Among the vast family of ants there are insects whose diet consists exclusively of plant or, conversely, animal food, as well as omnivores and species with very unusual food preferences. In addition, the diet of ants often changes dramatically after the transition from the larval stage to the adult, and also depends on the season of the year and the role that each ant performs in a large ant community: guarding the anthill, searching for and bringing food, caring for the growing juveniles and females, laying eggs.
Both in the wild and in a person’s home, insects with different types of nutrition can be found. In a human home, ants find a wide variety of food for themselves, no matter how hard a person tries to prevent it: for the survival of a colony, a few small crumbs of bread or grains of sugar that fell from the table to the floor, a drop of oil on a gas stove or smears of jam left on the edge of a jar are enough .
Some species of ants can even attack objects that seem unsuitable for food: watercolor and gouache paints, casein and bone glue, wood, paper. In fact, these and similar things consist of natural ingredients that are quite edible from the point of view of insects or suitable for building a nest.
Settling in gardens and vegetable gardens, ants eat berries, juice of fruits and vegetables, honey from bees, gum from tree trunks, as well as insects. The last fact, unlike all the others, testifies in favor of ants. Although, in general, most people assess the proximity to ants as unpleasant and make every effort to get rid of these insects in the house and on the land.
You can find reports from gardeners that in the spring ants even feed on young cabbage and tomato seedlings, although these are rather rare cases.
Food distribution
These insects constantly draw various pieces of food into their home, after which the process of distribution begins.
Animal proteins are necessary for proper growth and development of larvae. Ants can take gelatin from a human home, as well as the remains of dairy or egg dishes. During the period of active growth, the larvae urgently need proteins.
The diet of adults is based on carbohydrates. These include nuts, seeds, tree sap, flower nectar, plant roots and the pulp of various fruits. All carbohydrates are easily absorbed by insects.
Ants often take out various sweets from human houses - jam, sugar or honey.
Underground roads of wood borers
The stump in which such forest ants live is surrounded by fresh and old sawdust, which indicates continuous work.
At the same time, not a single individual is visible around the dwelling itself. The erroneous impression is created that the insects do not leave the shelter. This is not entirely true. It’s just that the paths they use are not visible from the outside. Black forest ants make underground passages in the surface soil that look like real tunnels. Where do they lead? It's simple: a network of such passages stretches to the nearest stumps and spruce trees, from where woodworms deliver insects and pollen. Underground roads are an excellent alternative to dangerous land routes.
Each type of ant produces a specific food
Today there are several thousand species of ants. And each genus in the wild has a certain type of food. In some species, nutrition may differ radically. Among the ants there are also real gourmets.
Reaper Ants
There are more than 30 species of harvester ants in Europe. Most of their diet consists of plant foods. Approximately 96% of the diet consists of grass seeds, dry fruits, and various grains.
The larvae feed on seeds and grains, which are previously cleared of the shell by workers, ground and abundantly moistened with saliva. This species makes its nests underground, and the houses can go 2-4 meters deep (depending on the size of the colony). Huge reserves of food are made in the nests for the winter.
Often this type of insect settles near vegetable gardens and fields. But harvester ants do not pose any danger to garden crops. They collect grains that fall off on their own and are no longer suitable for human food. The plant itself is not harmed at all.
Woodworms
The genus includes more than 1000 species of ants. Woodworms can also be called “camponotus”. Insects have unique bacteria in their intestines that can easily digest even very coarse fiber. The diet of this genus is based on animal and plant foods.
In nature, woodworms feed on various insects, aphids, and gums. If they settle in a human’s house, they will enjoy protein foods with pleasure. They prefer sweet fruits, honey and sugar.
This species lives in half-rotten stumps and even wooden houses. Ants have strong teeth, with which they are able to gnaw numerous passages in a tree. Young branches of fruit trees can also be damaged.
Pharaoh ants
Often called house ants. In nature they can eat a wide variety of foods. They live in subtropical and tropical climates. Recently, this species has perfectly adapted to life near humans.
If pharaoh ants live in an apartment, they can feed on almost everything that comes their way. The diet of this species includes various cereals, bread, dried or fresh fruits (both fruits and vegetables), sugar, and pasta. They will not refuse sweets, butter, various dairy or meat products, spices and even semi-finished products.
Black garden
Most often this species settles in forests or gardens, in parks, as well as vegetable gardens. Sometimes found in a person’s home. Insects live in half-rotten stumps and soil, including the walls of houses and window cracks.
This species is an omnivore and can feed on a variety of foods. Prefers sweet foods and is very fond of aphids. Often ants become the main “breeders” of aphids in gardens and vegetable gardens.
