How Ants are Used in Thailand's Agriculture | BBC Earth

Ants in Thailand are used on farms as natural pesticides to protect their harvest and fruits from other bugs.

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Thailand's wonderful sunshine, spectacular beaches and inviting warm seas lure millions of people every year to its shores. But beyond this tourist paradise lies a world that is rarely seen - an enchanted Kingdom of awe-inspiring beauty, captivating wildlife and natural wonder. This is the story of a Thailand you never knew existed...

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[AntsCanada]

Now this makes me want to raise a colony of weaver ants again! Oecophylla smaragdina FTW!

[flejt]

Bbc earth should have a TV channel with non-stop 24hr nature shows. Anyone agree?

[ndogmario]

The Ants: *"We all must sacrifice our first born to appease the Giant tree gods"*

[reignjardinazo]

When i was a kid i hated those ants because i cannot climb my favorite mango tree when fruiting seasons coz its "infested" with ants. After i watched this video, now i know why our mango fruit's skin was smooth and healthy looking.

[Blue-moon]

"Thanks for protecting my Mangos. Now I am going to eat you"

[locuscades]

2:19
"Excuse me"
"Pardon me"
"I'll go around"
"Carry on"

[mrgameboy]

imagine grabbing your own baby and using its vomit to stick things together like "okay baby puke a bit right here so i can make a wall and over there for a door"

[haf]

A perfect symbiotic relationship between plants, animals and man.

[jivejunior]

Sounds like the beginning of domestication to me.
Imagine a species of domesticated weaver ants, defending the crops like watchdogs and proving eggs like chickens, with different breeds developed for different tasks. How cool is that!

[CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Ants are great. Water and air pathways to keep soil aerobic and pest control. Garden in sustainable ways using natural systems and ecology, that's what I teach on my channel also.

We get into trouble when we try to kill everything. Then we need to replace the function of that which we killed, and we create unsustainable systems requiring inputs.

For example, kill a pest. You just removed the food source of the predator of that pest. Now you need to do its job, every time. Wonder why you always have pests? Because you kill them, and sabotage the food supply of the natural balanced nature solution (predatory insects).

Love the video, it's how I teach gardening.

[fireyflower]

Wonderful, and what a clever way to control unwanted pests

Genius

[bittermelonleaf]

Thai people are some of the nicest people I've ever met. Can't say that about other people

[christinad]

I like that guy and how he cares for his crops. See we don’t need to always go the poison pesticide route.

[torh]

Mangoes from this orchard is safe because the farmer cannot use harmful chemicals for his mangoes otherwise the ants will not be able to survive.

[UndefinedBailiwick]

I use green lacewings as organic pest control. They killed every single aphid on my 1/3 acre garden.

[SpuroftheMountain]

“How Ants are used for Free Labor in Thailand.”

[thickpenguin]

The fact that he has this symbiotic relationship with the ants is is oddly soothing

[chocolmilk]

If only the narrator could narrate my lecture classes. She makes things sound very interesting.

[DosAussieThai]

Ant eggs are a delicacy of the North Easterners (AKA Isaan people) in Thailand too. I used to eat them often when I was young and still lived in my small countryside village.

[MuhammadEgypt]

Brilliant use of nature. Make them work for your advantage.