You may be wondering how ants can eat everything when they are near you. When a food spills under your table, a group of ants will come to eat it. When there are dead insects such as cockroaches or flies, they will also come and bring the dead insects with their colony.
What is the ant’s favorite food?
Ants are omnivorous and eat almost everything in nature. They eat both plants and animals to meet their nutritional needs. Most ant species are known to be opportunistic for their foraging behavior. This means that they will eat whatever is found in your home to survive. However, you should know that not all ant species will eat the same things, which means that different ant species will also eat the food they will eat. Let’s look at 3 ant foods below!
Sweet food
It is no secret that some types of ants that you find really like sweet foods in your kitchen, such as bread, syrup, honey and juice. However, when it is too difficult for the ants to find a sweet treat around your house, they will look for a sweet substance called honey or honeydew that other insects leave behind.
Honey is a sugar-rich sticky liquid produced by tiny insects called aphids when they eat plants. Some populations of aphids will benefit by giving the honey to the ant colony and exchange it for protection for their population from larger predators (symbiotic mutualism).
Eat protein
Apart from sweet foods, ants also consume protein to grow and reproduce. High protein in foods such as peanut butter, meat and eggs certainly attracts a large group of ants. In addition, they are also interested in fats and oils from the cooking process which are usually found on countertops and kitchen floors along with cooking utensils.
When ants live outside the house, of course many of you will see groups of ants that eat and carry dead insects such as cockroaches or flies to bring them to their colonies. This is because they can also find protein content from eating carrion or dead insects they find outside the home.
Do you know? Ants cultivate a fungus or fungus in a humid area such as your garden area. Several species of ants also grow and reproduce by eating only fungi. Ant species such as leaf cutter ants grow and eat fungi as their source of nutrition.
How can you prevent ants from finding their way into your home in search of food?
• Do not delay cleaning up spilled food and sugary drinks on the floor or dining table
Sweeping and mopping the floor regularly, to make sure there are no crumbs left that are an available food source for the ants
• Double check that you are storing food properly on your shelves, countertops and kitchen cabinets
• Store food in airtight containers and place it in the refrigerator if possible