Having settled in a human house, they can eat a wide variety of foods. Most often they start hunting for various sweets.
This is the most common agricultural pest.
Red forest
These insects are of great benefit to the forest. They clear it of carrion, actively promote the spread of tree seeds with various herbs over a large area, and are beneficial for soil formation. In nature they feed on a wide variety of foods.
They can also appear in a human home. They are attracted to the aroma of sweet food. But they live strictly in the forests and do not live in a person’s house on a permanent basis.
The larvae consume exclusively protein foods. The diet of adults includes animal and plant products.
Ants with an unusual type of nutrition
There are species of ants that feed on quite unusual food:
- Leaf cutters. They feed strictly on mushrooms, which they grow on their personal “farms” set up in underground anthills.
- Dracula Ant. The larvae feed on insects. Adult representatives of the species suck out a unique nutritious juice from the larvae.
- Honey ants. Some individuals actively fatten up and become like round barrels. During periods of hunger, they begin to produce a unique syrup-like liquid that feeds the rest of the family.
- Stray ants. The diet includes larvae and various insects. They can also feed on small lizards with frogs, and even recently hatched chicks that do not yet know how to fly.
- Bulldog ants. They can jump and actively hunt small invertebrates and various insects. The larvae feed only on protein foods.
Oral apparatus
The mouthparts of these insects are “gnawing”. The mouth contains:
- upper lip (labrum) ;
- labia inferior (labium) ;
- mandibles (jaws) .
Depending on the species, the upper jaws (mandibles) and lower jaws (maxillae) can be: large and small, blunt and very sharp, with teeth and simply smooth, closing and overlapping. The mandibles have the ability to work independently even with the mouth closed.
The lower lip has a tongue, which is an organ of taste, and is also used by ants to clean their bodies.
What do ant larvae eat?
There are two types of larvae - some can feed on their own, while others cannot. Significantly more of the latter. Therefore, adults are responsible for their nutrition, acting as nannies. The larvae feed on food that has been partially digested in the stomach of adult insects.
Self-feeding larvae feed on dead insects. Their diet may also contain larvae from a neighboring anthill, including trophic eggs and various protein foods.
Their entire fate directly depends on the nutrition of the larvae. For example, after pupation they can become a queen or slaves (workers). It is the worker ants who decide who will become an ordinary ant and who will become the “queen” in the nest.
Systematic position and varieties of ants
The scientific taxonomy of insects in general and ants in particular, which are called Formicidae, is based on several main taxa, that is, groups united by common characteristics. In their systematic position there are also intermediate categories. Information on the scientific classification of ants is presented in the table:
| Categories used for scientific taxonomy of insects | Category names | |
| Basic taxonomic | Genus | Monomorium (or Formica, Lasius, etc.) |
| Family | Ants are real | |
| Kingdom | Animals | |
| Class | Insects | |
| Department | Arthropods | |
| Order | Hymenoptera insects | |
| View | Pharaoh ant (and others) | |
| Intermediate | Subsection | Protostomes |
| Supertype | Shedding | |
| Subtype | Tracheal, or tracheal-breathing (parnous) | |
| Sub-kingdom | Eumetazoans or true multicellular organisms | |
| Superclass | Hexapods | |
| Suborder | Stalk-bellied (Hymenoptera) | |
| Superfamily | Formicoidea | |
To date, 14,000 species of these insects are known, including extinct ones. There are 260 species living in our country. The most common are the following:
- pharaoh ant;
- red forest;
- black garden.
The most dangerous ants for humans are red or fire ants. They have a sting with which they inject poison into the body of the victim.
Ant feeding frequency
The feeding frequency of insects is directly affected by the amount of food that is nearby. It is important that the food be constant, since ants need to regularly develop endurance and work actively. During the day they can eat up to 5 times.
Insects responsible for searching for a food source can take food directly at the place where they found it, as well as while carrying food to the nest to feed the entire colony. Even having settled in human housing, where there is constant access to food, they will not leave a single crumb unattended and will pick up everything that comes their way.
In the absence of various goodies, the ants switch to other food sources. The usual diet is easily replaced by food that is non-traditional for a particular species. This is necessary to replenish lost energy and ensure adequate nutrition of the uterus, which brings new offspring.
Individuals that permanently live in the anthill are responsible for the safety of the female and feed on the available supplies supplied by working insects.
