Pest Control

Green ants are a common sight in most gardens in the tropics. I didn't realise they were a great way to contol pests. known also as "Weaver Ants" the ancient Chinese as early as in 300 AD, exploited the voracious appetite of these ants by using them to control insect pests in their citrus orchards. A Weaver Ants' nest is introduced into the orchard, and the ants encouraged to colonise all the trees by placing bamboo strips among the trees as "ant bridges". This practice is now being revived as a cheaper means of growing fruit (which can then be sold as higher value organic fruit), and dealing with insects that have developed resistance to chemical insecticides. Large colonies of green ants require a significant amount of food and workers continuiously kill a variety of arthropods and plants benifit from a reduced level of herbivory

I had a problem with mealy mites eating my egg plant leaves and wondered why the green ants didn't touch them it turns out green ants have a mutually benificial relationship with both aphids and mealy mites.I wondered why the green ants which are all over my egg plant didn’t touch them however effectively attack other pests. It turns out these sap sucking insects also excrete a certain amount of the sap that the green ants feed on and the green ant therefore look after them what’s known as a symbiotic relationship.


I tackeled the problem with home made white oil. Mix 1 cup of vegetable oil and 1/4 cup of dishwashing liquid whith some kind of machanical mixer. The mixture turns milky white. Add one teaspoon of this to a litre of water in a spray bottle and spray on the upper and under side of leaves. It doesn't sound like much but on a molecular level is devastating to mealy mites and aphids causing suffocation.
Another pest that seems to like my tomatoes is stink bugs. The best method I found to reduce the numbers to an insignificant level is to suck them up with a vaccuum cleaner on a dry day.

Weaver Ant eggs (i.e., pupae) are harvested and sold in markets in Thailand and the Philippines. The taste of the pupae has been described as creamy. The adults are also eaten, their taste has been described as lemony or creamy and sour. The Dayaks in Borneo mix adult ants with their rice for flavouring. Needless to say, harvesting these fiercely biting ants requires good technique!

A combination of biological, physical soft chemical contol is the best way to keep pests at bay while increasing yiels and produce quality.