If you’ve done any gardening at all, you have encountered aphids on your plants, whether it be roses, peppers, various herbs or tomatoes. One thing you may not observed is an aphid “farm” being tended to by ants. Believe it or not, ants will herd aphids like cattle and milk them.
Why do they do this? Well, quite simply, it’s because it’s easy, the aphids are available, and ants have built-in mechanisms to make the aphids docile. The sugar from the host plants provide food for the aphids and because of the low nutritional value of the plant sap, aphids consume quite a bit of it, producing a lot of waste in the form of a secretion called honeydew. Ants like sugar and so the two are a perfect match.
You can do several things to rid your plants of aphids:
- Wipe them off with your hand
- Spraying insecticidal soap on the affected leaves and stems
- Spraying garlic oil on the affected leaves and stems
- Ladybugs (my preference when they are available)