Description and photo, internal structure of insects
The size of these insects depends on the species and varies from 1 mm to several centimeters. Their body consists of 3 parts: head, chest and abdomen (in working individuals it has a sting). 3 pairs of legs equipped with claws are attached to the chest. The body may be covered with hairs. There are 2 antennae and developed jaws on the head. In addition to complex paired eyes, consisting of many small lenses, there are 3 tiny simple ocelli on the parietal region, which perform the function of assessing the level of illumination and polarization. You can see what an ant looks like in the photo.
These creatures lack lungs. Oxygen and other gases involved in metabolism enter through microvalves in the exoskeleton, spreading throughout the body through the trachea. Ants do not have lacunar blood vessels. They are replaced by a long, thin, perforated tube that runs along the upper part of the body and acts as a heart. These social insects form 3 castes: winged females and males and wingless workers.
Nutrition and lifestyle
Black garden ants prefer to build nests in soils with moderate moisture, sometimes inhabiting stumps and other shelters. They live in communities consisting of a winged female, winged males and wingless worker ants. The responsibilities of worker ants are strictly distributed: some take care of the larvae and eggs, others are engaged in the construction and expansion of the anthill. Another group is busy searching for food, and there are also guards and workers caring for the queen.
Black ants are quite aggressive and can attack other types of ants. They eat a variety of foods. Their diet includes insects, flower nectar and fruits, and they are especially fond of honeydew. Often, working individuals carry aphids to the nest, where they are kept in special chambers, fed and “milked.” In autumn, black garden ants look for aphid eggs and bring them to the anthill, making supplies. In the spring, ants carry aphid eggs and attach them to plants.
Life cycle
Once a year, usually in June - July, winged young queens and males leave the anthill and go on a mating flight. Mating occurs during flight, and the male’s seminal fluid subsequently lasts the female for her entire life. After this, the males die, and the fertilized female, the queen, gets rid of her wings and digs a small hole, which will become the basis for the future anthill. The queen lays the first eggs within a few days after mating. Unfertilized eggs produce males, and fertilized eggs produce females.
After 2-3 weeks the larvae hatch. The queen feeds the first larvae with the reserves of her body - salivary secretion. After 10-15 days, the larvae form cocoons, and after another 3 weeks, adults emerge from the cocoons. All females are fertile. Which of them will become the founder female depends on nutrition. Potential queens are fed a special liquid produced by some of the workers. Foundress females sometimes live up to 25 years or more.
Variety of species
About 130 species, divided into 7 subgenera, have been described; 31 species are found in Russia.
Range and habitats
Distributed in Northern Eurasia and North America. Black garden ants are found throughout almost all of Eurasia. They inhabit any areas with dry, predominantly sandy soils.
Ants are thrifty
Ants are very thrifty and always prepare a large amount of food for the winter, which is enough to feed the entire colony. For example, harvester ants living in the south of the Russian Federation can prepare more than 1 kg of different seeds over the summer. This will help them survive the winter calmly and not starve.
In winter, there are no larvae in the anthill, so the insects do without protein food. Harvester ants mainly feed on various seeds, which they manage to transfer to the nest in sufficient quantities.
Northern ants hibernate for 9 winter months. During this period they do not need food.
Gourmets among the ants
Some types of ants, with all the variety of food balance, choose only 1-2 types of food. These gourmets include the following insects:
- Leaf-cutter ants. They are making hay.
Leaf-cutter ants
Forager ants drag pieces of leaves into the anthill. They themselves grind them to a sticky pulp. It is placed in special chambers in the anthill. Like greenhouses. Mushrooms sprout on the leaf porridge. Ants do not feed on hard grass. - Centromyrmex ants. They feed only on termites;
- Pinerina. In this subfamily of insects, each species feeds on one type of insect.
- Ant-Dracula. Interesting insects. They prefer to be saturated with the juice of their larvae without harming their health. They feed insects to the larvae.
What do ants eat in houses and apartments?
The diet of insects living in human habitation differs significantly from the diet of representatives of the same species in the wild. At the same time, they become almost omnivores and can feed on both organic and chemical products.
Where do they find food?
Ants can find food almost anywhere. Due to their small size, they easily penetrate into various crevices. To avoid having to deal with the “ant problem”, you should always wash the dishes and remove leftover food.
Ants can find a source of food for themselves even in a constantly overflowing trash can. All food products must be hermetically sealed. There should be no food or even crumbs on the table. Otherwise, the apartment will become a large dining room for these insects.
What do they prefer?
The larvae of household pests feed on the remains of egg and dairy products, and gelatin. Adults prefer various sweets - for example, sugar, jam, honey, chocolate.
They are attracted to fatty foods that have a strong aroma. This includes cakes, sweet muffins, and onion bread.
Most often, apartments are inhabited by pharaoh ants, which can find food for themselves even in a clean room.
