Garden ants
Recently I decided to build a small level area of lawn for my baby, as there isn’t a single flat bit of grass in the garden for her to play on. The area that I chose had a couple of ant hills in it. I didn’t want to harm the ants, nor did I want the lawn to be infested with them. I had noticed however that I never see ants on these hills even if I scratch the surface of them. I realised it was time that I found out a little more about them..
Of the 60 odd species of ant in Britain, as far as I can see, our garden has two of the most common species, the black garden ant (Lasius niger) and yellow meadow ants (Lasius flavus) but I will be on the look out for more as ants are a complex and fascinating lot.
Now, I am, as you will probably not be surprised to hear, not opposed to having ants in the garden, but as mentioned above, I don’t really want little Dusty to experience ants in her pants (nappies) just yet. But just because you have ant hills doesn’t mean that your lawn, kitchen or indeed pants will be infested with them. There is a very real case of scapegoating going on by the black ants here, who though they can and sometimes do make ant hills, these are much less impressive and substantial than the yellow meadow ant’s, they are much more likely to nest under stones, paving slabs or in brick work, and it’s the black ant that gets up in our grill, often quite literally. Ants have an incredible sense of smell and have the ability to locate and communicate food resources through pheromone trails. This being the reason for black ants in the larder, as they are surface dwellers and foragers. Yellow meadow ants living sometimes a metre and a half below the top of their hills, that get up to about half a metre in height, tend to use these resources to forage aphids and other small insects in their tunnels.
The ant hills are the spoil from the excavation of the underground chambers and they serve as an air conditioning system, regulating temperature and humidity. They are also the way in and out of the nest, though yellow meadow ants spend much of their time underground. Both species ‘milk’ aphids for honeydew, a sweet excretion, but yellow meadow ants farm underground root aphids while black ants farm terrestrial aphids, as seen on many a garden rose. Don’t be too quick to rush for the insecticide (ever!) but in this case because these are part of a balanced system that keep the ants, and many other insects such as lacewings, ladybirds and hoverflies fed, not to mention the vital resource that they supply to young of birds such as blue tits, sparrows, swifts and house martins. As an aside, 97% of all terrestrial birds feed their chicks on insects. If you leave out bird seed, this may give the busy parent energy but the chick needs insects. Which is one of the reasons why we’d do very well to garden to raise as many as possible.
Back to ants..
If ants didn’t annoy us enough then there's ‘Flying Ant Day’! Well a few days really between mid-July and the end of August when weather conditions are hot and humid. This is when the black ant queen (great band!) who never leaves the nest strays away from producing the female worker ants and lays males - drones and virgin queens - princesses (cute) with wings, these ‘alates’ take to the air to find a mate in what’s called their ‘marriage flight’, this reduces inbreeding and leads to the creation of new colonies. The males will live long enough to mate with the princesses of other colonies, often only a few hours but max a week, and then die. The princesses will bite off their own wings and go on to form the new colony after tunneling into the ground. She will, from mating that single time, or single event of perhaps many mates, gather enough sperm to lay enough eggs over her 15 or more years of life to create a colony perhaps 20,000 strong.
So much to say! I’ve used up my allotted word count but I’m going to be naughty and go over because I have to mention the beneficial relationship that the black ant can have with a butterfly that is in trouble. The silver-studded blue’s numbers have declined 45% since 1979 and the black ant assists in the protection of butterfly larvae (the caterpillar), guarding it from predation in exchange for its sugary secretions. I should say that habitat loss and the diminished numbers of the British wild plants that their caterpillars eat is the greatest danger to all butterflies. This particular butterfly’s caterpillar can only eat a few plants including that lovely lawn plant black medic along with common bird's-foot-trefoil, common rock-rose, gorse, heath heathers, hoary rock-rose and horseshoe vetch.
If we’re talking about ants and butterflies, I can’t not mention the absolutely fascinating interaction between the other commonish and pretty fierce garden ant that thankfully restricts itself mainly to compost heaps and alike, the red ant Myrmica rubra and the large blue butterfly. This butterfly is listed as Near Threatened on the global IUCN Red List of Threatened Species but is up by 1883% since being declared extinct in 1979 and undergoing an extensive reintroduction program - its only caterpillar food plants are wild marjoram and wild thyme. After tricking the ants into adopting the caterpillar (by mimicking ant larval pheromones), the larvae are carried to the nest where they feed on, yes, you guessed it, the ants' own young. Swings and roundabouts..
So, please leave the kettle where it is and don’t be tempted to pour boiling water over those hills as you will likely be harming a pretty benign bunch and not the jam addicts that you suppose them to be.
Please do email with anything interesting! thenaturalgardenco@gmail.com
Laters, Andy.
