Ants, Ants, eating my Plants!

Please keep in mind that ants do not eat your plants. Plants are not digestible to them. There are some leaf cutter ants that will destroy your plants and grasses but these are not nearly as common as other types and only live in specific areas. These leaf cutter ants cut pieces off your plants and carry them to their nest and use them to grow a fungus that is edible to them. Unless you see a trail of ants carrying green leaves, (it is very obvious) you probably do not have them.

Ants are almost universally beneficial to your garden. They are predators feeding on other plant eating insects.

There is really only one circumstance when ants are detrimental to your garden. Then is when you have an aphid infestation. If your plants are being eaten, check the undersides of your leaves. This is where aphids are typically found. They are a small insects which are typically staying still because they are latched on to your plant.

Ants then drink the honeydew that is excreted by the aphids as they suck your plants dry. Honeydew is a mostly sugar substance that ants relish. The plants contain more sugar then the aphids need and as they excrete it as honeydew the sugar is collected by the ants. They come up behind the aphids and consume it directly from the rear of the insect. Ants will even heard aphids to better feeding grounds once a plant is dead. In some cases honeydew comprises the majority of an ant colonies food source.

If you have no evidence of an aphid infestation in your garden and you have not seen any small groupings of black/brown little insects on the underside of your leaves then leave the ants alone. They are actually helping your garden. 99% of the time ants in your garden are a good thing. They are exploring, hunting, following hunting trails and killing anything else in their path that is not an aphid. You probably have hundreds of different leaf eating insects in your garden (caterpillars, grasshoppers, stick insects, slugs, snails, etc) but only one insect that eats them all - Ants.

By setting out ant traps and killing ants in various other means you are actually creating a better environment for plant eating insects. You are sewing your own devastation.

If you have no aphids and the ants are not infesting your home, then please leave them alone. For your gardens sake.

Post Script - Just a little hint for those of you who do have an aphid problem that the ants are exacerbating. You can buy chemical sprays to kill them in many places. Where I live in Ontario, Canada - we have very tough fertilizer, weed control and insecticide laws. I mean really tough. There is nothing available since it has all been banned in an attempt to protect our ground waters and ecosystems. Many people I know drive across the border to the US and smuggle these things back. If you also have tough laws or just want to do things the more natural way read below:

Put ant traps out for a week or so. Kill off as many colonies as you can (poor industrious ants) with these ant traps. I have found the traditional metal circular ant traps work the best. Leave them out for a week. Go to your local nursery and many of them will sell you containers of lady bugs. You can buy 500, 1000, 1500, etc. Do not spread them on your lawn during the day. Wait until dark and spread the ladybugs around your garden. They do not fly at night and as a result will stick around and some even accept their new circumstance as a comfortable habitat. If you release them during the day they will simply panic and take flight. Lady bugs eat aphids. But they will be chased off by ants if you have not eliminated them first.

Hope this helps those of you out there with garden problems.