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Vegetable Gardening

Do some ants eat aphids?

16 years ago

I've got some Candy Corner sweet corn that tasseled last week. The tassels have a large number of aphids residing on them as well as on some leaves. There are also ants (I don't know for sure what kind) climbing all over the plants all the way up to the tassels. Could it be that the ants are eating the aphids? It doesn't seem like they (the ants) are eating my plants so I tried to watch and see if they were eating the aphids, but I couldn't tell. That would be great if they were. I luckily have quite a few ladybugs feasting away on the aphids, but there are plenty to feed anything else that wants eat them. I just haven't seen ants listed as a beneficial (or harmful for that matter) garden insect.

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Comments (7)

hatchjon
16 years ago
Hi westtexan

I know this sounds wierd...
Some ants actually herd aphids. Aphids excrete a sugary fluid after the feed off your plants. The ants then gather this fluid and eat it as food. The ants on your corn are probably protecting the aphis from predators just as a human shepard would.
esobofh
16 years ago
Second that.. yep, Ants will actually herd the aphids and 'milk' them for the nectar they produce. In return, the aphids are protected by the ants.

Some species of ants go as far as to put the aphids out to pasture in the day, and bring them in at night. Crazy stuff!

The ants won't harm the lady bugs, unless they are directly harming the aphids they are overseeing at that moment. The ants can then gang up on a comparitively large lady bug and bring it down.

If it all seems to be in balance, and neither side is winning or losing, i'd just let it play out. Otherwise, if the aphid/any population is growing I would lay out some of the ant poison that the ants will take back to the nest to kill the queen. At that point, the protectors will be gone and the beneficial insects can keep the aphids in check.
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Interesting.. I've read a number of aphid life cycle, control, studies and especially state agricultural sites like UMass Amherst/UMass Extension and CT Agricultural Experiment Station that report that there are different life cycles that include live birth and eggs: They will then find a mate, the female will produce eggs, and the adults will then die.The eggs will over-winter and hatch in the spring.In the spring, these eggs all hatch to be wingless females. Some aphid species have unusual and complex reproductive adaptations, while others have fairly simple reproduction. Adaptations include having both sexual and asexual reproduction, creation of eggs or live nymphs In spring wingless female aphids hatch from overwintering eggs and soon give birth to many nymphs (males are not present). And in fairness there are other URL's that report live birth: Note: Most aphids, except for the sexual forms, do not have to mate in order to reproduce, and they produce live young, rather than eggs. Most types of aphids found in greenhouses do not mate. All of the aphids present are females which can give birth to live nymphs. There is no egg stage. An adult female may live for up to one month. During this time, she may give birth to 60 to 100 live nymphs. So I haven't a clue other that this disclaimer many URL's use: Biology and Life Cycle Most types of aphids found in greenhouses do not mate. All of the aphids present are females which can give birth to live nymphs. There is no egg stage. An adult female may live for up to one month. During this time, she may give birth to 40 to 100 live nymphs. About one week is sufficient for young aphids to reach maturity. Migratory winged aphids may appear when the colony becomes overcrowded or when the food supply is depleted. Outdoors, in the fall, winged aphids which mate and lay eggs appear so that aphids overwinter in the egg stage. BOTH!
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wheelz51
16 years ago
I don't mean to hijack this thread but do want to ask a question that pertains and is apropos.

Will the aphids harm to the corn? I have noticed the tiny ants also on my stalks but never dreamed of aphids. I will have to go check.

Mark
westtexan
Original Author
16 years ago
I would have thought you were joking around if of course I didn't know you were serious. I am constantly impressed with the knowledge of people on this site. Now if only I could get 4 or 5 of you to come on over and show me what I'm doing wrong and how to get rid or contain every pest, I'd have the best garden around!

I'm not too concerned about the aphids at the moment...not on my corn anyway. It seems like the plants are big enough to handle a small number of aphids. I just have to go home today and put mineral oil on the silks. Never tried it before so wish me luck and correct me if my plan is not right. The silks appeared about 6 or 7 days ago. I am going to apply half a dropper (per GW poster's instructions) of mineral oil on each ear's silks. I don't plan on reapplying the ineral oil later b/c I am affraid of doing more harm than good by overdoing it. I can't remember ever having too many ears that were worm free so hopefully I can make that happen this time around.
carol_71
16 years ago
If you have the chance to check several times a day on what the ants are doing, you might see when they carry the aphids, protecting them. That's an AMAZING nature's show to watch.
gardenlen
16 years ago
westtexan,

yes ants have a symbiotic relation ship with aphids so they will be herding the insect and using the sweet secretion they extrude as food. so to get control of the aphids in a lot of cases you need to get rid of the ants.

lady bugs are used as the biological control for aphids but have never heard or seen any ants eating them.

len

Here is a link that might be useful: len's garden page
franktank232
16 years ago
I've noticed they really like to do this on sunflowers.

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