Where do ants live in nature? How long do ants live? What is an anthill from the point of view of social structure

Ants, as the most common type of insect, live in almost every corner globe, excluding Antarctica and Greenland, as well as individual oceanic islands. They conquered not only forests and steppes, but also deserts, and even the permafrost zone. There are 13,500 species of these insects found in nature, of which 300 species live in Russia. Ants cannot live alone, so they always live in families.

How many years does an ant live?

The life span of ants depends on what species and what caste it belongs to. From birth, the caste of the insect is determined and it does not change throughout its life. Worker ants, queens and males live in one family.

However, not all species of these insects exhibit a strict division into castes. Individuals of black garden and pharaoh ants can change their “specialization” throughout their lives. A newborn ant can care for larvae and eggs, later set up a home, and at the end of its life, obtain food.

In addition, the length of an insect's life cycle is affected by its size. It has been noticed that the larger the ant, the more likely it is to live a longer life. The conditions of its life also play a significant role in determining how long an ant will live.

How long do different types of ants live?

Ants different types differ significantly in the length of their residence, the duration of which is determined by several factors.

This insect is called the orderly of mixed forests, since the inhabitants of a large anthill are able to clear an entire hectare of forest from various pests. Ants collect thousands of pupae of harmful insects throughout the day, which are then used to feed ant larvae.

Genetically, the lifespan of the red forest ant is limited to 5 years, but in practice they die much earlier than the period measured by nature. Most often they become prey for birds. The males, after completing their main function die within a month. The queen can be long-lived if she constantly remains in the anthill.

This type of ant prefers to make its home in meadows and forest edges. During the season, winged females leave the anthill twice for the purpose of fertilization. The lifespan of meadow and forest ants is the same.

Ants that rarely leave the anthill have a longer life span than those that are forced to often go outside. The main cause of mortality of worker ants is attacks by predators, as well as high injury rates.

The pharaoh ant, brought from hot habitats, settles and lives in people's houses. In an apartment, these insects do not build an anthill, but choose separate niches and cavities for their habitat. If pharaoh ants settle in apartment building, then the number of their colony can reach several thousand individuals, and they will all belong to one family.

These insects have the shortest life cycle. Females usually live no more than 9 months, breeding males have about 20 days, and working individuals no more than 2 months. Despite the short period of existence, insects are capable of reproducing at least 30,000 individuals during this period, which occurs due to the presence of a large number of queens in the nest.

These ants make their nests in the ground and sometimes in people's houses.

The lifespan of a black garden ant is genetically determined by 3 years, but in reality, within a year, the insect colony is renewed.

Tropical ants can be called long-lived; in bulldog ants, the queen lives not 12 or 6 years, but about 20-22 years; working individuals live up to 5 years.

How do ants live?

The life of an anthill is organized and strictly regulated. Each family member is assigned a specific role. For some insects, the main task is to feed the young and the queen, while others look for food and repair their homes.

As entomologists note, the average life cycle is:

1. Worker ants live from 1 to 3 years. Moreover, the lifespan of large individuals is longer than that of small ones, and ants - inhabitants of cold regions live less than their counterparts in the tropics
2. In males life cycle limited to a few weeks. Their life goal- participate in mating, and then they are destroyed by the ants of their anthill or become prey to predators. Selected species they leave the males alive, but only if there are several queens in the anthill.
3. The queen can live for about 20 years, which is 10-15 times longer than the lifespan of an ordinary worker ant. During this time, she is capable of producing offspring numbering from 500,000.

It's impossible without additional explanations to clearly answer the question of how long ants live: the life expectancy of ants depends on the species and what caste each individual belongs to. But on average, entomologists give the following data:

• A worker ant lives from 1 to 3 years. Moreover, in smaller species the life expectancy of an ant is shorter than in larger ones. And ants living in colder regions also live longer on average than those living in the tropics.
• Male ants live only a few weeks. Their task is to participate in mating. Later they are destroyed either by ants from their own anthill, or they die in the clutches of predators.
• - the longest living member of the colony. In some species, the life expectancy of the uterus can reach up to 20 years - this is 10-15 times Furthermore Approximately how long does a worker ant live?

