ants

Robert Lauf via pbs pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net
Fri, 15 May 2020 14:38:33 PDT
 Ants are a major pest in the greenhouse because they "farm" scale and mealybugs and carry them all over to new plants.  Kill the ants and much of the scale problems go away.
In orchids, if a pot happens to be situated where it gets very little water for a while, ants will very often make a nest in it.  Really soak it and they will erupt in mass, carrying the larvae to higher ground.
Bob
    On Friday, May 15, 2020, 05:04:36 PM EDT, Mary Sue Ittner via pbs <pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> wrote:  
 
 Recently while exploring my garden I saw an ant struggling to carry a 
slug (a small slug, but many times the size of the ant.) Soon another 
ant arrived and took the other end and together they carried it away. It 
never occurred to me than ants might be slug predators. I don't know 
about Judy's tiny ants, but ants are responsible for my having a lot of 
wonderful Cyclamen all over my garden so they aren't all bad. It would 
be interesting to learn more about the different kinds of ants and what 
roles they play for good or bad in our gardens. I once heard a talk by 
John Muir Laws who has written a lot of wonderful field guides. He spent 
a long time on a field guide of the Sierra and included in it are a 
number of different ants. He would spend summers in the Sierras drawing 
what he saw and meeting people along the way. In his talk he said he met 
some people who studied ants and came away with a great appreciation for 
them.

Mary Sue


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