Lazy Farmers
Wednesday, October 7, 2009 at 3:11PM One of the largest costs and considerations in farming is the management ofweeds which directly compete with crops for nutrients, light, and space. Bycreating a hospitable environment for harvester ants within our farmhouse wecould potentially decrease these costs. Seed mortality is one of the mostinfluential factors in regulating plant prosperity (Baraibar et al. 2009).Harvester ants form colonies of up to tens of thousands of individuals thattirelessly scour areas of land for seeds to eat or store in undergroundgranaries for later consumption. These ants are already an unintended pestcontrol in some agricultural lands but more often than not the tilling andconstant application of chemical cocktails deters these ants from colonizingthe land (Baraibar et al. 2009). By incorporating a designated living areasin or attached to the house we can house them while monitoring andregulating their vitality. During winter the ants’ own granary should feedthem; if it does not (which we will know by monitoring them) we we canremedy it. If the population becomes too big we can kill off a portion anduse the dead ants as a soil amendment (due to N rich bodies) and nematodepathogen (chitinous exoskeleton) (USDA 2008). The ants have a designatedrefuse area (includes excrement, seed coats, dead ants, etc.) which can beeasily gathered and used as a soil amendment. By using artificial pheromonesfrom our ant colony and chemical identification signatures from differentspecies we could limit their foraging area.
Baraibar, B.; Westerman, P.; Carrion, E.; Recasens. (2009). Effects oftillage and irrigation in cereal fields on weed seed removal by seedpredators. Journal of Applied Ecology. Issue 46, 2009.
USDA. Chitin; Poly-N-acetyl-D-glucosamine (128991) Fact Sheet. Available:http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/biopesticides/ingredients/factsheets/factsheet_128991.htmAccessed:10/06/09
Reader Comments (6)
Using ants to eat the weed seeds is a great idea! I don't know much or anything about harvester ants, but it seems to me like it would be most beneficial to have the colony centrally located on the farm, or possibly multiple ones scattered throughout the farm (I don't know if that would work with competition between colonies). The reason for them being centrally located is because it in my experience watching ants, they don't really have a plan of where they're going. Then, if they wander around aimlessly and the colony is on the perimeter of the farm, many ants would go into the apple orchard up hill or off into land that doesn't need to be weeded from an organic farm standpoint. Being centrally located would allow the ants to access as much of the farm as possible in their aimless search for food. The reason I proposed multiple colonies was so the corners of the farm could be reached by the ants, although maybe one ant colony is enough with enough ants to scatter across the land, I don't know what an ant's range is.
Having ants take care of the weed seeds would also potentially allow the organic farm to compost on site. One of the main reasons for taking the old plant material off site to the WSU composting facility (~1 truckload per year) is to utilize the controlled heat environment to kill any weed seeds present. Again, I'm not claiming to be an expert on this, there could be pathogens or other bad things in the soil that I don't know about, but utilizing carpenter ants on the farm could potentially allow the plant material to directly be used similar to green manure.
I think this is a great idea during the short presentation it was stated that the home for these ants would be manmade. If we successfully make a man made ant hill is will they continuously come back to live at this one designated location or will they migrate to a new location annually? I know a bit about honey bee hives and how we construct their hives and trap a queen bee inside and the worker bees feed and build the hive around the queen. I am wondering if ants operate in the same manner. Defining their home may be simple.
Do these ants only eat weed seeds? How are they kept from eating the seeds from crops that have just been planted?
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