Enemies of annoying insects - who eats ants? Food habits of insects: what do ants eat.

When the question is heard: “What do ants eat?”, One wants to answer - everything that falls into the jaws. After all, everyone has a crowd of six-legged workers in front of their eyes, which pulls something heterogeneous and edible into the anthill.

According to the way of feeding, all ants can be divided into 2 categories: specialized and with a wide range of food.

The more severe conditions the ants live in, the less picky they are in food. Narrow specialists in the food sector are found mainly in the tropics, where there is a great variety of food resources, and great competition forces us to come up with new ways to feed the anthill.

Ants are similar to humans not only in their omnivorous nature, but also in the way they get food. Long before man took up agriculture, ants have already mastered, in addition to gathering and hunting, animal husbandry and agriculture. To this day, these six-legged workers graze their cows on green tree pastures, collect leaves in order to grow mushrooms for themselves and their larvae.

When answering the question of what ants eat in nature, it is necessary to distinguish between the nutrition of adults and larvae. Larvae need protein food mainly of animal origin. It is for them, their children, that the foragers drag them into the anthill:

any insects, except for those filled with a caustic liquid;
arthropod larvae and eggs;
the remains of large animals;
plants' seeds;
fruits whole or in parts;
remnants of any human food.

For rapid growth, larvae need rich, high-calorie food. It is the need to raise offspring that makes many omnivorous species intensify their hunting activities.

Adult ants also need a full-fledged rich food, but they do not need to grow, but move a lot. For this reason, they prefer to quickly snack on carbohydrate foods:

fruit pulp;
sweet liquid;
tree sap;
secretions of ant cows - aphids;
padyu;
honey;
sugar;
sweet liquid foods on a person's table.

However, such addictions can be an illusion. The fact is that not all products can be carried away by ants. To carry liquids, they have no other container than their own body. That is why the illusion is created that they eat honey themselves, and drag grains and meat to children.

Life in an anthill is organized according to the principle of communism - to everyone according to their needs, from everyone according to their abilities. Here, no one is idle. And everyone is full if there is food in the anthill. There are no homeless people starving among the satiety of others. Here, an ant that has just had its fill of a drop of honey, when it meets a hungry ant, will surely feed it.

In an anthill as in a family - all the best for children. However, all adults eat from common stocks. Humans have a lot to learn from ants. They are disciplined, courageous, responsible and kind. True, the latter applies only to members of his family, but even in this case a person can take an example from six-legged family men.

Food specializations

For certain species of ants to switch to a narrow food specialization, it is necessary that they develop appropriate behavioral programs and morphological changes. The following variants of specialized species can be observed in the world:

What attracts ants to human dwellings?

Ants in human dwellings appear in cases where:

individual individuals have gone astray and inadvertently wandered into an environment hostile to them;
an anthill is arranged in the house (walls, underground, foundation);
the dwelling turned out to be in the path of a column of foragers, for whom the walls are not an obstacle;
organization of forager raids exactly where a person stores his food

What do ants eat when they are at home? If this is a poor fellow, lost in the wilds of an alien environment, then he eats everything that is only edible. Foragers passing through the house do not eat anything at all. Household waste they are not interested in food - they have a goal to which they aspire. Those who conduct planned raids on kitchens and pantries prefer to get high-calorie food. If faced with a choice, the ants will prefer to get processed non-smoked meat products, as well as various sweets, preferably loose culinary ones. natural products. Most of all they appreciate the combination of protein and carbohydrate foods. They know a lot about this.

What does an ant look like? The family of arthropods consists of three castes: females, males, workers. The structure of an ant: chest, belly and head. The eyes of arthropods consist of a large number of lenses, but they do not give clear images and do not distinguish between movements. The upper region of the insect's head is equipped with 3 simple eyes; there are also mustaches on the head to sense the world around.

How many legs does an ant have

Ants have 6 legs with claws, thanks to which it moves along different surfaces. Ants with wings mate annually in the air. The antennae of insects transmit the smell by which the individual determines the place of food, recognizes members of his family, reports alarm and calls for help. The speed of an ant in some species develops up to 3 km / h.

The weapon of insects from the enemy is poison (formic acid) and strong jaws, with which the insect can injure. The bite of an ant is fatal for the victim. The sizes of insects depend on the status of their community and the varieties of this order.

How much can an ant lift?

The weight of an ant depends on the type of insect 1-150 mg. Often encountered ants weigh 3-5 mg, but can lift loads 50 times their own body.

What do ants eat

Insects are omnivores. Everything that does not meet on the way, the ants drag home. The diet consists of protein and plant foods.

