Ants and aphids have a good deal, otherwise known as a symbiotic relationship. Ants protect the aphids in return for giving them a squeeze, or at least stroking them with their antennae, in this way encouraging the voracious plant-consuming pests to excrete their honeydew waste. And ants can’t get enough of it. So they herd and manage and protect their aphid herds, moving them from harm’s way, seeing off predators, in particular ladybirds, whose eggs they will destroy.
In the next photos you can see the aphids have been ‘parked’ while the ant goes off to forage in the blossom and then patrol the ‘perimeter’.
Fascinating what one finds on the way home from the allotment. The photos were taken one evening last week so not the best light conditions.
Lens-Artists: Focusing on the details Patti asks us to look at the finer points.
Tish Farrell 
What a wonderful headline – and your images are as beautiful as always!
Thanks, Emma.
I must admit Tish, those may be facts I’d rather not have known LOL!!! That said, the images are amazing in their clarity and detail.
Thanks, Tina.
Lesson for today.
All clever stuff!
Ha! That’s details! Now I’ve herd everything. 🙂
Herd everything indeed! 🙂
👍😂
Thanks for that, Tish. Very interesting.
janet
Good ant! We don’t have many ants in our greenhouse yet, so we bought a bunch of ladybugs to dispatch our aphid problem. Worked like a charm.
Ladybugs are good comrades!
Interesting details Tish! And lovely blossom.
You must be the very person to solve my dilemma, Tish! Two of our patio plants became infested with aphids last year and the ants ran amock, harvesting them. I didn’t seem to be able to do anything to prevent this 😕. The trumpet vines are flowering again. One most healthily, the other a little sad. Any thoughts? 🤔💕
Very mild soapy water in a sprayer – whoosh aphids off and repeat. It will be a bit messy! Otherwise you need to round up a little army of ladybirds. Aphids do tend to attack ailing plants, so if you can perk up the sad one. Repot it perhaps (?)
Thanks darlin! Will get himself on the job 😉💕💕
Good plan. Does he know!
Love how you captured the details, Tish. Beautiful spring flowers!
Thanks, Amy.
Ants have done much stranger things! This one makes an excellent aphid herd. I could do with borrowing it to keep all the ones my garden attracts on a leaf in the far corner where they can do no harm.
Now that’s an interesting notion – managing the aphid herding ants to our advantage.
We can but dream. 🙂
Paying attention to the small things always pays off!
Fascinating details, Tish. I didn’t know about their symbiotic relationship! The blooms are beautiful, too.
Thanks, Patti.
They do the same thing in my cherry tree. Lovely captured and explained, Tish!
Many thanks, A-C. So much goes on in these little ‘worlds’.
That’s why life is so fascinating.
Wonderful photos there, and a lovely explanation. I like to take photos of ants and aphids on plants, except when they are on my balcony
Ants and aphids on the balcony would not be good 🙂 But happy to hear you enjoyed the post.
I never know whether to apologise to the ants or tell them off when I come to clear the aphids!
That is definitely a dilemma, Becky.