Ants belong to the order Hymenoptera insects. They are an important component of the ecosystem and play an invaluable role in nature. What benefits do ants bring to the forest and people, read the article.
The use of ants in the garden
Many gardeners consider these insects to be harmful. But it is not so. What benefits do ants bring to the soil? Building anthills at a depth of one and a half meters, they perfectly loosen the earth, mixing it at a depth of fifty to seventy centimeters. Ants raise particles of soil of the lower layers to the surface. Such soil passes air and water better, nourishing the roots of plants.
If black ants appeared in the summer cottage , you do not need to worry about the soil. It is healthy, warmed up, enriched with oxygen, moisturized enough and broken into small lumps. Ants decompose individual minerals. What are the benefits of ants? The activity of these insects helps to remove greenhouse gases. Ants help the enrichment of the soil with humus and minerals such as phosphorus, nitrogen, potassium, magnesium, they come to the plants in an accessible form for them. The plot with an anthill located on it is ideal for growing flowers, fruit trees and shrubs.
What do ants eat?
What are the benefits of ants? They gladly eat caterpillars, worms, slugs, which cause irreparable harm to plants. Insects inject formic acid into the prey, paralyzing the victim. The diet of ants is not limited to this. It includes fruits and seeds, herbs and juice. But most of all, ants love to enjoy the sweet aphid secretions.
What benefits do ants bring to nature? They destroy intrusive aphids. Ants are associated with these insects by food symbiosis: they carry aphids from one plant to another. At this time, they themselves are nearby and protect the "herd" of aphids from the attack of flies, lacewings, bugs. So ants make food supplies for the winter.
The role of food for ants
Eating insects is a significant factor in their “political” life. It plays the role of combining ants into a single mechanism of natural society. The ant will secretly eat its prey from its relatives. He will run to the anthill and pass on food to his fellow prisoner. The ant shares its prey with other inhabitants of the family and feeds the larvae. This food is enough for about a hundred individuals. Enzymes in its composition serve as a variety of signals.
The food is "heated" by the anthill. In early spring, so that young growth does not die, you need to raise the temperature in places of its accumulation. What benefits do ants bring to prevent the death of larvae? They are grouped into balls. At this time of the year, carbohydrates that come from food stored for the winter are intensely oxidized in their bodies. This process is accompanied by heat.
How useful are ants in the forest?
Often people underestimate ants, considering them useless. But this is not so, Ants are the most useful inhabitants of the forest. Speaking about these insects, one should remember about their collective and predatory activity. Having settled in dead wood for some reason, ants contribute to its mechanical destruction. They crawl through the territory around the nest for a reason.
Ants are constantly searching for woody and grassy particles: twigs, needles, scales, blade of grass and other forest debris. They bring all this to the anthill. Here, these particles decompose much faster than on any surface. Together with them, dead wood begins to rot and decompose. The forest is not a summer cottage, and it’s simply impossible to clean it by hand from any trash. That's the ants doing it. No wonder they are called forest orderlies.
So what benefits do ants bring to the forest? They cleanse it of sick, rotten and destroyed trees. In the forest it is impossible to meet a large accumulation of harmful insects in the habitats of ants. For reference: the population of the anthill of two meters in height is successfully fighting harmful insects in the forest, exceeding one hectare. There are forests where ants inhabit artificially.
What are the benefits of ants? They contribute to increasing the biological activity of the soil, its enrichment with oxygen and substances useful for plant growth. Ants themselves are food for many birds, such as woodpeckers, tits, capercaillie, black grouse. And birds like to take "ant baths." They "dive" into the anthill and shove its inhabitants under their wings. In this way, birds are freed from parasites.
What benefits do ants bring to people?
Even in ancient times, man knew about the beneficial properties of formic alcohol, which is secreted by insects. Today, modern medicine uses this gift of nature for medicinal purposes. What benefits do ants bring to man? Medicinal products are made from formic alcohol.
They treat diseases such as tuberculosis, bronchial asthma, hepatitis, renal failure, and diabetes mellitus. In folk medicine, tinctures are prepared from living and dried forest ants , which treat neuralgia and many joint diseases. Insects are collected in mid-summer. Red ants are suitable for medicine.
A bit about toads
When processing the land, you can often see awkward toads slowly crawling to the side. Many people, unfortunately, are disgusted with them. But toads, tirelessly exterminating harmful insects, benefit gardens. Toads are amphibians. Some of their species, becoming adults, live and get their own food exclusively on earth. The most common are gray or common toads and green amphibians with large spots of the same color. The body of the toad is covered with numerous warts.
Amphibian breeding ground
Toads eat animal food: harmful insects, bugs, bugs, ants. Their menu is not limited to this. They eat pests with great appetite, such as bears, wireworms, weevils, larvae of the Colorado potato beetle, caterpillars. Young frogs are not aggressive, they are quite happy with every little thing: aphids, mosquitoes, raspberry beetles and weevils. During the day, one adult eats about eight grams of insects.
What are the benefits of ants and toads? Amphibians kill two to three times more pests than insectivorous birds. They do not refuse parasites with a foul odor and bad taste, which the birds disdain. Toads are better at hunting pests, in which the color of the body merges with the natural background. Birds sleep at night, while amphibians hunt at this time. Insects that lead nightlife become their prey: butterfly scoops, caterpillars, moths, slugs.