What benefits do the ants bring to the forest and people?

Ants belong to the order of Hymenoptera insects. They are an important component of the ecosystem and play an invaluable role in nature. What benefits ants bring to the forest and people, read in the article.

The use of ants in the garden

Many gardeners and truck farmers consider theseinsects harmful. But it is not so. What benefits do the ants bring to the soil? Building nests at a depth of one and a half meters, they perfectly loosen the ground, mixing it at a depth of fifty to seventy centimeters. Ants pick up particles of the soil of the lower layers on the surface. Such soil better passes air and water, feeding the roots of plants.

If black ants appeared in the summer residence,You do not need to worry about the soil. It is healthy, warmed, enriched with oxygen, sufficiently moistened and broken into small lumps. Ants decompose individual minerals. What are the benefits of ants? The activity of these insects contributes to the removal of greenhouse gases. Ants help enrich the soil with humus and minerals, such as phosphorus, nitrogen, potassium, magnesium, they come to plants in a form that is accessible to them. The site with an anthill located on it is ideal for the growth of flowers, fruit trees and shrubs.

What do the ants eat?

What are the benefits of ants? They gladly eat caterpillars, worms, slugs, which cause irreparable harm to plants. In prey, insects inject formic acid, paralyzing the victim. The diet of ants is not limited to this. It includes fruits and seeds, herbs and juice. But most of all, ants like to eat sweet extracts of aphids.

What benefits do ants bring to nature? They destroy the obsessive aphid. Ants are connected with these insects by food symbiosis: they carry aphids from one plant to another. At this time they themselves are nearby and guard the "flock" of aphids from the attack of flies, lacewings, beetles. So the ants make food supplies for the winter.

The role of food for ants

The food of insects is a significant factor in their"Political" life. It plays the role of combining ants in a single mechanism of natural society. The ant secretly from their relatives will never eat prey. He will run to the anthill and pass food to his fellow colony. With its prey the ant shares with other inhabitants of the family and feeds the larvae. This food is enough for about a hundred individuals. Enzymes in its composition serve as a variety of signals.

Food "heated" an anthill. In early spring, so that young animals do not die, it is necessary to raise the temperature in places where it accumulates. What are the benefits of ants to prevent the death of the larvae? They are grouped into tangles. At this time of year, carbohydrates are intensively oxidized in their bodies, which come from food stored for the winter. This process is accompanied by the release of heat.

How useful are the ants in the forest?

Often people underestimate the ants, considering themuseless. But this is not so, Ants are the most useful inhabitants of the forest. Speaking of these insects, one should remember about their collective and predatory activity. Settled in dead wood for some reason, ants contribute to its mechanical destruction. They creep around the nest for a reason.

Ants in the constant search for wood andgrassy particles: twigs, needles, scales, grass and other forest debris. All this they carry in an anthill. Here these particles decompose much faster than on any surface. Together with them begins to rot and decay dead wood. The forest is not a summer residence, and it is simply impossible to clean it manually of any rubbish. Here are the ants and are doing it. No wonder they are called forestry orderlies.

So what are the benefits of ants to the forest? They purify it from sick, rotten and destroyed trees. In the forest it is impossible to meet a large accumulation of harmful insects in the habitats of ants. For reference: the population of an anthill of two meters high successfully combats harmful insects on the territory of the forest, exceeding one hectare. There are forests where ants enter the artificial way.

What are the benefits of ants? They contribute to increasing the biological activity of the soil, its enrichment with oxygen and useful substances for plant growth. Ants themselves are a food for many birds, such as woodpeckers, tits, wood grouse, black grouse. And birds like to take "ant baths". They "dive" into the anthill and thrust its inhabitants under their wings. In this way birds are freed from parasites.

What benefits do ants bring to people?

Even in ancient times a person knew about useful propertiesthe formic alcohol that insects secrete. Today, modern medicine uses this gift of nature for therapeutic purposes. What benefits do ants bring to a person? On the basis of ant alcohol, medicines are produced.

They treat diseases such as tuberculosis,A bronchial asthma, a hepatitis, a renal failure, a diabetes. In folk medicine from living and dried forest ants are prepared tinctures, which treat neuralgia and many diseases of the joints. Insects are collected in the middle of summer. For medicine, red ants are suitable.

A bit about toads

When processing a land plot it is often possiblesee clumsy toads, slowly crawling to the side. Many people, unfortunately, treat them with disgust. But the frogs, tirelessly exterminating harmful insects, benefit the orchards and orchards. Toads refer to amphibians. Some of their species, becoming adults, live and produce their food exclusively on the ground. The most common are gray or common toads and green amphibians with large spots of the same color. The body of the toad is covered with numerous warts.

Nutrient medium of amphibians

Toads eat animal food: harmful insects, beetles, bugs, ants. Their menu is not limited to this. They eat with such appetite such pests as bears, wireworms, weevils, Colorado beetle larvae, caterpillars. Young pigs are not aggressive, they are completely satisfied with every little thing: aphids, mosquitoes, crimson beetles and weevils. Within one day, one adult eats about eight grams of insects.

What are the benefits of ants and toads? Amphibians destroy two to three times more pests than insectivorous birds. They do not abandon parasites with a bad smell and bad taste, which the birds are disdaining. Toads better prey on pests, in which the body color merges with the natural background. Birds sleep at night, while amphibians hunt at that time. Their prey are insects, leading nightlife: butterflies, scoops, caterpillars, moths, slugs.