Ants in your plants?
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GoDawgs
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- Joined: Thu Dec 12, 2019 6:38 am
- Location: Zone 8a, Augusta GA
Ants in your plants?
If your veggie plants have ants on them, it just might not be aphids that are the cause. A few years ago I was battling ants in the field peas. They seemed to congregate where the pea pods attached to the stems but there weren’t any aphids there.
What the heck are they all after? I can’t see any kind of bug and the flowers usually aren’t open. There's always an abundance of bees, wasps and flying things of all kinds crowding the field pea stems too. In fact, even if the flowers are open, the insects aren’t interested in them. Inquiring minds have to know! After some searching I found that they are after nectar produced by small structures called extrafloral nectaries, an amazing answer I found at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/in175
Extrafloral nectaries are nectar producing bodies that are outside the flowers. The nectar is 95% sugar and the other 5% has a wide array of amino acids and other nutrients. Field peas are among 2000 plant species in more than 64 plant families that have these special little structures. It explains why there are a ton of flying things from wasps and bees to other things all over the field pea blooms.
In the photo the nectaries are the small bumps with a row of little pores in them, located on the stem right between the base of the flower buds. They are somewhat different in appearance on other types of plants but they all function the same.
For sure these nectaries attract a pile of pollinators and beneficials. If you search “extrafloral nectaries” you can find lists of other types of plants that have these structures that make wonderful attractors of beneficials.
What the heck are they all after? I can’t see any kind of bug and the flowers usually aren’t open. There's always an abundance of bees, wasps and flying things of all kinds crowding the field pea stems too. In fact, even if the flowers are open, the insects aren’t interested in them. Inquiring minds have to know! After some searching I found that they are after nectar produced by small structures called extrafloral nectaries, an amazing answer I found at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/in175
Extrafloral nectaries are nectar producing bodies that are outside the flowers. The nectar is 95% sugar and the other 5% has a wide array of amino acids and other nutrients. Field peas are among 2000 plant species in more than 64 plant families that have these special little structures. It explains why there are a ton of flying things from wasps and bees to other things all over the field pea blooms.
In the photo the nectaries are the small bumps with a row of little pores in them, located on the stem right between the base of the flower buds. They are somewhat different in appearance on other types of plants but they all function the same.
For sure these nectaries attract a pile of pollinators and beneficials. If you search “extrafloral nectaries” you can find lists of other types of plants that have these structures that make wonderful attractors of beneficials.
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brownrexx
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- Location: Southeast PA, zone 6b
Re: Ants in your plants?
I never worried about ants when I see them in the garden. I have seen some on my okra lately and they don't appear to hurt anything so I just leave them alone.
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PlainJane
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Re: Ants in your plants?
Yes, that’s why I see wasps and hornets crawling the plants all the time ...
“Never try to outstubborn a cat.”
- Robert A. Heinlein
- Robert A. Heinlein