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Ants, along with bees and wasps belong to the order Hymenoptera and are in the Formicidae family. To most of us, they are familiar garden dwellers living in colonies. They can vary in size, color and feeding habits, but all species have a well developed social organization comprised of a queen and her workers. Each colony has males and females, but after mating the males die and the females fly to a suitable site, shed their wings, make a nest and lay their eggs. The larvae that hatch will contain a percentage of winged males and females, but the majority will be sterile workers. The queen will feed her first brood of workers with her saliva until they are full grown, after that the workers will feed the queen and her young maggot-like larvae, continue to build new galleries for the queen and forage for food. The feeding habits of ants can vary from specie to specie, some prefer to feed on sweets or greasy proteins, some thrive on the honeydew of aphids, mealybugs or scale insects, others feed on seeds or grains, some on fungi that are cultivated in their nests and some are predatory, feeding on other insects. Ants can be very destructive to plants, they can disturb the root system of a plant and build unsightly mounds within or around them. They can act as vectors (or carriers) of various plant diseases, spreading them from plant to plant. They can distribute spores of botrytis blight that affects peonies, as well as spread fireblight disease, that affects members of the Roseacea family. Some ants such as the Allegheny Mound ant can kill all vegetation within 30' of their nesting site, by injecting formic acid into the tissue of roots. The Texas Leaf-cutting ant, can defoliate young pine trees in winter and beech, hackberry, hickory, oak, rebud and sweetgum in summer by taking the foliage to their nests where they feed on it. There are many other destructive species of ants, but despite this, many ants are useful as scavengers, pollinators and some as predators. Some of the more common and most destructive ant species are the Allegheny Mound ant, Argentine ant, Black Carpenter ant, Imported Fire ant, Red harvester ant, Southern Fire ant and the Texas Leaf-cutting ant.
Aphids are soft bodied, pear shaped, sucking insects that can be found in almost every garden. Their mouth parts consist of a hollow beak known as a (rostrum) which encloses 4 needlelike stylets that pierce plant tissues enabling them to suck plant juices to feed upon. Their feeding causes loss of plant vigor and deformation of leaves, flowers and buds. They are most often found on new growth and shoots that are tender and soft, but when infestations are heavy, the entire plant can be covered. When this occurs, leaves, stems and even fruit can develop a black fungus know as sooty mold. This black mold develops from the honeydew secretion of the aphids left on the plant tissue after feeding. The honeydew is actually plant sap, rich in sugars which in return attracts ants that feed on it. Start a control program as soon aphids are noticed, because, not only do they multiply quickly, but they are also transmitters of disease producing organisms such as fireblight and other viral diseases. There are many plants affected by aphids, but two trees that are commonly affected are the European birch - Betula pendula and the Tulip tree - Lirodendron tulipifera.
Related to cutworms, armyworms are the larvae of night flying moths, they work in armies and consume everything in their path. Young larvae are pale green and older larvae which can reach 11/2" are greenish brown with white stripes on its sides and a light colored stripe down its back. Wheat, corn oats and rye are the favorite foods of the larvae, but they will also feed on garden plants, hiding in the daytime in the organic litter beneath plants, under stones or other hiding places. When food reserves run low, they move their armies to a new location. These larvae can consume whole plants in one night. Adult moths fly only at night and have a 11/2" - 2" wingspan. Their wings are pale gray-brown with a white dot in the center of each front wing. Armyworms are common in most parts of the country, especially east of the Rockies and southeastern Canada. |
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