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Ants Can Get Distracted by Cookies, Chips and Other Junk Food. Here’s Why That Could Be a Problem for the Environment
Key takeaways
- Martin Bernetti / AFP via Getty Images Summer is a time for picnics and barbecues, but a few uninvited guests occasionally crash the party.
- A study published in April in Biology now shows that junk food can have broader implications for ants: It may distract them from their important job of dispersing seeds.
- Some ants are attracted to seeds with a structure containing fats and proteins, called an elaiosome.
Martin Bernetti / AFP via Getty Images Summer is a time for picnics and barbecues, but a few uninvited guests occasionally crash the party. These guests—ants—have developed a taste for the same processed foods that humans enjoy. In urban settings, ants that have the most contact with humans have the highest levels of carbon isotopes, which are associated with ingredients used in processed foods. The finding suggests that ants living with humans tend to eat their snacks. City ants also forage more during the day than forest-dwellers, perhaps to increase their chances of snagging food crumbs that fall as humans nosh.
A study published in April in Biology now shows that junk food can have broader implications for ants: It may distract them from their important job of dispersing seeds.
“Many ant species play a major ecological role by transporting and burying seeds, which helps plants spread and grow throughout the forest,” says ecologist Emily Marple, a global sustainability fellow at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, who was involved with the recent study.