Common ants serve so many important functions it's hard to count them all -- just like the number of ants in a colony.
Innumerable species rely on ants for food. Birds especially eat a lot of ants. But they are also a staple for lizards and snakes. There are even mammals that eat a lot of ants: bears, shrews, moles, and, of course, anteaters.
Ants also help create soil by gathering then masticating sticks and leaves then depositing them in hills or underground burrows. These deposits, which include dead insects, then nourish plants.
Like bees, ants also spread flower pollen as they travel from one sweet blossom to another, thus propagating new plants.
Ants also perform a very important role in preventing the spread of diseases -- like botulism -- by quickly eating carrion.
Sure, it's irritating when ants invade your picnic basket or kitchen in summer (in the latter case, in search of water), but this would be a much-diminished world without them.
Innumerable species rely on ants for food. Birds especially eat a lot of ants. But they are also a staple for lizards and snakes. There are even mammals that eat a lot of ants: bears, shrews, moles, and, of course, anteaters.
Ants also help create soil by gathering then masticating sticks and leaves then depositing them in hills or underground burrows. These deposits, which include dead insects, then nourish plants.
Like bees, ants also spread flower pollen as they travel from one sweet blossom to another, thus propagating new plants.
Ants also perform a very important role in preventing the spread of diseases -- like botulism -- by quickly eating carrion.
Sure, it's irritating when ants invade your picnic basket or kitchen in summer (in the latter case, in search of water), but this would be a much-diminished world without them.