When talking about how many years ants live, it is also necessary to take into account the fact that some of their species, especially northern ones, hibernate during the winter. During this period, which for ants in Kolyma or Kamchatka lasts up to 9 months a year, the vital activity of the ant’s body practically stops.

Accordingly, three years in this regime is even less in total active life than one year in the Amazon jungle. But in general, when assessing life expectancy, it is necessary to take into account other features of the ants’ lifestyle and the nuances of their biology.

Which ants live longer and which ones live shorter?

The lifespan of ants depends on several factors and circumstances:

• First of all, it depends on the type of ant. For example, workers live on average 2 months, but the lifespan of a worker ant can reach 5 years.

• Caste in an anthill - soldier ants in general can live longer than those that care for the brood and queen. And the queens themselves always live longer than any worker ant. For example, the recorded record for a queen carpenter ant was 28 years, excluding the larval stage!
• Nature of the work performed. Ants that spend their entire lives in an anthill live longer than foragers and soldiers, even though the latter are “programmed” to live longer. The point here is that soldiers and foragers for the most part sooner or later become victims of predators and other ants, and die before reaching their physiological limit.
• Duration of the larval stage. For example, in ants living in the Arctic Circle, due to the very short warm period of the year, larvae develop for several years, and adult ants live for several more years.
• Temperature regime: the life of ants at relatively low temperatures turns out to be longer than that of their fellows of the same species, but living in warmer areas.

Some species of ants that do not have a clear division into castes (for example, black garden ants or the same pharaoh ants) have a certain “career” in the anthill. A newborn ant first takes care of the larvae and eggs, then arranges the anthill, and at the end of its life, searches for and obtains food.

This is very logical - in an anthill it always concentrates greatest number viable individuals, and due to the high mortality rate among foragers, the ranks of the latter are replenished only as needed by “outdated” individuals.

Long-lived ants and some records

The longest-living ones are considered to be large tropical ants, whose life takes place in an anthill. Among them are bulldog ants, in which workers can live up to 5 years, and queens can live up to 20-22 years.

Asian and African people live much less nomadic ants, but they are known for their other records. For example, the queen of the African black ant can reach a length of 5 cm, being the largest ant in general, and the queen of the Asian wandering ant can lay up to 120 thousand eggs per day - about 2 eggs every second. Almost no other living creatures on earth can boast of such fertility.

How ants live in an anthill

All ants live in large families with a more or less complex structure. More primitive ants do not have a clear division into castes, and each worker individual can perform different functions. More evolutionarily advanced ants have several castes in each family, representatives of each of which perform strictly defined operations.

This is interesting

For example, leaf-cutter ants have 7 castes in a family, differing from each other in size and appearance. In total, all ants perform 29 different functions.

The families in which ants live can consist of several tens to several million individuals. For example, wandering ants have between 2 and 20 million ants in one family.

You can see a little about how stray ants live in the video.

Exciting video: hunting of nomadic (stray) ants

Almost all ants live in anthills, which they either build on their own or convert various cavities in the ground, wood, under stones or into human housing. The life of ants in an anthill is distinguished by the highest organization and order.

Every member big family clearly knows his functions and performs them extremely diligently. Communication between insects occurs through chemical signals, and news travels very quickly here. For example, within a few minutes after the death of the queen, every ant will know about it.

The video clearly shows the life of ants in an anthill, arranged in a special glass formicarium:

Video about the life of ants in a formicarium - a home anthill

This is interesting

Stray ants are a notable exception to the rule. They do not have a permanent anthill, and they constantly roam in search of feeding grounds. At the same time, in the place of temporary dislocation, the worker ants adhere to each other, capturing the body of their neighbor with their jaws, and form a huge anthill-ball, in which life continues to boil.

