What do ants eat? — Chloe’s student essay
What Do Ants Eat?
What in the world do ants eat? This is a question I never really thought about until this essay. When I think of what ants eat, I think of a carnival or a big city street where someone dropped some food. You look down and it’s just covered in ants. Sometimes at certain times of the year we get them in our house.
My dad goes on a serious mission of setting little traps in every nook and cranny of our home. Then suddenly they are gone until next year. When I was little, I remember seeing ants carrying large pieces of various foods. These food pieces were so much larger than the ants. I would watch them traveling to huge ant mounts that they called home. It was amazing to see them work.
I would say that dynamite does come in small packages applies to these little critters. Their work ethic is unrivaled. They work together like a well-oiled machine and my respect for these little guys is great.
Ants are imperative to the food chain. Animals like fish and other land dwelling critters feed on ants. Let’s really take a minute and focus on their diet. Take the black ant or garden ant as an example. I’m using this species of ant because it is a common ant we can all relate to it. I’m sure everyone has seen a black ant at some point or another.
There are 12,000 species of ants all over the world. These ants are all hard workers, but not all live in my backyard. Colony sizes can reach up to 40,000. The average colony size is 4,000 to 7,000 and the queens of these colonies can live up to an amazing twenty-nine years. These power packs can lift fifty times their own body weight.
This super strength is very important when it comes to food. The workers can carry large amounts of food back to their colony. Black ants love sugar, so keep a close eye on your Hershey Bars and other sweet treats
They will eat nectar and rotting fruit. Ants also like little sap sucking insects called aphids. They will even take these insects underground and store them for the winter. The scout ants are the ones that will carry out this daunting task. Black ants are omnivorous so some of the foods they will eat are cornmeals, flea hoppers, greasy oily foods, honeydew, plant secretions, and almost all vegetables.
In my limited experience with ants I’ve seen them eating just about anything edible dropped on the ground. Ants are truly a remarkable insect. They live in a complex ecosystem and are incredibly social. They are strong as individuals and even stronger together as a unit. There is a lot we could learn as a society from these little guys. Things like united we stand, divided we fall. Also, who doesn’t like a three day old lollipop laying on the ground at an amusement park? Just kidding! I will never look at an ant the same way again and it was fun to learn more about the amazing ant.