vine in the spring), I just squish them. Aphids are slow and stupid and sit there and let you squish them.

For next year for longer term solution, work harder at encouraging birds and ladybugs in your garden. Bird feeders, bird baths, good cover for the birds.

You can buy ladybugs, but a more permanent solution is to plant flowers they like, including: dill, fennel, parsley, chives, chamomile, yarrow, mustard, sweet alyssum, marigold, cornflower, basket of gold. And don't worry about eliminating all the aphids. Plants can easily tolerate some aphids, just not a massive infestation. But you need to have some aphids around to keep the ladybugs happy.

Lianne · Mon Sep 03, 2012 8:11 am

thanks! I looked to see if anyone was selling ladybugs on craigslist but couldn't find any. I know there is a garden/feed store on the other side of town that was definitely selling them earlier this spring but I didn't have a need for them at the time, and I haven't noticed them selling any the last few times I've popped in.

I think I'll stick with the soap/water solution and the garlic tea for now to just keep fighting them off, until it's time to recoup and prepare for spring. of course, when spring gets here if we've had another mild winter it's armywormpocalypse round two for me, which is a whole 'nother set of challenges.