Ant Food

Do you ever wonder "what do ants eat?"

Sure you know that the eat your food when you try to have a picnic, but did you know that ants have a variety of techniques to feed themselves. Different species eat different types of food and have different methods for getting it, but all ants like sugary substances. Ants need high concentrations of simple sugars in order to extract energy from the food.

Nourishment

Some ants are gatherers. They collect sugary substances from fruits and other plants. Some ants eat the corporeal remains of other critters, such as wasps, mice, birds, and in some cases even their fallen fellow ants. Leaf cutter ants actually grow fungi for food, on leafs which they keep in their nests, kind of like farmers. There are even some black ants who keep other critters as pets to produce food.

They herd groups of aphids onto the stems of plants. The aphid sucks the sugar from the plant. When the ants get hungry they massage the aphid with their antennae to extract a sweet substance for nourishment. The ants keep the aphids safe from predators and use them much like we use cattle. As you can see ants have some clever ways of getting food, they are much more intelligent then most people give them credit for. So the next time you see a group of ants marching up to your picnic basket take a second to think about how complex those little critters actually are before squishing them.

Ant Food

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