Ants and aphids: how to get rid of. Pest Information

The article describes in detail ants and aphids: how to get rid of, complete information about pests.

As a child, reading Ondzhey Sekora's book "The Adventures of Ant Ferda", we wondered how cleverly the author came up with everything: the ant queen, ants-soldiers, captives, and of course ant cows - aphids. But it turned out that all this is not a fiction, that there really is a symbiosis between these insects. And the appearance of aphids in our garden is directly related to ants. Aphids are perhaps the most common pest; they can appear on both garden and indoor plants. There are about 20,000 species of aphids in the world, all of them feed on plant sap.

Ants and aphids: information about aphids

Ants and aphids: information about aphids

Despite the fact that aphids are a malicious pest, studying its structure and life cycle can be quite interesting. Aphids belong to the order of the isoptera. These are very small insects with extremely thin skin that quickly evaporates moisture, forcing the aphids to constantly drink plant juices. The body of insects is oval or drop-shaped, the color, depending on the species, can be light, translucent, green or brown. As a rule, the color of the aphid is as close as possible to the shade of the plant on which it feeds. Insects have rather long legs, thanks to which they are able to crawl, and sometimes jump to neighboring plants, after they have completely sucked out the juice in the previous habitat. Some individuals have wings, this has nothing to do with sexual characteristics, in the same colony, both winged and insects without wings coexist. Antennae located on the head of adults serve as organs of hearing and touch. And the visual apparatus distinguishes aphids from other insects - they have good eyesight and are even able to distinguish some shades. Eyes in different species can differ in color - from red to black, but they all have a complex multi-faceted structure. And in individuals without wings, you can find three additional simple eyes.
The mouth of the aphid is a small proboscis that the insect uses to pierce the skin of leaves, stems or roots and drink the juice. A plant deprived of moisture withers, stops growing, if the roots are affected, then protrusions called galls form on them. Aphids are not picky and can infect any part of the plant, which is why they are so dangerous.

Larvae appear in spring from eggs laid in autumn. Growing up, they reproduce by partogenesis, that is, fertilization is not required in this case. At this time, only females without wings appear in the colony, but in incredible numbers, up to several hundred thousand per month. When the colony grows too large, winged individuals begin to appear, capable of flying to a new place, and towards the end of summer males with wings appear, females begin to lay fertilized eggs (although much less), but it is these eggs that are able to overwinter so that the process resumes in spring. The life cycle of aphids is from several days to two months (this is possible in cool weather around +10 degrees)

Ants and aphids: information about ants

Ants and aphids: information about ants

These insects belong to the order Hymenoptera, although not all have wings. They live in self-built houses - anthills, which they arrange mainly in the ground.Sometimes other insects also live there with them, if such a symbiosis is mutually beneficial. You can meet ants anywhere in the world, except for Antarctica and several islands.

The ant community has a very complex structure and a certain hierarchy. There are females, or queens, they are much larger than all the others and are able to live for more than 20 years under favorable conditions. Initially, these individuals have wings, but then they gnaw them off. Queens' sole purpose is to reproduce offspring. Some of the eggs are fertilized, females hatch from them, and males appear from unfertilized eggs. Males are smaller than queens, but also have wings. Their task is to participate in fertilization, after this process is over, they will be destroyed by working ants. In turn, worker ants are exactly what we usually see on the surface. These are females, their reproductive system is underdeveloped and they cannot produce offspring, so all the work in the anthill falls on their shoulders: they get food, are responsible for the growing offspring, maintain order. The largest individuals are called soldiers and stand on the defense of the anthill, preventing any attempt to enter. The lowest caste is the slave ants, captives trapped in other anthills who do particularly difficult work.

Ants are considered to be useful, or at least harmless insects, but within the suburban area they contribute to the reproduction of aphids, so they also need to be fought with.

Ants and aphids: how to get rid of, information about their symbiosis

Ants and aphids: how to get rid of, information about their symbiosis

So what is the coexistence of these insects based on? As we already know, aphids feed on plant sap, absorb proteins, and since they do not need sugar, they remove it from the body. It is this sweet liquid called "honeydew" that ants love so much. In exchange for this delicacy, they take care of aphids like domestic animals, carry them to succulent plants, if necessary, transfer them to a new place and protect them from the attack of other insects, like good shepherds. And the aphids spend winter in the depths of anthills, where ants continue to take care of both adult insects and laid eggs.

Why are aphids sometimes called ant cows? When an ant touches the aphid with its antennae, it emits a small amount of honeydew, so it seems that the ants are milking the aphids.

Protection methods

If you can try to wash off aphids from flowers and garden crops with a strong stream of water, then treating trees causes some difficulties - the affected area is much larger and often you have to resort to using chemicals, which many would like to avoid. Therefore, it is necessary to take timely preventive measures that, if not completely eliminate, then at least significantly reduce the aphid population. As we remember, not all of these insects are winged, the bulk will move by crawling or with the help of ants. So the prevention is to block the path of the insects to the tree.

In the spring, after the snow has completely melted and nature begins to wake up, attach belts made of cardboard, cellophane and covered with a layer of adhesive to the trunks of fruit trees. As insects stick, update the trap, which will catch not only ants and aphids, but also other harmful insects.

Organize a protective ditch around the tree (a kind of "fortress ditch"): dig a small trench, put the cut tire in it (or cover it with foil) and pour water.

You can also rub the trunk of a tree with garlic, wormwood or tomato tops - all these smells are deeply unpleasant to ants.

Well, as a last resort, if the number of aphids and ants increases dramatically, then you can contact the sanitary epidemiological station and call a pest control, or you can independently carry out the treatment with insecticides.

Control methods

If you are not yet ready to accept a pest control and hope to cope on your own, then keep in mind that you need to fight both aphids and ants at the same time. Various preparations containing either diazinon or chlorpyrifos can be used against ants, their action is aimed at paralyzing the nervous system of insects. Well, or fight with biological methods, without the use of chemistry. We already know that ants are very sensitive to odors, so around the anthill it is necessary to lay sawdust mixed with chopped garlic, crushed or chopped (to enhance the smell) leaves of wormwood, parsley or tomatoes. The anthill can be poured with oil, turpentine or kerosene, and sprinkled with ordinary salt.

In parallel, it is necessary to fight against aphids, since it is she who does the main harm to your plants. Leave the chemicals as a last resort, as most often aphids can be defeated with ordinary soapy water. For greater efficiency, you can add wood ash or baking soda to it, a day after the first treatment you will see the result, and after re-spraying the aphid it will disappear completely. But you should not relax, continue to look after the ants and carry out preventive examinations and plant treatments every two weeks.

Ants and aphids