Ants live almost all over the world. They are not found only in Greenland, Antarctica and some oceanic islands. Where ants live, they have managed to conquer almost all biotopes, inhabiting the permafrost zone, forests, trees, steppes and even deserts, in which they feed on insects dying from the heat. But regardless of the biotope, the anthill of any ants is a complex structure in which eggs and larvae are kept in optimal microclimate conditions for them.

A little about the life of an anthill in general

Almost every anthill begins with a small hole or cavity under a stone in which a fertilized female hides. Without feeding or showing itself on the surface, she lays her first eggs and feeds her first helpers with special trophic eggs.

And only after the first offspring turn from larvae into adult ants, the female will begin to receive food from them. They will begin to care for the eggs and expand the anthill.

For many ants, all the garbage from the anthill is piled up near the exit, and large piles are formed from it. Such anthills are known in our forests - they can reach a height of 2 m.

The lifestyle of ants living in northern latitudes, implies a long-term experience winter period. In those areas where positive temperatures remain underground, ants do not hibernate, but prepare supplies for the winter, and the anthill continues to live normally throughout the winter. In this case, the female stops laying eggs, and all exits from the anthill are walled up.

This is interesting

Harvester ants can collect up to 1 kg of grains and seeds in the anthill, which are used by the colony for food during the cold season.

Where the ground freezes, ants can spend the winter in a state of hypothermia. They set records here too: the larvae of Kamchatka ants can cool down to minus 50°C. Of course, during this period the insects do not move, and their internal organs practically don't work.

Usually, once a year, sexual individuals hatch in an anthill, which simultaneously fly out, swarm, mate, and the females then disperse in search of new places for anthills. Sometimes a very large family can split up, and part of it goes to a new place to organize a new colony.

In general, ants are an example of altruism and complete self-sacrifice for the good of the colony. Each of them is ready to die defending the anthill from the enemy, and each of them works selflessly throughout his short or long life. It is not surprising that ants are the most numerous insects on Earth today, surpassing any other group of arthropods in the number of individuals.

Interesting video: how ants attack and eat other insects

Chuhai Zakhar

Study of the life of ants

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All about the ant.

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Volkova T.I.

Teacher

Primary classes

Introduction

Ants are one of the most common insects on our Earth. They are found in all natural areas, often live close to home.

In nature, ants cannot be confused with other insects: they are wingless, very active, always looking for something, scurrying around. You rarely see a single ant, even far from its nest; usually there are always many of them.

Scientists view the community of ants as a kind of “superorganism” in which not a single part can live without all the others. An ant planted in a jar quickly dies, even if it has everything for a comfortable existence. He is just a particle, torn out of the whole, and is now doomed to death.

There are about 12,000 species of ants on Earth.

Rationale for the chosen topic

There is hardly a person who has not stopped at least once near an anthill, fascinated by such a distant and at the same time inexplicably close to us world of these amazing insects.

I decided to learn everything about ants and set myself a goal:

• study the structural features of ants
• study the structure of the nest
• explore professions
• study nutritional features
• study how ants communicate

To achieve the goal, I identified the following task:

• Study the literature on this issue

Features of the structure of ants.

Ants belong to the phylum Arthropods, the class Insecta, the order Hymenoptera, and the family Ants. The body is segmented and consists of a head, thorax and abdomen.

Ants have a large head. On the head are a pair of antennae and a pair of compound eyes. Simple eyes, or ocelli, are most often three points on the crown of the head. Complex compound eyes are located on the sides of the head. The number of facets is not the same, in some species there are about a dozen, in others, which have good vision, there are more than a thousand. Antennae are sensory organs. They serve the ant to perceive olfactory, tactile and partly taste sensations. The main organ of taste is located in the ant's mouth.

