Herding Aphids
Did you ever see farmer ants herding aphids?. They look after their herd and protect them from danger and from the elements. They also milk the aphids. Well, they don’t get milk out of them but they do get a sweet liquid. Aphids are known in Britain and some other countries as greenflies, blackflies or whiteflies depending on their colour. The ones that I saw were black.
I was walking along the beach at Slave Lake, Alberta, Canada, when I noticed a plant with a lot of aphids on it. Upon closer examination, I noticed that there were also many ants. I sat down to study the ants and aphids for a while and I discovered that the ants were herding the aphids much like a human farmer looks after his herd of cows.
Normally, the aphids eat the plant and other insects, such as lady beetles, eat the aphids. But any lady beetle or other predator that tried to harm these aphids would immediately be attacked by the ants. The ants were protecting the aphids from their enemies. Why would they do that?
In return for their protection, the aphids secrete a sweet liquid, called honeydew, that the ants love. The ant farmers milk the aphids by stroking them with their antenna which tells them to secrete their liquid.
Some ants even take the aphid eggs into their ant castle and store them overwinter and put them back on the plant in the spring. Much like farmers bring their cows into the barn for the winter.
Moral of the story: slow down and notice the little things around you. I spend a lot of time hiking, but I am quite slow as I often stop to study the flowers, insects, birds and any of the millions of wonders of nature that I can find.