Ants' Leafy Home: POB Photo Contest

The red weaver ants are coming! A year ago I first noticed their nests in the trees on the edge of our land and since then they have been inching further into our garden.

The nests are wonderful. Living leaves stitched together using silk from their own larvae like a tube of glue, and sometimes these constructions get bigger than a football. They are fascinating to watch and I would love to be able to see what is going on inside.

But don't get too close, any vibrations bring them rushing out to investigate, and if they find you it hurts. And then there are the trails up and down the tree-trunks, along the branches and over the ground. Hard to spot, easy to accidentally stand on or lean against. They will also happily drop on you if they find your presence a threat. I have danced to their bites quite a few times already.

The first time I met them was very unpleasant as about twenty of them got under my shirt and attacked my belly. It was as if they had stealthily crept in when I had unknowingly brushed against their nest and then at some pre-arranged signal all started biting in unison.

I am therefore reluctant to let them into our garden. The thought of having to be so careful when picking a mango or even just sitting outside threatens to strip the garden of some of its pleasure. And yet, their presence would probably mean more mangoes and other fruit as these large, aggressive ants strip the trees of caterpillars and ward off anything else that wants to help themselves. I hear that some growers actually introduce weaver ants into their orchards as a kind of fruit guardian.

Looking at this nest the only way to discourage them seems to be by cutting the nest down which means cutting a couple of branches off. Quite a loss for such a young tree. Perhaps trimming branches off nearby trees might help to restrict their preferred aerial routes but then they may just take the land road.

They could be harvested as food. In some areas of Thailand red weaver ant eggs are a popular delicacy. I don't mind trying them but can't imagine looking forward to a meal of ant eggs and don't like the thought of trying to collect them.

Watching how they change the balance of life around the garden would be interesting to the naturalist in me. Perhaps we would get fewer butterflies. But maybe they would also discourage the smaller yellow crazy ants, a non-native, invasive species that has almost taken over in the last couple of years. They would almost certainly bring with them the wonderful spiders that live close to them as very believable mimics and cleverly manage to avoid getting caught (the picture below is a spider not an ant!). But then would they also discourage nesting birds?

On balance I think I would prefer to stop them expanding further and leave any study of their nature to outside our garden. However, it actually feels like I am edging towards doing nothing by default as the ants edge closer to becoming garden residents and my leafy home becomes scattered with theirs.