All individuals are divided into different castes, on which the life expectancy of insects depends.

Working individuals live 1-3 years. small species insects live less than large ones. Insects living in cold climates live less than those living in middle lane, these in turn are smaller than those living in warm regions.
The life cycle in the nature of males is calculated in weeks. The main task of this caste is mating. After performing their duties, they are killed by their ants or they die.
The queen lives longer than all individuals of the family, some types of queens live up to 20 years. Interesting information: the uterus of an ant - woodworm lives 28 years.

Ants live in in perfect order and distribution of responsibilities. The hierarchy of ants has a strict order, each is busy with his own business and has responsibilities.

Anthill

What anthills are found

Ants build their homes both on the ground and in the underground, however, the tropics are harsh, the coast is flooded, it is difficult for tropical individuals to build an anthill. Climatic conditions forced to migrate insects to trees, for tropical species of insects, the construction of hanging anthills is a common thing that a tropical ant can easily cope with.

How does an anthill work?

The construction of the anthill begins with a small hole or recess under the stone, where the fertilized uterus is located. She does not eat and does not come to the surface until the first individuals hatch and grow, which she feeds with trophic eggs.

When the first adults grow up, the ant queen receives food from them, caring for eggs, and expanding the anthill. Insects pile garbage from the nutria of their house at the entrance, large mounds line up, sometimes exceeding more than 2 meters.

How many ants are in an anthill

A large anthill is inhabited by more than 1 ml of individuals, medium-sized buildings - 200,000-300,000 individuals. There are ants that do not build anthills, for example, roaming ants, or as they are also called, roaming ants.

What does an anthill look like from the inside?

Next to the uterus are working individuals, the so-called retinue. They feed, take care, lick, groom ant eggs. A month later, they move to the far zone of the protected area for work: searching for food, foraging. The food found is transferred to the higher authorities, after which the food is distributed throughout the anthill.

All ants are provided with information about the nest and their queen. The uterus emits pheramones, which are licked by caring individuals, thanks to a special goiter, the ants pass along the chain to each other. Thus, there is complete information.

There are times when an ant is executed for coming several times without food.

The device of the anthill from the inside deepens up to 2 meters, this is necessary not only for safety, but also for the extraction of water. Moisture is necessary for drinking, moisturizing pupae and larvae, and maintaining a microclimate.

Lifestyle

The way of life of ants is industrious, therefore the mansions are built with conveniences. There are rest rooms where the insects sleep in a heap. AT warehouses stored grain, dried insects, seeds. AT warm rooms live larvae and small ants, which are looked after, taken out for a walk to play.

Ant breeding

Worker ants, females only. Every year at the same time, heterosexual ants with wings fly out for the breeding process. Young winged ants fly out to mate, this process takes place in the air, after fertilization, the females nibble their wings, do not eat or drink anything until the young individuals appear. Ant developmental stages: egg, larva, pupa. Males die of hunger, or their relatives can eat them, they are not needed. This is how ants reproduce.

Ant species

ant reaper

Steppe ant harvester (European) is a very thrifty insect. Characteristics of nutrition, differs from relatives. Reapers feed their larvae with ground grain of plants, while their relatives feed their offspring with animal protein.

roaming ants

Roaming ants are constantly migrating, hence the name. When food runs out in a certain area, insects line up in a column. The army ants move every week, they don't have permanent place residence. At each halt, working individuals build a temporary nest with their bodies, where the queen produces more than 20,000 eggs in a week.
When moving in a column, army ants carry eggs and larvae in the middle, ants - soldiers walk along the sides. During the trip, insects actively hunt.

red ants

The red forest ant has an impressive size, reaching 1 cm. The merit of the forest ant in the construction of the largest anthills. Colonies of red wood ants live in single families. Winged sex ants fly out to mate from May to early July, depending on the region.

The red wood ant benefits forests by destroying numerous pests. Forest ants love the sweet nectar of aphids, thereby harming fruit trees.

fire ants

Fire ants are the most dangerous insects in his kind. He has a sting hidden in his abdomen, with a strong poison. Insects feed on protein and plant foods.

Fire ants, in addition to insects, caterpillars and larvae, are able to hunt small mammals, sometimes amphibians. For this case, insects gather in a heap and climb up the legs of the victim, dig into the body together. When fire ants, in large numbers, inject a poisonous substance, the animal can get poisoned and die after a few hours.

