Do Ants Need Sugar?
Some people may ask the question, is sugar water essential for ants to live on? Many of us know full well how ants are attracted to sweet foods like cake, sugar, fruit jam or icing covered dough nuts; but what does sugar really do for ants? Sugar in any form gives us energy, and so it does with ants. Also ants can’t eat solid food as their mouth parts just are not capable of doing so! Too much sugar is bad for us and makes you fat or gives you tooth decay. It is also hygroscopic, which means it absorbs water and can lead to ants becoming dehydrated if they eat too much of it. This does not stop ants from collecting honey-dew from aphids, or licking up sweet tree sap, or gorging themselves on honey that may drip down from a wild nest of bees. All these are natural sugars, and to be honest are better than giving your ants refined sugars, even though we do get our sugar from plants like sugar cane or sugar beet. An email I had recently asked if sugar water was needed for ants to survive?
