Part of the point of these methods of attracting ants is that the plant feeds the ants just enough to keep them around. The ants can easily stock pile a ton of food, but know there will be more in hours or a day.
By rationing the plant encourages the ants to hang around and defend the tree as their territory.
Aphids are doing something similar.
I wonder if bees ever also help flowering plants by scaring herbivores? Pollination is great, but could there be more to the story?
myrmepropagandist
npub1cp…uhrnq
2026-05-01 02:54:05 UTC
in reply to nevent1q…gwrg
Author Public Key
npub1cp2pgntkzkpqa23rytnchggwzywyggvst9yzkgd6w8j349ef7s9shuhrnqSeen on
wss://relay.ditto.pubPublished at
2026-05-01 02:54:05 UTCEvent JSON
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