Abstract
Ants possess properties that can be used to optimize plant production in agricultural systems. Ant services can be herbivore and pathogen protection and fertilization of their plant partners. They may, however, also harm plants by facilitating ant-attended herbivorous homopterans. To assess whether wood ants can be used in IPM-systems to improve apple production, we transplanted wood ants into a Danish apple plantation and tested whether ants (i) reduced the number of herbivores, (ii) led to higher amounts of leaf nutrients, (iii) controlled apple pathogens, (iv) increased homopteran abundance and (iv) whether these effects affected apple yields. During a two year study, we found that the wood ants significantly reduced the numbers of winter moth larvae, increased magnesium content in apple leaves (but did not affect 10 other nutrients), reduced the number of apples infected with apple brown rot and apple scab (on one apple variety) and increased aphid infections. In the first year, this led to higher apple production on ant trees, whereas ants had no effect on yields in the second year. It was evident that ants provided both services and disservices. If mutualistic ant-homopteran interactions can be disrupted, this would favor plant growth and open for the use of wood ants in sustainable plant management. We discuss how this may be accomplished. Alternatively, ants may be used short term to knock down pest outbreaks (before building up homopteran populations) or used in crops that do not host ant-attended homopterans.
Highlights
The demand for ecofriendly and sustainable fruit production without pesticide residues is increasing
We present a study where we evaluated the services and disservices provided by wood ants (Formica polyctena) that were transplanted into a Danish apple plantation to control winter moth larvae (Operophtera brumata)
It was evident that wood ants provided both services and disservices in the apple plantation
Summary
The demand for ecofriendly and sustainable fruit production without pesticide residues is increasing. One way is to develop integrated pest management (IPM) based on biological rather than chemical solutions Due to their high numbers and being organized as a superorganism, ants can provide a number of services for commercial crops and plants in general. Ants may provide nutrients to their host plants by depositing waste materials This is well known from ant-plants living in close association with ants (Rico-Gray & Oliveira, 2007), but recently it has been suggested that nutritional services may take place in less specialized ant-plant partnerships, where ants do not nest in domatia, yet deposit fecal spots on plant tissue. In a review of studies examining ant-plant-pathogen interactions, it was found that
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