If you've been bitten by ants when climbing mango or jackfruit trees, maybe you'll upset by the invasion of ants are so intense. Often the bite makes us groan, ouch. Insects yellow & slim build its nest in the leaves. Their number can reach hundreds, have a well-known territory & aggressive in defending its territory. That Rangrang ant (Oecophylla Smaragdina).

Rangrang no ordinary ants ants. They are unique and different from other ant species. Humans have used their services in the plantations centuries ago. Recorded, about the year 300 AD in Canton (China), ants are used to ward off pests on citrus plants. People take the nests of these ants of the forest, memperjualbelikannya, then put it on the orange trees of excellence. The same technique is still being done until the 12th century, and is still applied in southern China until now. In coffee plantations in Lampung, we can find the ant colony is nestled in the leaves of coffee. Apparently, the coffee crop was occupied nest better shape than plants that are not occupied by ants Rangrang. Coffee production was so much improved.

insect experts in Ghana have used Rangrang African ant species (Oecophylla longinoda) to control the brown plant pests. The presence of these ants were able to reduce two kinds of serious diseases caused by viruses and fungi, namely by attacking and killing the aphids that spread the disease. Very harmful aphids, because sucking plant fluids and eat its network. How to control this pest we know as "biological control" and this is the oldest example in the history of agriculture.

Biokontrol and Bioindikator
The use of ants as biokontrol was Rangrang been done also by some residents of Indonesia, although not massive. For example if the guava tree or a mango tree in the garden pests, they will move Rangrang ants to the tree.

Actually that's not all benefits provided to humans Rangrang ants. With its highly sensitive to changes in the air, humans can use these ants as indicators of air conditions in an environment.

Ants Rangrang tube like a clean environment. Far from factory smoke or smoke in motor vehicles, smoke from burning garbage in the garden can make them go away. No wonder, if in Jakarta or in the big cities of our other more difficult to find their nests in trees.

Sometimes rarely do we find them in the plantations. Because now the eradication of pests with pesticides more widely used, so that pests are not only dead but a lot of other useful insects contribute killed. Not to mention the hunting of man do to Rangrang ants. Many people take their hives to get the kids Rangrang ( "Kroto") as a pet bird food. Surely this will make the ants more Rangrang shrinking population. Whereas the presence of these ants is important as natural enemies of insect pests, as well as biological indicators (biological) of air quality in an area.

Queen Protected
Know insect life which is credited with quite impressive indeed. These social insects from making nests in the canopy of tropical forests to farms or brown. They form colonies that can reach 500,000 members tails, consisting of a very large queens, children, and men workers concurrently. All of the females, except for a few male ants small role in the life of the colony. Male ants immediately go if you've grown to hold the wedding fight fly to marry the queen, and they did not return to its nest.

Among the members of the colony, the most active is the group of workers. They diligently find food, build nests, and determined to protect their territory day and night. Approximately every one minute, one of the workers regurgitate liquid food into the mouth of the queen. They were fed with food that the queen had been softened to allow the queen to produce hundreds of eggs per day. If the queen was laying eggs, the workers will move the eggs to a protected place, clean, and feed the larvae, the larvae have hatched fine if.

Rangrang ants also known as weaver smile, because the way they build a nest like a plait. Their nests are made of a few leaves that dilekukkan and associated together to form spaces and complex like the camp. It leaves them pull in one direction, then associated with fine threads drawn from their own larvae. The workers move back and forth from one leaf to another leaf woven form.

Alien who tried to infiltrate into the nest, will they expel with formic acid sting out of their poison glands. If other types of ants deliberately let even keep aphids living in their territory, then the opposite Rangrang ants. They are trying desperately to get rid of other insects that live on the tree where their nest is located. Therefore, if we dissect their nests often we found a dead beetle or other insect larger than these ants.

That privilege is owned Rangrang ants that make them hold significance in natural pest control. Simple enough, but no risk to the environment as if we are using chemical insecticides.

Chemical messages
Ants in fact has such a gland that produces a special dye used to mark their territory. Gland is called anal glands. The resulting special fluid (called pheromones) they brush to the ground and only the members of the nest alone can recognize the smell. So this weaver ants use chemical messages to sue someone one nest to their new area.

Of course, the odor trail they leave behind not only when looking for new areas and when the hold, but is also used when they search for food. If an ant found a pile of food, he will exert his friends to carry food to the nest. Anus gland scent will leave footprints along the road between the nest and the location of the findings. When he ran into his friend, the ant is giving stimulus to the beat while spewing antennae found little food in his mouth was his friend's.

 

source: http://www.organicindonesia.org

 

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