[ExI] super soldier ants
Anders Sandberg
anders at aleph.se
Tue Jan 10 15:43:05 UTC 2012
Overall, ants are the big predators of bugs in the undergrowth in most
environments. A lot of adaptations in other insects and invertebrates
deal with protecting against ant predation. If you cannot fly away, use
chemicals, heavy armor, caumoflage, bribe them or anything else - many
beetles have impressive strategies, like certain coccinellids that not
only have heavy turtle-like armor covering them but suction pads on
their feet making them impossible to turn over even for a group of ants
working together (one beetle - just 5 mm long - can handle 4 grams of
force, I seem to recall).
But ants are probably rational in their food choice: eat the easiest and
tastiest food. Your ants might be perfectly happy with tending aphids,
focusing on defending them against ladybirds instead. There might be
other species around that are more interested in the slugs.
However, ants are likely not major slug predators. My favorite slug
predator group is the ground beetles, but they breed too slowly to keep
up. Amphibians are great and ought to be supported, but it all depends
on whether you can create a good environment for them. Nematodes like
Phasmarhabditis hermaphrodita are pretty ideal for slug killing (and
have interesting symbiotic relationships with slig-killing bacteria).
--
Anders Sandberg,
Future of Humanity Institute
Philosophy Faculty of Oxford University
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