The ant's mouth is not adapted to absorb solid food, but is adapted only to absorb nutrient solutions. In addition to the upper and lower lips, there are two pairs of jaws. The upper pair are mandibles, without which ants cannot live. Ants use them as warriors, as nannies, as builders, and as foragers. In the lower lip, the most important part is considered to be the uvula - the organ of taste and body cleansing, as well as the main instrument for feeding the young and the mutual nutrition of the adult inhabitants of the anthill.

There are three pairs of jointed limbs on the chest. In males and young females, the chest is much more developed than in workers, and bears four wings. The membranous wings of male and female ants are transparent. The wings of the front pair are noticeably larger - longer and wider than the rear ones.

The abdomen is segmented, the first or first two segments are less developed and form a stalk. The stalk, connecting the abdomen with the chest, makes the ant body very flexible. The abdomen, consisting of movably connected dorsal and abdominal half-rings, is capable of increasing in volume. The thing is that in the abdomen there is a goiter - an organ that serves to store and transport food. The abdomen contains poisonous glands associated with the sting. The abdomen of males and females is noticeably larger; the reproductive organs are located here. The outside of the body of ants has a cover consisting of chitin. The chitinous cover is very durable. It protects the ant from mechanical and chemical influences external environment. Ants' defenses include sharp mandibles, poisonous liquid and, in some species, a sting.

Nest structure

The nest of red forest ants consists of aboveground and underground parts. The above-ground part in coniferous forests is constructed from needles, in deciduous forests - from sticks and other small but durable plant particles. On top, the ants form a covering layer of a dome, protecting the anthill from getting wet during rains.

The dome, flooded with rain, remains strong. Water, as a rule, does not penetrate deep into the nest. After rain, the entire structure acquires a new margin of strength in the sun, since the pieces of building material seem to be soldered together.

Inside the ant heap plant material larger - sticks may have different size, some reach a length of 10cm with a thickness of 5mm. Here from these building materials a system of passages and chambers is constructed in which the young are raised. The dome of the anthill is surrounded by an earthen rampart.

An anthill does not end in an anthill. It has thousands of passages underground. These passages can go to a depth of 1-2 m and end in wide cavities. Some are used as a dumping ground, in others young people develop, and still others serve as wintering grounds for ants. The temperature in such cavities - wintering quarters - does not drop below +5 degrees in winter. And when the frosts are raging above, the ants are not afraid and not cold in their house.

Clearly visible paths branch off from large anthills, along which a stream of ants moves from the nest and to the nest. The feeding trails of red wood ants remain constant, as a result, each anthill has its own feeding area.

Professions of ants

Family is the main form of existence social insects. Consists of reproductive (females, males) and functionally asexual individuals (workers).

Female queens are larger than worker ants; they never leave the nest. Their main function is laying eggs.

The first batch of juveniles turns only into winged males and females, who live in the anthill for a short time, only 2-3 weeks, and then fly out together, mate and found new nests. After swarming, the male ants die. Of all subsequent clutches, only working individuals appear in the anthill.

Worker ants are wingless, underdeveloped females that are not capable of reproduction. Working ants have a reddish-brown head and chest, and a blackish, shiny abdomen. Body length from 4 to 9 mm. It is the worker ants that we see on the anthill in huge numbers.

There is a division of labor between worker ants.

Newly emerged worker ants are nannies, caring for the larvae and feeding the queens.

Older worker ants perform a variety of tasks: they cut up the prey they brought, remove garbage, and build a nest. They then become foragers. Among the foragers, some specialize in hunting, others in obtaining sweet food, and still others carry material to build a nest. The largest worker ants protect the anthill - these are soldiers.

In red wood ants, each forager begins its non-nesting activity on the periphery of the protected territory. Subsequently, he gradually moves to individual search areas closer and closer to the nest, and ends this path on the dome, where the ant serves as an observer.