Fire ants can attack people, protecting their home, their bite causes pain and burns, in some cases leads to death. This species of insects often arrange nests in human dwellings. These are the most dangerous insects, which are called ants - cannibals. In some countries, entire villages had to be moved from the invasion of these pests.

The largest ant in the world is African, the size of its uterus reaches 6 cm. The next species in terms of growth is the bulldog. Description: Working class - 2 cm, males 16-18 mm, soldiers - 26-28 mm, uterus - 30-33 mm.

Lomehuza is a killer

Ant killer - beetle - lomehuza. A small beetle sneaks into the storage of ant offspring and lays eggs. The ants try to fight him, but he emits a substance that has a narcotic effect on the ants. After licking this substance, the ants do not understand that it is a stranger and court them like their family member.

Over time, under the influence of a euphoric state, the anthill ceases to live and reproduce normally. Individuals become incapacitated, the remaining ants are sick, an anthill without eggs gradually dies. The ant killer has done its job.

The role of ants in nature

What benefits do ants bring to the forest and people? Ants loosen the soil, allowing oxygen to reach the roots. Forest ants are the orderlies of the forest, they protect the forest from insect pests. What are the benefits of ants? They saturate the soil with useful elements: potassium, nitrogen, humus.

What role does ant venom play in humans? Ant venom is used in medicine, treats arthrosis, gout, sprains, varicose veins, back pain, sciatica. Today it is very fashionable to breed ant farms. The terrarium for ants is in demand, interest in insects is growing. Available for sale different kinds insects.

The ant belongs to the class of insects, the type of arthropods, the order Hymenoptera, the family of ants (lat. Formicidae). By organization, ants belong to a group of social insects with a clear division into three castes: working individuals, females and males.

Blood Red Ant (Slaver)(lat. Formica sanguinea) widely distributed in Europe, central Russia, found in China and Mongolia. Workers are up to 8 mm long and have a black body with an orange head. The uterus of an ant grows up to 10 mm and is distinguished by a red head and orange color breast. Ants build summer nests in half-decayed stumps, in the ground and under stones, in winter time the family moves to another nest located at the base of the trees. A typical way of life of this species of ants is predatory raids on anthills of brown forest, agile and other ants. Captured pupae are brought to the nest and raised as "slaves".

Yellow Amazon ant (lat. Polyergus rufescens)- a species of ants that is quite large in size: females reach almost a centimeter in length, males are somewhat more modest - 6-7.5 mm, "soldiers" are even smaller and rarely grow more than 5-7 mm. Females and "soldiers" are painted in yellow-reddish tones, the body is usually covered with black hairs. Male ants are black, limbs and antennae are brown. The species lives in Europe, in western regions Asia, western Siberia. The Amazon ant prefers to settle in humid forests, choosing clearings and edges for the construction of an anthill. Amazons lead a slave-owning lifestyle, kidnap other ants in the pupal stage, and then use them as slaves, labor.

Legionnaire ants or nomad ants (dorilins, wandering ants) (lat. Dorylinae)- a subfamily of nomadic ants that live exclusively in the tropics and subtropical zone. Legionnaire ants are especially common in Central and South America are found in Africa. They live in huge colonies, most of which are working individuals. Ants nomads destroy everything that is suitable for food in their path. Despite the average size of 2-4 mm, this type of ants “takes” its numbers, destroying crops during invasions. cultivated plants and feeding on their juices.

Where do ants live?

These insects can be observed on all continents, in all natural areas and climatic zones. They are absent only in the harsh climate of the Arctic and Antarctica, on the cold islands of Greenland and Iceland, as well as in the hot deserts. In areas with a temperate and cold climate, ants hibernate in winter.

Basically, these insects build their anthill dwellings in rotten or rotten wood, in the soil and under small stones. Some types of ants take over other people's nests or live next to a person.

The food of ants is varied and depends on the species. The diet of most species consists of plant and animal food, and each individual feeds several times a day.

The source of protein necessary for the growth and development of ant larvae in nature is dead insects, animal remains, trophic eggs laid by the uterus with an excess of food, insect pest eggs and half-digested food of adult ants. Domestic ant larvae are content with dairy products, gelatin, and leftover egg dishes. The nutrition of the uterus of ants also consists of protein food, which is specially chewed by the ants caring for it.

The basis of the carbohydrate menu of most ants is honeydew (sugar-containing leaf juices released during temperature changes) and honeydew - sweet secretions of insects, especially. Ants - dairy farmers grow aphids for themselves, herd them, nurse them and protect their offspring from other ants. These shepherds milk their pets and feed on their milk.