Previously, it was believed that ants feed only on organic matter and do not consume synthetic and chemical food. But today insects have perfectly adapted to the human home and can feed on almost anything, including cosmetics, washing powders, etc.
Life of an anthill
These insects lead a collective lifestyle, living in colonies in anthills. Ant nests can be dug into the ground, placed under rocks, or built in the trunks of dead trees. They can be built not only in the forest, but also in the garden and in people's homes. Anthills, which are earthen mounds with branches, sticks, leaves, and pine needles, contain many entrances and exits.
Ants organize a family that is very similar to human society, where each worker has his own specialty. For example, builders participate in the construction of an anthill and maintaining it in good condition, soldiers protect the home from enemies. Scouts look for food, foragers bring food to relatives, nannies take care of the offspring, cleaners maintain order in the anthill. Some types of worker ants are engaged in breeding aphids, the secretions of which feed all the inhabitants of the anthill, and in growing mushrooms.
Social roles are not determined once and for all. The colony regulates both the number of individuals and the specific number of soldiers, scouts, etc. If there is a shortage of, say, foragers, some of the builders become foragers. The existence of the queen (queen), which may not be alone, also depends on the colony. It is the working individuals who decide where she will live and kill the queen who has ceased to produce sufficient offspring. An interesting fact is that all working individuals are infertile females who are unable to lay eggs.
There are several stages of insect development:
- eggs;
- larvae;
- pupae;
- imago.
Ant development stages
Ants live on all continents except the South and North Poles, Iceland and Greenland. They feel comfortable in the temperate climate of the middle zone, building their houses in forests and fields, underground, inside trees, under stones. In winter they hibernate, and life in the anthill freezes until spring.
Their diet is varied and includes proteins, vitamins and carbohydrates. The source of protein can be insects, their eggs and corpses, and dead animals. At home, ants prefer to feast on sugar and dairy products. They replenish the supply of carbohydrates in nature by feeding on honeydew (secretions of aphids), gum (exudate released by plants when damaged), plants, and mushrooms. Vitamins are obtained from plant seeds, nuts, and tree fruits. House ants happily eat bread crumbs, leftover eggs and gelatin.
Hierarchy in an anthill
An anthill is a kind of society, almost democratic, in which everyone does their job depending on their status:
- Workers or foragers are required to deliver food, take care of all residents and protect their home from enemies; ants eat what they find when searching for food, as well as supplies in the colony itself.
- Queens - female ants that lay eggs, feed on the most delicious and necessary protein food.
- Males are intended to mate with a female, after which they die.
- The larvae are divided into 2 groups: some feed themselves, others need constant feeding, which is what all adults do, specially preparing food for them. Depending on the diet of the larvae in the future, after pupation, they become either workers or queens for the production of offspring.
What do ants eat in the garden?
The vegetable garden and garden are places where ants can easily find a source of food for themselves. Most often they cause the appearance of aphids. It is aphids that will be the main food for pests.
Where do they find food?
In the garden, ants are able to find food for themselves almost everywhere. The diet may contain plant residues, dry and fresh fruits and berries. Therefore, they become the main threat to the crop.
You can protect your garden and garden from pests only by starting active fight against ants. You cannot stop until all the ants have left the area.
What do they prefer?
There is no main product in the diet of ants. They can feed on almost anything they find along the way. For example: fruit pulp, seeds, nuts, rhizomes, tree sap.
Omnivores
Along with the existence of predators and vegetarians in the ant family, omnivorous species of these insects are widespread in nature. For example, such as the pharaoh ant, forest red and garden black.
Pharaoh ants
The diet of pharaoh ants or, as they are also called, house ants, is distinguished by its versatility. Anything is good for them to eat! In a city apartment, they eat the following foods:
- bread
- cereal
- groceries
- sweets
- oil
- meat products
- cheese
- sausage
- cottage cheese.
The list could go on for a long time, since there is no product that the strong jaws of these insatiable gluttons could not chew. In the wild, where there is not such a wide choice, their diet changes somewhat.
What do pharaoh ants eat in nature? The same as their forest counterparts - red ants:
- insects and their larvae;
- grass seeds;
- cereal grains;
- small invertebrates.
In this case, food is divided by age. Larvae get food rich in proteins, while adult insects prefer carbohydrate foods that provide a lot of energy.
Forest red ants
Forest red ants are also omnivores. They feed on both insects and plant matter. At the same time, they make reserves throughout the year, preparing for a long winter inside the anthill.
They try to feed the larvae before the onset of cold weather, since for their development they require protein food, consisting of insects and their larvae. Adult worker ants feed mainly on the sweet secretions of aphids.
