Of peonies and the all-important ants

0

This past week, I was shopping at a garden center when I overheard a conversation about peonies and ants. Two families were discussing how their peonies were beginning to flower and were covered in ants. Also, they mentioned ants were there last year while the peonies were in flower. The other family asked, should we plant peonies? I do not want the ants in my house.

The first family answered, that is why peonies are planted a way from the house and not close to the home. They concluded in saying to be on the safe side we set out ant traps when our peonies are flowering. The family did not purchase the peonies.

Hmm, I thought. Why are the ants on the peonies? Do peonies cause ants to enter the home? These are good questions. In fact, my peonies are also flowering and have ants on them. And yes, our house does get ants from time to time, but not necessarily when the peonies are in flower.

While researching this topic, I came across an article written by Carol Quish. Quish is a horticulturalist with the University of Connecticut. She said ants are often considered pests, especially when they are inside the home, but they are important beings in the insect world.

First and foremost, they are great decomposers. We would be up to our eyeballs in dead animal and plant debris if not for the multitude of ants feeding on dead animals out in the country and even in our urban areas. She once watched a dead mouse, on the walkway, be consumed by a constant stream of ants over the course of a week while checking her mailbox by the road. All traces of the dead rodent were gone by the end of the week.

Ants help plants too. They form mutualistic relationships with plants to the benefit of both the ant and the plant. Violets, bloodroot, trillium and several other wildflowers depend on ants to spread their seeds away from the original mother plant. These plants have evolved to develop a fatty coating called an eliasome, covering the seeds.

Eliasomes is an ancient Greek word that means fleshy structures that are attached to the seeds of many plant species. The elaiosome are rich in lipids and proteins and may be variously shaped. Ants for their metabolism and growth need lipids, proteins, and sugar. The elaisomes on these wildflowers become the perfect food source for ants.

Ants will carry the seed to an underground storage area, kind of like an ant pantry for the colony. There, ants can eat the lipid and protein rich outer part of the seed and then discard the actual, now naked, plant seed. The seed can then germinate and grow in its new location.

Another not so well-known tidbit, other than by entomologists, is the ant and plant relationship with peonies. An antomologist is a person who studies insects. Ants can be found on peony buds in the springtime. The flower buds are exuding sugar-rich droplets from a waxy coating that holds the buds closed. Sugar is also needed for ants’ metabolic growth. The ants will also guard the buds from other detrimental insects that may damage the flower buds, hence protecting their food source.

Aphids are soft-bodied insects that use their piercing sucking mouthparts to feed on plant sap. Aphids utilize the plant sap for their metabolic growth and produce large amounts of a sugary liquid waste called aphid poop or horticulturally speaking “honeydew.” Aphids often will feed on peonies while flowering and sometimes after flowering. Once again, ants are on the scene to feed on the sugar- rich honeydew.

Entomologists have long known that some aphids have a special relationship with ants, and vice versa. Popular descriptions of ant-aphid relationships often focus almost exclusively on the role played by the honeydew exuded by aphids. It’s often reported that ants will shepherd aphids for their honeydew in much the same way as humans shepherd sheep for their wool.

Remember, ants can be predators as well as scavengers, so why don’t they not just eat the aphids to get a huge amount of protein? In fact, they do.

Ants keep their aphid sheep from overpopulating by harvesting a few every now and then. In this way, they gain protein and keep the aphids from sucking themselves out of house-and-home by killing their host plants. Ants will pick-up and move their aphids around to re-distribute their flock, and they keep their flocks clean.

Finally, ants defend their aphid-flock against natural enemies. You can test this by putting a finger near the ants, but not too closely. Though we don’t have any stinging ants in Ohio, they certainly can bite.

Will the ants move off your peonies and enter your home? Sure, it is possible. Remember, besides shelter, ants are seeking proteins, lipids and sugars.

The first step to dealing with ants in the house is ensuring they don’t have access to food. Seal all food in airtight containers, clean behind the fridge and by the toaster, do not leave pet food out, ensure bins are tightly sealed, and generally make sure there is no food around to entice ants.

Prevent ants from entering your home in the first place by sealing up cracks and holes in walls and using ant traps if needed.

No posts to display