Nick Maclaren wrote or quoted:
In article ,
"Helen Hartley" writes:

| Is there a simple way of stopping ants invading the apple trees.

No, but why do you want to? All they are doing is collecting the
honeydew from sap-sucking insects. Despite the tales of the old
wives, there is no evidence that the ants do any harm - there is
effectively NO evidence that they encourage infestations, and a
fair amount that they are completely irrelevant.

Ants are the aphids' friends - and you know what they say about the
friends of your enemies:

``And ants directly defend the aphids from predators, the
aphids having lost their own defenses as domesticated
animals often do. The ants' success in protecting their
flocks is attested in the lengths that green lacewing larvae
(Chrysopa glossonae) go to sneak past ant defenders to catch
woolly alder aphids (Prociphilus tesselatus). Hälldobler and
Wilson wrote, "The aphids derive their common name from
filaments of waxy "wool" that cover their bodies. The
[lacewing] larvae disguise themselves by "plucking" some of
this material from the bodies of the aphids and applying it
to their own backs. In other words, they employ the "wolf-
in-sheep's–clothing" strategy to fool the ant shepherds that
guard the aphids."

An extreme example cited in The Ants is that of the American
corn-root aphid (Aphis maidiradicis) and an ant (Lasius
neoniger). Colonies of this ant keep the aphids' eggs in
their nests over the winter, and, when the eggs hatch into
nymphs in the spring, carry them to the roots of the aphids'
food plants. If the plants are uprooted, the ants retrieve
the aphids and tote them to another food plant. The ants
also repel potential predators and parasites from their
aphid flocks and, similarly, the ants treat the aphid eggs
as their own, by, for instance, carrying them to safety when
the nest is disturbed. [...]''

- http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Publicatio...antfarmers.cfm
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