If you’ve ever seen ants on your cannabis plants there is a very good chance you have aphids. They have a symbiotic relationship and protect each other. Both fighting off various mutually predatory insects, the ants by charging and killing them and the aphids by kicking them with their hind legs. Ants will even destroy the eggs of aphid predators like Lady Beetles
Ants actually herd aphids like cattle. They will move them around from one leaf to another on a plant or move them to another plant if a plant has been depleted of nutrients. Ants will carry the aphids into their nests in winter and bring them back out when conditions are right and put them on a new host.They will tear off their wings that would allow them to leave if they want them to stay where they are. Aphids are all born females and although some species lay eggs, many bear live young, skipping the egg step and speeding up the procreation process. The ants will “milk” the aphids by rubbing their stomaches with their antennae and devour the aphid’s excretion called Honeydew, a favorite ant food for it’s high sugar content.
It’s important to kill the ants as well as the aphids. A single aphid can produce up to 600 billion descendants in one year if they go unchecked.
So what can you do? If you are in flower when the infestation occurs use a Hypochlorous Acid wash, which is just electrolyzed water, it will help keep them in check. If you’re in veg, I recommend Monterey Insect Spray to do the job. Either way you want them eliminated because their sucking out the sugars that power the plant.