Additional components of the food of ants in nature can be seeds and roots of plants, nuts, tree sap. Some ants grow colonies of mushrooms in anthills as food, and also feed on insects.

Reaper ants consume dry plant seeds, dry fruits and crops. They are able to store 1 kg of raw materials, which makes it possible to feed an entire colony of ants in winter. Leaf-cutting ants bring pieces of leaves to the anthill, chew and store in a kind of greenhouse chambers. Over time, mushrooms grow from these pieces in storage, which are the main food for these gourmet ants. Centromyrmex ants feed exclusively on termites. The dracula ant drinks juices secreted by its own larvae, and feeds the larvae different insects. House ants are omnivores.

In winter, with a significant cooling, the ants hibernate, during which they starve. Most species, however, are active in the winter in an airtight anthill, feeding on abundant supplies.

The inhabitants of the anthill are divided into 4 groups:

Females (wombs)- the founders of any ant house, their function is to lay eggs. There is only one female queen in the colony, which the ants carefully protect, feed and cherish.
Males. They die some time after mating (their main function).
worker ants(foragers). Their duties include taking care of all individuals of the family, delivering food and protecting the anthill from the encroachments of enemies.
Larvae. future offspring. Larvae are divided into 2 types: able to feed on their own and in need of feeding. The latter species predominates, adult ants feed such larvae with semi-digested food from their own esophagus.

All this large family needs huge amounts of food. What do ants eat?

oral apparatus

The mouthparts of these insects "nibbling". The mouth contains:

upper lip (labrum);
ruining the bottom (labium);
mandibles (jaws).

Depending on the type of upper jaw (mandibles) and lower (maxillas) can be: large and small, blunt and very sharp, toothed and simply smooth, interlocking and overlapping. The mandibles have the ability to work independently even with the mouth closed.

Underlip has a tongue, which is the organ of taste, and is also used by ants to clean their bodies.

Food

Ants - omnivorous insects. Their diet depends on the species and habitat.

In the warm season, food is supplied by worker ants daily. In the cold, everything happens differently: many species of the ant family do not hibernate, and therefore in the fall they fill their homes with food to capacity, this allows them to calmly survive the cold season.

REFERENCE! Ants love to drag into their house absolutely everything that comes across them on the way. And only then the food is distributed among the inhabitants of the anthill. To everyone's taste.

The distribution goes like this:

larvae. They feed on protein foods: the remains of small insects, eggs of various pests. If we are talking about domestic (pharaoh) ants, then the larvae often get food from the table of the owners of the house (meat, eggs, cottage cheese, cheese), sometimes domestic Prussian cockroaches become prey for ants, which the younger generation also eats with pleasure;
worker ants. To maintain strength, they need carbohydrate foods that are nutritious, high in energy and well absorbed. These are: the pulp of fruits and berries, seeds, nuts, roots and juices of plants. Having settled in houses, they eat sugar and honey with pleasure. The favorite delicacy of ants is honey dew (the juice of plants secreted by them during sudden changes in temperature) and honeydew (sugar milk of aphids);
uterus. The basis of her diet is protein. In many species, food intended for the uterus is chewed by worker ants and delivered to their queen in a form convenient for consumption.

REFERENCE! In red wood ants, honeydew and dew make up almost 60% of the total diet.

They tremblingly guard aphids (milk cows), breed them on young shoots of trees, and take them with them to anthills for the winter.

feed on ants often, several times a day.

Ant food depending on their species

There are species of gourmet ants that prefer 1-2 regular foods to a varied diet:

leaf cutter ant. Insects of this species collect tree leaves in their dwelling, carefully chew them into porridge and put them in special chambers. In the warm leaf mass, there is a rapid development of fungi, which feed on leaf cutters. themselves sheet plates too coarse for their delicate stomachs and not fit for consumption;
centrifuges. They feed exclusively on termites;
dracula. These ants suck the juice of their own larvae, and the latter do not suffer much from this. Adult insects are engaged in catching large insects: spiders, centipedes, but they do not eat them themselves, but feed the younger generation;
harvester ants. They feed on the seeds of dried plants. This food is not very digestible, so insects grind it with their strong jaws into gruel;
carpenter ants. The source of carbohydrate for this species is tree resin, which is released in places where the bark is damaged;
ponerins. This is a whole subfamily. Each of the species of which feeds on a specific insect pest. They are rightly called the orderlies of the forest.

