Ants Milking Aphids

[iPopcorn]

What species of ants are comfirmed to farm aphids?

[thebestyearwas1971]

Are they Myrmica Rubra or another species of formica ants?

What plant are the Aphids feeding off?

[JellyKimSugarBoom14]

I know what im doing nxt time we run out of milk :p

[AliasAce18]

@JellyKimSugarBoom14 Ditto

[mironyuk]

How do you get rid of these pests, aphids destroy green houses!!!!

[philcovers]

@kickflipinyaface The ants not only "drink" the mlk themselves but take some to their babies. It is not milk though in the sense that cowes milk is intended for calves, the aphids just ouse the liquid from their backs when stroked. The ants actually "FARM" the aphids, they like the "milk" so much. They carry the aphids to new young plants. and even store them in their nests with grass.... Life at all different levels is far more amazing that most know, Glad you liked it *SMILES*

[kickflipinyaface]

@philcovers that's very cool, thanks for the information.

[DanishnSonic]

@philcovers its honey dew and they do not feed it to their babies.they feed meat to their babies the adult drinks liquid.they are not humans you know

[hophiphop11]

i have the same thing as that know i take it off by my hend what do you segest to me?

[Rienei]

they say adding ladybugs to your garden helps eliminate these stuff. But these ants protect them so it doesnt help in the end?

[philcovers]

@Rienei Yes that is true, and we encourage them :)

I took that little video purely because of the interrest, not many people know that ants actually "cultivate" aphids!. They actually place the aphids on nice juicy young shoots. Life is far more complicated that most people realise!

Glad to have your comments

*SMILES*

[kickflipinyaface]

@philcovers Ants relationship with aphids remind me of our relationship with cows, what do the ants do with the milk they get from aphids? if they drink it then the INCREDIBLE similarity will make me for some reason smile.

[philcovers]

@kickflipinyaface The ants not only "drink" the mlk themselves but take some to their babies. It is not milk though in the sense that cowes milk is intended for calves, the aphids just ouse the liquid from their backs when stroked. The ants actually "FARM" the aphids, they like the "milk"  so much. They carry the aphids to new young plants. and even store them in their nests with grass.... Life at all different levels is far more amazing that most know, Glad you liked it *SMILES*

[kitkitmeow24]

@philcovers its not really milk,the 'milk' is a sugary liquid called honeydew

[Psycheplay]

you should take a bucket of beer, and cover it with some kind of screen to attract the slugs into 1 area instead of picking them up 1 by 1

[katiatomsk]

Wow, that is an amazing video. I organic garden. I found aphids on my southern peas. The peas were not looking good. I decided to try and kill the aphids. I used Young Living's Thieves Household cleaner, dulited, and sprayed the effected plants. The aphids were dead the next morning and the plants look much better now. The cleaner I used is 100% natural.

[philcovers]

Thank you for your response Katiatomosk, Glad to hear that you garden organically. So do we. We prefer to have a LIVING garden than a "dead" one. Our biggest problem is slugs and snails. We do our best not to KILL any creatures, so we collect them up at night and take them down to a near by park, where there is plenty of grass lol. Modern methods of non organic farming are devastating fertile soils all over the "industrial world".

[sailorwillis]

@philcovers slugs are a big problem where i live also. We have lined the edges of our planter boxes with copper stripping and that deters them fairly effectively.

[philcovers]

@sailorwillis We have put copper strip in shelves in the kitchen, because some slugs have got in! I think it helps.

Too much garden to use copper strip in garden sadly!. BUT it could be used in the greenhouse to keep them off the seedlings!

THANKS

Chris