A family of our ordinary red forest ants at favorable conditions can exist 90 - 100 years. During this time, the family is repeatedly replaced by females who live a maximum of 15–20 years (this is a record among invertebrates), and to an even greater extent by working ants, who live only 3 years.

Ant food

Red wood ants use mainly protein food (other insects that are killed and brought to the anthill) and carbohydrate food (sugary plant secretions, flowing tree sap and especially sugar-rich secretions of aphids). The ants feed most of the protein food to the larvae; they feed on carbohydrate food themselves. Ants are characterized by food exchange - tropholaxis. Trophollaxis allows both the nanny and the digger not to be interrupted from their useful activities to search for food - others will take care of it.

Workers - foragers of red forest ants, whose task is to obtain food, bring 3,000,000 - 8,000,000 to the nest during the summer various insects, about 20 buckets of sweet juices, mostly aphid secretions, and 40,000 – 60,000 seeds various plants, which are also eaten.

IN summer days The mass of insects brought to an anthill can reach 1 kg.

It is estimated that the ants of a medium anthill protect 0.25 hectares of forest from harmful insects, and up to 1 - 4 hectares of a large anthill.

Ants primarily prey on those insects that reproduce in large quantities in the forest. Mass insects are harmful insects– caterpillars of butterflies, false caterpillars of sawflies that eat leaves and needles.

Ant communication

When communicating with each other, ants use a variety of signals, mainly by touching each other with their antennae, legs, and heads. Chemical signals are also used.

When looking for the way to the nest, red forest ants use the “language of smells.”

With the help of smell, ants distinguish their nestmates from “strangers”.

It has been noticed that in different cases ants touch, feel, hit each other with their antennae in different ways and change their behavior accordingly. They seem to be explained by peculiar gestures.

The famous Soviet entomologist Pavel Ustinovich Marikovsky noticed more than two dozen signals from ants: “Alien smell!”, “Who are you?”, “Attention!”, “Give me something to eat!”, “Beware!” and others.

When using chemical signals, ants take a defensive pose: they rise high on their hind legs and point the end of their abdomen forward. And immediately a pungent odor is felt: it was the ant that sprayed out a liquid consisting of formic acid and an alarm substance - undecane.

On the roads along which they run from anthill to anthill, ants secrete other, so-called trace substances that allow them not to lose their way.

All ants from the same nest have a common smell, which allows them to recognize each other and prevent ants from other people's nests from entering theirs.

Conclusion:

During the work I came to the conclusion:

1. Anthills form an integral part of the forest community.

2. Anthills are a family, a community, a community (this is certainly a similarity to the structure of human life).

3. Ants living in anthills are eternal builders, brave warriors, These are insects that are actively restructuring the world around them.

4. The significance of ants and anthills in nature is great and varied.

5. Ant predation – has a positive effect on the forest, since ants, by eating various insects, protect the forest from possible pests.

By protecting anthills, we protect our forests!

Doesn’t it scare you that there are creatures on the planet that are so insignificant in size, but stand next to humans in terms of intelligence development? They have a complex system communications, which are based on exchange chemical elements- pheromones. This interaction helps to find food and deliver food to the colony. They overpower a larger prey, kill it, and carry it to the nest thanks to their ability to lift 50 times their own weight! Just imagine: a man lifts a 4-ton load!

Some collect mushrooms and mold for food, others graze wood aphids (like a person grazes cattle), there are also soldiers, guards, road and tunnel builders, and carpenters.

These are ants. Don't be surprised if they become the next dominant life form. About 50 thousand species of these insects inhabit the earth. We would like to focus your attention on two.

Leafcutter ants

Leaf-cutter ants (Acromyrmex) are found in tropical forests South and Central America. With their pointed jaws, insects cut leaves into semicircular pieces. Then they carry them on their spine-covered backs to the nest. If you look at this action from above, it resembles a procession under umbrellas. Hence the second name for insects - “umbrella” ants.

