What Kind of Food Do Ants Prefer?

Ants live in organized communities known as colonies. In a colony, it is the wingless females that build the nests and search for food. It is these ants commonly seen crawling on trees, invading picnics and making a path on kitchen counters in search of sugar. More than 10,000 species of ants have been identified and most eat the same foods. It is with their antennae that the ant smell, tastes, touches and recognizes food sources.

  1. Ant Farm Pets

    • Pet ants should be fed a daily diet of honey diluted with water. Use a cotton ball soaked in this solution to feed them. They will also eat small pieces of nuts, seeds, dead insects and cookie crumbs as well as many other foods.

    Harvester Ants

    • Harvester ants search out and retrieve seeds returning them to the nest. Here they remove the seed husks and create a paste which they in turn feed to one another. Of course other insects and termites in particular are part of their diet.

    Sugar Ants

    • Also known as Pharaoh ants, the sugar ants are named for their food preference. Omnivorous insects, they feed on pure sugar, jellies, honey, cakes and breads as well as greasy foods such as liver, bacon and butter. Because these ants rarely nest out of doors, they may be found behind light sockets, in potted plants or making use of cracks in the flooring or beneath counters.

    Dairying Ants and Honey Ants

    • Aphids have been described as the cows of the ant world. The aphids feed on plants, then release a liquid called honeydew. Ants feed on the honeydew the aphids drop and will also milk the liquid from the insect by stroking it with their antennae. The ants will also collect aphid eggs and bring them back to the nest where they will be kept until spring. At this time the ants will carry the eggs back to the plants so that the aphids can emerge once again to create more honeydew. Mealy bugs are also used by ants in this manner.

    Fungus-Growing Ants

    • The leaf-cutter ant, one of the better known fungus-growing ants, build large and extensive underground nests housing up to a million ants. At night, columns of workers go out to cut pieces of leaves from trees and other plants and return with leaf fragments. The leaves are chewed into a pulp by the ants and then used to grow fungi. Insect waste and caterpillar droppings are used by some of ants as a fertilizer.