Do we believe the growing of crops and raising of livestock for food is a uniquely human activity? Think ants! There are over 20 quadrillion ants on the planet coming from 12,000 known species with likely several thousand more species yet to be discovered. While most ants forage or hunt for their food, some species farm theirs. Here’s the scoop on ants that farm fungi or aphids for that next Jeopardy or Trivial Pursuit question.

Attine ants cultivate fungi deep in their burrows on an industrial scale. They have specialized worker ants dedicated to collecting leaves to feed the fungus. Other ants specialize in growing the fungus, feeding it, protecting it from pests, clearing away dead matter and harvesting it for food.  Much like some of our crops, such as corn, the fungus the ants cultivate is domesticated. It can no longer be found in the wild outside of the ants’ colonies, nor can it escape the colonies. It is wholly dependent on the ants for survival. The ants in turn are so dependent on the fungus for food that when a daughter queen ant leaves to start a new colony, she takes a bit of the fungus with her to lay her eggs in and start a new garden to feed a new colony.

Ants can also keep livestock. Multiple species of ants have been observed farming aphids. Like our livestock, these aphids are domesticated. They have an organ that is not seen in wild aphids, an organ that secrets a sweet honeydew substance that the ants milk out of the aphids to eat. The ants take very good care of their livestock, herding them to better plants and protecting them from predators, such as lady bugs. Ants will clip the wings off of aphids to keep them from flying away. They also secrete a substance that acts as a mild tranquilizer for the aphids making them more docile. When there are too many aphids, ants cull the heard by eating them.

Both fungi-farming ants and aphid-farming ants can be major agricultural pests. The ants cutting leaves for the fungus farms can strip entire trees. Aphids sucking the nutrients out of plants can be devastating to crops and gardens. A few years ago, I found ants farming aphids on one of my flowering hostas. Although I was sad to lose the flower, I did enjoy the opportunity for nature study with my children and to slow down and observe such amazing and often overlooked creatures.

Crystal Kelly is a feature writer for Bizarre Bytes with those unusual facts that you only need to know for Trivial Pursuit or Jeopardy or to stump your in-laws.