Life in the ant state is both chaotic and organized. All actions are regulated by collective intelligence. Many roads converge on the camp, along which goods are transported in an endless stream. Working females constantly move between the colony and the trees as if on invisible rails formed by the smell of ants.

Ecosystem of the city of “umbrella” ants

Under the domes of the city there is a whole multi-level underground labyrinth: dolls' chambers, galleries, the queen's chambers. Each colony (average number is 80 thousand individuals, can reach 8 million) is headed by one queen. She lays eggs, and the anthill receives new inhabitants: worker females, soldiers, breeding individuals (winged males and future queens, whose destiny is to fly away and begin to reproduce).

The presence of wings is a sign of superiority. The uterus must always remain clean; it must not be infected by bacteria and dangerous viruses. She must lay eggs to maintain the size of the colony. Both the queen and the ants capable of reproduction are protected by worker individuals - they clean, prepare food supplies. During military operations, winged princes and princesses are hidden in the lowest (5 meters underground) guarded quarters.

Leaf cutters-farmers

Ants practicing an activity agriculture. The name “leaf cutters” does not imply that they feed on leaves. Their invaluable food is mushrooms, which are grown under plant humus. To maintain a full supply of food, leaves plucked from trees must be supplied to the city domes regularly, no matter what. If there is a disruption in the flow of streams (an obstacle appears - a person falls on the road large leaf) the individual that detects this emits odorous vibrations. This is the secret alphabet. A sign that excites the thirst for the destruction of obstacles. Other community members come to the rescue and destroy the barrier. Traffic has been restored. Meanwhile, in the colony, female workers shake the growing mushrooms to aerate them and pinch them to promote growth.

Ants are nomads

Nomads (subfamily Ecitoninae), unlike their neighbors on the continent, peaceful vegetarian leaf cutters, subsist on hunting and robbery. These warlike creatures comb the forest from end to end in search of prey. The phases of sedentary and nomadic life are associated with the reproductive cycle. The length of each phase is 2-3 weeks.

Predators of the New World march in a wide line, thousands of individuals unite into a single force. On the periphery of the detachment, soldiers march, followed by working females. They carry brood in their mandibles and determine a resting place. It is also their destiny to catch and carry prey; these are mainly invertebrates, but they can also feast on birds and small reptiles nesting on the ground.

Tiny hunters are ruthless. This war machine is programmed to destroy the enemy. The only goal is food. In addition to the jaws, there is a poisoned sting that paralyzes the enemy. It all depends on the speed of the poison.

The column travels 100–300 m per hour. The structure of the detachment is: “head”, 10–15 m wide and 1–2 m long; “tail” - up to 50 cm.

The mystery of the nature of ants

The behavior of ants has intrigued entomologists for many years. They are devoid of self-awareness, only the collective mind controls all actions - this is their difference from human civilization. Everything is subordinated to one goal - to preserve the colony. The pheromones released automatically activate this single superorganism. The anthill runs like a well-oiled clockwork.

An ant in isolation usually does not appear to be a complex, intelligent or dangerous creature. But this impression is deceptive.

Species of ants living alone are unknown to science. All of them are kept by large families that last for many years. The inhabitants of each nest are related to each other, so biological point In my opinion, this is a family. But from the standpoint of our human ideas, an anthill rather resembles a city, the population of which is divided into castes and strictly organized.

Ant castes

Winged

If you see an ant with wings, then this is a representative of one of two special and small ant classes.

The minority in ant society is the caste of male ants. Their life is short, and their fate is unenviable - after mating with a female, the “macho ants” die.

The second caste is oviparous females (“queens”). There are not many of them either. Depending on the species, each anthill is home to from one to several hundred “queens.” “Rulers” live a long time - with a successful combination of circumstances, each can reign for up to 20 years.

Females and males are winged. During the only mating flight in her life, the queen may meet several partners. As a result of this peculiar orgy, she becomes a “machine” for the reproduction of ants for the rest of her life and will lay tens of thousands of fertilized eggs in the future. After mating, the female sheds her wings and is either accepted into an existing anthill, or she starts a new family.