Forest ants feed on both plant and animal foods
Black garden ant
Garden ants are interesting because they engage in “animal husbandry” - they breed aphids, the secretions of which they feed on. They take care of them, protect them from predatory insects and bad weather.
“Milking” occurs as follows: the ant crawls up to the aphid and tickles its abdomen with its antennae. In response to this, she secretes a drop of sweet honeydew, which the “shepherd” immediately drinks.
Unique footage of black garden ants feeding on aphid secretions can be seen in this video:
How to deprive ants of food?
Getting rid of ants that have settled in an apartment or in a garden is quite difficult and problematic. It is necessary to begin pest control in a timely manner before their numbers increase.
In the garden
In the garden and garden, you must always keep the beds clean. It is important to weed weeds in a timely manner and ensure that aphids do not appear. As soon as this pest is noticed, the plantings need to be treated urgently. Almost immediately the ants come after the aphids, since they are the basis of their diet.
All plant debris must be removed in a timely manner. This also applies to fallen fruits and berries, since ants will enjoy these sweets with pleasure.
In an apartment or house
It is very easy to prevent ants from appearing in your apartment. It is enough to maintain the ideal frequency in the house. First of all, this applies to the kitchen, where bread crumbs often remain on the table.
It is recommended to store all sweets and cereals in a container with a tightly closed lid. If the ants cannot find a food source for themselves, they will quickly leave the house and go in search of a more comfortable habitat.
Forest life
The working red forest ant really spends all its time working. The life of an anthill revolves around the queen - this is a large female who lays eggs. The rest of the ants are also females, only their ovaries are undeveloped. Males do not live long: after the mating season, when they are no longer needed, they die.
The workers perform different tasks: some build an anthill, foragers get food, some guard the aphids, and some are constantly near the queen, cleaning and feeding her. This job is the most prestigious. By feeding the larvae, the ants do the forest a service - after all, for this they exterminate pests.
The most active life of ants is observed from early April to October. On a warm summer day, females fly out of the nest to mate. There are several possible scenarios for further developments:
- After mating, the female returns to her native anthill, where she is given a place. She starts her own family, and when space becomes scarce, some of the ants separate, founding a new colony.
- The future mother of the family can immediately end up in someone else's anthill - there, too, a warm welcome awaits her.
- The fertilized female settles in the nest of forest brown ants, where there is no queen of her own. They begin to look after her, the eggs are placed in special places, and they are raised. Over time, the descendants of the red ant become full-fledged owners there and rebuild the anthill in their own way. But if a fertile female of its own appears in such a habitat, then both species can coexist perfectly and even lead a common household.
During a season, offspring of only one sex can appear in an anthill - either males or females. In this way, nature protects ants from inbreeding (closely related relationships).
A little about the digestion process of ants
In ants, the food organs are divided into the preoral chamber and the digestive tract. Under the lower lip there is a preoral chamber, which acts as a receiver for semi-liquid and liquid food, including various residues after cleaning the body. Here the food is “sorted” - everything edible goes into the mouth, and inedible particles are released in the form of small lumps.
The digestive tract is divided into anterior, middle and posterior sections. In the anterior one there is a crop, which acts as a “social stomach”, since food intended for the entire nest is stored in it. The process of digesting food occurs in the swollen midgut, called the stomach.
Ants are an integral part of the ecological chain. In nature they are of great benefit. But once settled in a house or on a plot of land, they become a big problem. The main enemies of pests are cleanliness and order!
Who eats ants?
Many animals eat ants. Bears love to destroy the anthill, getting to the larvae of forest ants. Often anthills and wild boars are torn apart. Frogs, toads, wasps, lizards, antlions (insects of the order Netoptera), moles and hedgehogs eat ants of various types, including those living in the ground and trees.
Many birds value ants for their taste and nutritional qualities. Woodpeckers are especially active in destroying these insects, and during the swarming period (when the ants develop wings), they are attacked by swallows, swifts and dragonflies.
In warm countries, the natural enemies of ants are anteaters, aardvarks and armadillos, as well as some tribes of people who eat insects and their larvae as food. Some species of ants are attacked by other ants, and in times of famine, ants of the same species can eat each other.
On video: Ants drag sausage.
The Bears
The owner of the taiga rakes anthills with his clawed paw in order to feast on both larvae and numerous ants.
Jerzy
Hedgehogs, like mice, are quite omnivorous, so if they come across an anthill on their way, they can have a light snack.
Fish
Along with the rain, small debris, soil, leaves, grass and, of course, various insects are washed into the water, which immediately become prey to fish.
