Ants: A Plant's Best Friend
Even though they are tiny insects, ants play a big role in feeding the Earth. They don't know that they're doing such an important job. They think they're feeding their colony and protecting their queen. But along the way, the Earth gets important benefits from the actions of the lowly little ant.
There are more than 14,000 types of ants, and all of them live in colonies. Large colonies, or nests, may hold as many as 100,000 ants. Most ants build their nests underground, which helps to aerate the soil and make it easier for plants to grow. Ants dig deep into the Earth's surface. Some ant colonies build their nests as deep as twenty feet underground. As they do so, they loosen the soil and move lots of soil to build the many chambers and tunnels that make up their home. The nest provides them with shelter and a place to store the food that they gather. It is also where the queen ant lays her eggs, up to 20,000 per day. New members of the colony will be hatched from these eggs, so they are fiercely protected.
The ant colony is a study in cooperation. Worker ants, who are always female, constantly gather food on the Earth's surface. Once they have located a food source, they carry it back to the nest and place it in a storage room. Then, they head back up to the Earth's surface and gather more. Large-jawed sentries guard the entrances to the mound. Their main job is to keep an eye on the worker ants, making sure that only members of the colony enter the nest. Other worker ants tend to the royal chamber, where the queen lays her eggs. They move the eggs as needed, keep the chambers clean, and keep the males and queen fed.
Worker ants can move an amazing amount of food into the nest each day, dragging as much as fifty times their own weight home each day. Many types of ants don't eat the gathered food directly. Some only drink the juices. Others eat a fungus that grows on the food. While the food sits in the colony's storage chambers waiting to be eaten, air that flows through the tunnels causes the food to rot. As the food decomposes, it becomes a part of the soil. Hungry plant roots eat the nutrients from the decayed food and grow strong and healthy. Without ants, important nutrients would sit on the top of the soil and never reach a plant's roots.
When the rains come, the tunnels in an ant nest become direct pathways to plant and tree roots. While rainwater usually sits on the surface, because it takes time to filter into the soil, ant nests allow water to reach the roots directly. Without ant nests, many plants and trees would not get enough water to survive. Both the flowers of the field and the towering trees of the forest rely on the ant to till the soil and bring food to their roots.
