5 Ways Ants Help You In Gardening

1. 5 Ways Ants Help You In Gardening

2. Turning soil Everybody knows that earthworms help farmers and gardeners by turning soils. The lesser known fact is that ants turn more soil than earthworms and help humans in farming and gardening. They bring the much-needed nutrients to the surface by tireless tunnel digging and the soil gets completely hydrated by rainwater. 1

3. Seed Sowing One of the most important work ants do is sowing seeds. Seed harvesting ants contribute significantly to the survival and germination of the seeds. Ants do this by taking the seeds to different habitats and storing them in their nests full of nutrients. By doing so the ants help the seeds to get a suitable environment to sprout. Ants are the reason why many plants including flowering plants manage to survive even in the wild. 2

4. Pest Control Many people do not know that ants actually help human controlling the pests as they are natural exterminators. Ants feed on troublesome insects such as bed bug, flies, fleas, silverfish, cockroaches, and even termites. If you want to keep the troublesome insects away, then a good way is to encourage the ants around your garden. Presence of ants around your garden indicates that the environment of your garden is in good shape. 3

5. Fertilize Ants prefer to bring their collected leaves and insects into their nests and some of these foods decay and help fertilize the plants. Many flower plants such as violates, viola, and other flowers benefit from the ants. Researchers say that plants have adjusted their timing of flowering and fruiting to get the benefits of the high ant activity in the early part of the year. Scientifically it can be proved that the relationship between ant & plant is beneficial to the plants. 4

6. Protecting plants Some plants reward the ants for protecting them. The plants provide the ants with food and shelter they need. According to the available information, cherry trees encourage ant interventions as they are often under the attack of caterpillars and other insects which generally eat the new leaves of the trees. The cherry tree secretes a type of nectar in the glands at the base of the leaves to attract the ants. The ants feed on the sweet nectar and if they encounter any insect eating the leaves, they will attack the insects and protect the plants. 5

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