by Donna Lewis
Hello all! As usual, I walked around this week looking at nature on our property. I was in our small, wooded area looking for tracks of various animals. I noticed small bits of leaves moving. Upon closer inspection I saw that the leaves were being carried by Leaf Cutter Ants. I watched them for a while because they were so interesting and amazing.
You have to be paying attention to notice such activity.
These ants are one of the strongest living things for their size. There are about 40 different species of them. The members in the colony who are responsible for actually cutting the leaves have jaws like chainsaws!
Each ant can carry up to 50 times its own body weight. I’d say that’s Olympic medal weight lifting. Their colonies are huge. Each one can house up to 10 million ants.
Another interesting fact is that the ants do not eat the leaves. They make a fungus from them and eat the fungus. Pretty amazing.
These little animals are not too popular with farmers. They strip leaves from plants humans like. But you have to give it to them, they are very resourceful.
They know who they are gardening for.
Nature Along the El Camino Real 
I’ve been fighting several large colonies now for months, making good progress. The only treatment I know of is spreading Diatomaceous Earth on their mounds and trails.
See this site for more info: https://todayshomeowner.com/pest-control/guides/diatomaceous-earth-for-ants-complete-diy-guide/
And a brief quote from that site:
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How Does Diatomaceous Earth Work?
Despite being a mouthful for humans, Diatomaceous Earth isn’t consumed by the insects it kills. Rather, its microscopic mechanical makeup is coarse, porous, sharp, and deadly.
DE sticks to insects’ oily exoskeletons like burrs, cutting through the cuticle and absorbing the fats and moisture within. The insect slowly dries out and dies of dehydration.
Because this is a physical process, not a chemical one, there’s no way for ants or other insects to develop resistance.
DE’s lethality only functions on a microscopic scale: to humans and animals, DE is a harmless white powder that feels soft to the touch. It is only to tiny insects like ants that DE becomes a beach of razor-sharp sand (beach sand, in fact, is also made of silica, so you can imagine this somewhat literally).
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Thanks, Don, though I doubt Donna would approve of eradicating them.
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And here’s another site on the ants themselves.
https://www.treehugger.com/crazy-facts-leaf-cutter-ants-4864484
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