When Plants Go to War

Re:When Plants Go to War by ggm on Tuesday October 06, 2020 @07:50PM (#24703822)

Ants farm mites which attack plants I like. The ants live off the primary disease: the ants are evidence the disease is active. I am sure the plant has a bio defence, its probably the flavour I seek

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Re:When Plants Go to War by CameronNemo on Tuesday October 06, 2020 @08:08PM (#24703940)

I have heard it described as ranching or herding, since the ants feed off of the secretions produced by the mites (also aphids IIRC). The ants will move the insects to places on the plant they think will be most fruitful.

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/plant-problems/pests/insect...

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Re:When Plants Go to War by Cactus2018 on Tuesday October 06, 2020 @09:07PM (#24704279)

The extremely established ants in my garden allotment are advanced aphid ranchers!

* yellow aphids on milkweed

* black aphids on yard-long beans

* green aphids on lettuce

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Re:When Plants Go to War by ggm on Tuesday October 06, 2020 @08:54PM (#24704207)

yea aphids. thats what I meant. word-fail.

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Re:When Plants Go to War by hinkley on Wednesday October 07, 2020 @12:22AM (#24705276)

On my todo list is investigating a claim I saw that aphids are more prevalent on plants that have access to too much fixed nitrogen.

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