A photo

Ants are famous for their omnivorous nature. And not even so much forest and field ants, which can be found busily carrying a dried leaf, a dead fly or a bread crumb into an anthill. Pharaoh ants are especially distinguished by their versatility in nutrition. They can find abundant food sources even in ideal clean apartment. Sometimes it seems that these ants eat everything: a drop of oil that has fallen on the floor behind a tile, crumbs near the baseboard, sugar not swept from the table - and on this food a whole anthill grows and develops safely.

But scientists who studied in detail what ants eat, found out that after all, these insects cannot be called indiscriminate swallows. In the choice of food, they are very similar to humans: although their diet may include thousands of products, they eat according to a strict system.

Ant Menu

1. Plant food:

1.1. bread (bread crumbs) "not very";
1.2. croutons "Finn Crisp" "so-and-so";
1.3. "Swollen" wheat with honey "actively gobbled up";
1.4. freeze-dried noodles soaked in milk (wheat) - “actively gobbled up”;
1.5. freeze-dried noodles soaked in milk (corn) “tried”;
1.6. freeze-dried noodles soaked in milk (rice) - “tried”;
1.7. sublimated noodles not soaked (any) - "ignored";
1.8. soy meat, tofu - "eat";
1.9. seaweed - "ignore";
1.10. candied fruits - "very sluggish";
1.11. seeds: oatmeal (flakes), oatmeal, millet, sunflower seeds, canary seed, poppy, flax, clover, etc.

2. Sweet:

2.1. honey - "wild" eat, and grown at home do not touch honey. CAUTION: after a while, honey will ferment and turn from a delicacy into “death” for ants;
2.2. sweet (sugar) syrup (sugar in water 1:1). CAUTION: Do not take trot cream or ice cream;
2.3. chocolate - "avoid";
2.4. marshmallows - "very actively eat";
2.5. marmalade (do not take poisonous flowers) "actively eat".

3. Insects, including fodder crops of insects. They are eaten by all kinds of ants.

3.1. house and other flies;
3.2. Drosophila (including wingless laboratory ones) – “actively devoured”;
3.3. wax moth(imago);
3.4. mosquitoes;
3.5. cockroaches of different stripes (for example, a marble cockroach). CAUTION: Do not use "our" domestic cockroaches;
3.6. bloodworm / "Initially there is interest. But only the Camponotus. Then — to the trash”/;
3.7. beetles, bee larvae, maggots, small crickets (for example, banana cricket) and other running, crawling and flying insects ...

4. Boiled eggs (chicken):

4.1. the yolk was "actively devoured";
4.2. protein "just tried".

5. Bird:

5.1. chicken meat, raw or cooked.

6. Meat:

6.1. beef;
6.2. liver (raw or boiled);
6.3. boiled beef heart "they eat it very weakly, but they strive to hide it."

7. Fish:

7.1. raw and boiled fish, squid "were not even ignored, but avoided."

8. "Complex" products:

8.1. milk sausage - "eat BUT THERE WAS VICTIMS" experiment less.

9. Dairy products:

9.1. sour cream "for some reason they attacked her, ... ran like stung and bit everything";
9.2. yogurt, cottage cheese (low-fat) - "actively eat".

10. Gelatin foods:

10.1. With an admixture of sugar, honey, vitamins, egg yolk (there are also diets with a more complex composition). This mixture is frozen and stored in the refrigerator.

11. Fruits:

11.1. Sweet apples.
11.2. Sweet soft pear.
11.3. Pineapple (not canned)
11.4. Grape.
11.5. Bananas.
11.6. Most likely other fruits, you need to check.

Now information about which ants prefer what:

1. Formica rufibarbis:
Points: 3 (everyone eats 😉), 5, 6.1. (weak) and 7.
Also: Marble cockroaches, moths, beetles, bee larvae, other ants - in general, everything that crawls or flies. They also eat raw and boiled fish, chicken meat. Beef is eaten very little.

2. Tetramorium ceaspitum:
"There is no more omnivorous ant."

3. Camponotus ligniperda:
Points: 3.1, 3.3., 3.4., bee larvae and marbled cockroaches do not go (probably because of the smell).

4. messor constructor:
Items: 1.1. - 1.6., 3.2., 4. (comments respectively), 1.11.2. - "wild" did not ignore, domestic apparently were not so hungry. I don't try to give them carbs in the form of a syrup. they get the fats and carbohydrates they need for their activities from the seeds.

5. Lasius niger (from my own experience):
Items: 1.3. (nibbled on honey); 2.1. (very actively attacked); 2.5. (not so active) 3.2., 3.6. (were active); 4.1. (weakly); 5.1. (weak), 11.2. (with pleasure), 11.3. (ignored), 11.4. (tried ... seemed to like it), 11.5. (somehow).