Leaf Cutter Ants

This insect can cause extensive damage in a very short time. It is a frustrating insect because of its unrelenting attack on trees and shrubs, but it is also one of the most interesting insects because of its complex life style. The leaf cutting ant lives in large colonies that may exceed 2 million ants, and is one of nature's original gardeners. Leaf cutting ants share the sophisticated habit of growing a fungus garden with certain termites in Africa and Asia and certain wood boring beetles. The leaf cutting ant removes leaves and buds from weeds, grasses, plum and peach trees, blackberry bushes and many other fruit, nut and ornamental plants as well as several cereal and forage crops. The ants do not eat the leaf fragments, but take them into cavities where they use the material to raise a fungus garden. These ants have highly refined habits and raise one particular type of fungus. Certain workers attend the fungus garden at all times and weed out or destroy other types of fungi that start to grow on the material. As the fungus grows, certain parts of it are eaten by the ants and fed to the larvae. This fungus is their only known source of food.