You may be wondering how do ants eat everything when they are near you, and What Do Ants Eat?
When there is a food spill under your table, a bunch of ants will come to eat it. When there are dead insects like roaches or flies, they will also come and bring the dead insects along with their colonies.
What do ants eat?
The ants are omnivorous animals and eat almost everything in nature. They eat both herbs and animals to meet their nutritional needs.
Most of the ant species are opportunistic for their behavior in the search for food. That is, they will eat whatever is found in your home to stay alive.
However, you should know that not all species of ants will eat the same thing, meaning different species of ants as well as the food they will eat. Let’s look at what do ants eat below.
Sweet Food
It’s not a common secret if some of the ant types you find really love the sweet foods in your kitchen, it’s like bread, syrup, honey and juice. But, when it is too difficult for ants to get the sweet food around your house, they will look for a sweet substance called honey or honeydew left by other insects.
Honey is a rich sticky liquid of sugar produced by small insects called aphids when they feed the plants. Some aphid populations will take advantage of giving the honey to ant colonies and exchange them for protection for their populations of larger predators (mutualism symbiosis).
Sugar ants love the sweet food.
This sugar ant has a black head and we commonly see it wandering into the kitchen.
Fire ants that like to bite us apparently like to eat grains, sugars, meats and fats.
Read also: Fire Ant Bite: Ways to Cope with it
Eating protein
In addition to sweet foods, ants also consume proteins to be able to grow and breed. High Protein in food such as peanut butter, meat and eggs, certainly attracts a bunch of ants to come. In addition, they are also interested in the fats and oils of cooking processes that are usually found on the surface of the table and the kitchen floor along with cooking utensils.
Large headed ants usually prefer to find foods that contain protein and fat.
What ants eat outside?
When ants stay outdoors, there are certainly many of you who see a bunch of ants eating and carrying dead insects like the roaches or flies for them to bring to their colonies. This is because they can also find the protein content from consuming carcasses or dead insects that they find outside the home.
Outside the house there are plant-eating insects such as aphids that produce sticky substances eaten by ants. This substance can be found in the leaves itself or beneath the surface of the leaf.
Fungi
Did you know? Ants cultivate fungi in a humid area like in your garden area. Some species of ants also grow and breed by eating only fungi. Ant species such as leaf cutter ants grow and eat fungi as their source of nutrients.
Ants Love Food and Water
Ants love food that is widely eaten by people, such as: salt, fat and sugar. They may also eat other types of insects. Anything you can do to get rid of animal food and food that is not covered, clean spills, and cover or dispose of garbage so that helps you overcome the problem of ants. Don’t let your floor be a place to eat ants.
How to get rid of ants food
- Clean the leftovers and drinking water spill immediately
- Keep all the food in a closed and airtight place
- Avoid leaving the former place to eat and drink not washed
- Clean the jar that is sticky because of food
- Sweep and mop the floor regularly.
Read also: Dangerous Plant That Causes Blindness
Thank you very much for reading What Do Ants Eat, and Tips How to get rid of ants food, hopefully useful.