"Proletariat"

The vast majority of the population of any anthill is the third caste - workers. Although ants are usually called in the masculine gender, they are all physiologically underdeveloped sterile females. They do not have wings, and their ovipositors are turned into stings - personal military weapons designed for defense and attack.

Workers provide the livelihood for the family. They build and protect the nest, provide the anthill with food, clean and feed the “queens” and “children,” protect the feeding area, ensure the flight of winged individuals, etc. The number of workers in the family varies - from several tens to hundreds of thousands and even 10- 15 million. The life expectancy of six-legged proletarians is from 4 to 7 years.

Career ladder

Typically, a worker ant changes several professions during its life. The young are busy inside the nest: they look after the female (“retinue”), children, that is, eggs and larvae (“nannies”), and older workers (“grooms”), clean and repair underground chambers and passages (“repairmen”), store water (“barrel ants”).

After working for 1-3 years and gaining experience and qualifications, the ants are transferred to the reserve, where they can rest a little and allow new generations of young workers to take care of themselves. Approximately a third of the “proletariat” is in reserve, but they must be constantly prepared to deal with the consequences of accidents and natural disasters.

The ranks of “employees” working outside the nest are also replenished from the reserve - builders, foragers (scouts, hunters or food gatherers), water carriers, orderlies, guards, and experienced veteran observers.

Vertical of power

In each anthill, a certain ratio of individuals of different groups is clearly maintained. This happens in several ways at once. The main importance is management decisions"queens". They are conveyed to subordinates through various substances secreted by various glands of her body.

If there are many egg-laying females in the nest, then new winged individuals do not appear for a long time. But at certain moments, the ruling “queens” feel the approach of old age and stimulate the appearance of young “princesses” and their male partners. To achieve this, the females secrete a special liquid, which the “nannies” feed to a limited number of selected larvae. Each of them subsequently grows into a winged female or male, depending on the dose of “nectar” received.

After this, the following often happens: the same “nannies” who looked after the heirs from the moment they were born, without sentimentality, kick them out of their home.

It happens that there are too many larvae of future sexually mature males and females. Then the extra ones are simply eaten - the protein should not go to waste. On the other hand, if there is an overproduction of worker larvae in the nest, then this will certain time reduces the fertility of “queens”.

What is the harm of ants?

Many species of ants are considered beneficial to humans, but two species - turf and garden ants(black and red) - cause harm to gardens and vegetable gardens. In particular, these insects use the sweet secretions of sucking pests as an additional (and sometimes the main) source of nutrition. For this reason, ants protect aphids, psyllids, scale insects and false scale insects from attacks by enemies, and contribute to their settlement and reproduction. And our plants are left with bloodless leaves, contaminated with sticky honeydew, which serves as a breeding ground for sooty fungi.

In addition, the inhabitants of anthills damage the roots, eat seeds in the soil without leaving a trace, and gnaw on seedlings and seedlings with appetite.

3 “clean” ways to fight ants

Scare them away. Ants don't like certain smells. Place leaves of mint, tansy, wormwood, and anise in places where insects accumulate.

Or fill up the anthill slaked lime, dry mustard or ground pepper. Water the soil around the nest and ants' paths vegetable oil— Add a crushed head of garlic to a glass of oil.

No entry allowed! On tree trunks whose foliage is inhabited by colonies of aphids, you can put a funnel made of any material with a smooth, non-wettable surface and inner side lubricate the funnels thin layer Vaseline or grease. This trap will have to be periodically replaced with a fresh one.

Pour boiling water over it. Try late in the evening (since at this time most of the inhabitants of the anthill are “at home”) to pour boiling water over the ants’ nest. Repeat this procedure several times until you are sure that everyone has died. underground inhabitants. Especially the “queens”.

Dmitry BELOV,

Candidate of Biological Sciences