What Do Ants Eat? The Complete Guide to the Ant Diet

Written from an ant keeper’s perspective, with peer-reviewed sources. Last updated: June 2026.

What do ants eat? Most ants are omnivores that live on two things: sugars for energy and protein for growth. The sugar comes from honeydew, plant nectar, tree sap, and ripe fruit; the protein comes from insects, seeds, and other small animals, alive or dead. A colony constantly shifts between these two food groups depending on the season and what its queen and larvae need at the time.

That is the short answer. The full one is far richer, because “ants” covers more than 12,000 species whose diets range from seed-hoarding desert specialists to ants that farm their own fungus underground, and from gentle nectar-sippers to nomadic predators that overwhelm prey in their thousands. This guide goes deeper than a food list: it covers the biology of how ants eat, how diet is divided inside a colony, the feeding partnerships that make ants ecologically powerful, exactly what 15 common species eat, and — for keepers — how to feed a colony properly.

Quick answer: what do ants eat?

• Sugars / carbohydrates — honeydew, nectar, sap, fruit, and sweets. Fuels the adult worker ants.
• Protein — insects, seeds, eggs, and animal matter. Feeds the queen and growing larvae.
• Water — from dew, droplets, and the moisture in food.
• Diet varies by species (some live on seeds; one group farms fungus) and shifts by season (more protein when raising young).

What 15 ant species eat, at a glance

Ant	Diet type	Eats mainly
Black garden ant	Generalist	Honeydew + small insects
Carpenter ant	Generalist	Insects, honeydew, sweets (not wood)
Fire ant	Generalist	Insects, seeds, oils, sweets
Argentine ant	Generalist (sweet)	Honeydew, sugars, insects
Leafcutter ant	Fungus farmer	Cultivated fungus (not leaves)
Harvester ant	Granivore	Seeds
Weaver ant	Predator	Insects, nectar
Bullet ant	Predator	Nectar + small arthropods
Pharaoh ant	Scavenger (protein)	Grease, meat, sweets
Ghost ant	Scavenger (sweet)	Sweet foods, some protein
Army ant	Predator	Other insects/arthropods
Trap-jaw ant	Predator	Springtails, small arthropods
Yellow crazy ant	Generalist	Honeydew, insects
Red wood ant	Generalist	Honeydew + forest insects
Acrobat ant	Generalist	Honeydew, insects, sweets

Each species has a full feeding guide linked further down.

The two macronutrients every ant colony runs on

Almost everything about an ant’s diet comes back to a split between two macronutrients, and that split maps directly onto who eats what inside the colony.

Carbohydrates are the fuel. Adult worker ants burn enormous amounts of energy walking, carrying loads many times their weight, and defending the nest, and they get that fuel almost entirely from sugary liquids: honeydew secreted by aphids and other sap-sucking insects, floral and extrafloral nectar, tree sap, fruit juice, and the sweets they find in a kitchen. Adults are, in effect, restricted to a liquid diet — a point most diet articles skip but which explains a great deal of ant behavior.

Protein is the building material. It is what turns into new ants, so colonies pursue it hardest when there is brood to raise, taking captured live prey, scavenged dead insects, seeds, eggs, and animal tissue. A colony’s hunger for protein is not constant; it rises and falls with the queen’s egg-laying.

Why adult ants can barely eat solid food

An adult ant’s narrow “waist” — the petiole between thorax and abdomen —physically limits what can pass into its digestive tract. Food first enters the crop, often called the “social stomach,” a storage chamber that holds liquid for sharing rather than for the ant’s own digestion. A muscular valve, the proventriculus, controls how much passes through to the true stomach, and solid particles are filtered out in the infrabuccal pocket, a small chamber behind the mouthparts, then expelled as a pellet. This is why ants drink droplets and carry crumbs rather than chewing and swallowing them whole — most processing of solids is outsourced to the larvae.

Trophallaxis: how a few foragers feed the whole colony

Ants distribute food through trophallaxis, the mouth-to-mouth transfer of liquid from one ant’s crop to another. A single returning forager can feed dozens of nestmates this way, which is why only a small fraction of any colony is ever out foraging — the collectors feed the many, including the queen, who almost never leaves the nest. Trophallaxis moves more than calories: it also circulates colony-identifying chemicals and gut microbes, binding the colony together as a single “superorganism.” It is also why a slow-acting bait works — foragers share it through trophallaxis until it reaches the queen and brood.

What each caste eats: queen, workers, larvae, males

Diet inside a colony is divided by caste, and this is where ant feeding gets genuinely advanced.

The queen has the most specialized diet of all. In many species she founds her colony claustrally: she seals herself into a chamber and raises her first workers without eating at all, metabolizing her now-useless flight muscles and stored fat to produce eggs and feed larvae. Once workers take over foraging, her diet becomes heavily protein-rich to sustain continuous egg-laying. Other species found semi-claustrally, with the young queen leaving to forage during this stage.

The larvae are the colony’s protein processors. In many ants they are the only stage able to digest solid food: workers press captured prey against them, the larvae break it down with enzymes, and the released nutrients are shared back to the colony. Larvae destined to become queens are fed far more, and richer, food than those that become workers — diet, not genetics, often decides caste.

Workers live mainly on the carbohydrates they forage, taking little protein for themselves once mature, since they no longer grow. Males are short-lived, fed by workers, and exist only to mate.

How ants find and recruit to food

Ants locate food mostly by smell, sweeping the air and surfaces with their antennae. Once a scout finds a worthwhile source, it returns laying a pheromone trail so nestmates can follow the exact route. Recruitment styles vary by species and reward: some use tandem running, where one ant physically leads a single follower; others use mass recruitment, laying strong trails that summon hundreds within minutes when a rich find appears. The trail, not the individual ant, is why one scout in your kitchen becomes a marching column — and why wiping the trail disrupts them more than killing the ants you can see.

How an ant’s diet changes with the seasons

Ant diet swings through the year, which is why ants that ignored your sugar in spring may swarm it by late summer. When the queen is laying heavily and larvae are developing — usually spring and early summer — colonies crave protein to convert into new workers, and this is when ants most aggressively hunt insects and carry off meat or pet food. As brood-rearing slows in late summer and autumn, many species pivot toward carbohydrates to build energy reserves for the cold. In winter, most temperate ants enter a dormant state called diapause, living off reserves and eating little until spring. Matching food to this cycle is the single most useful insight for both controlling ants and feeding a captive colony.

The advanced feeding strategies that make ants ecologically powerful

Beyond simple scavenging, several ant lineages have evolved sophisticated ways of producing or securing food. These partnerships are what separate a deep guide from a shallow one.

Aphid farming (trophobiosis). Many ants tend “herds” of aphids, scale insects, and treehoppers, protecting them from predators and even moving them to fresh plants, in exchange for the sugary honeydew the insects excrete — effectively domesticating their herds the way humans keep dairy cattle.

Fungus farming. Leafcutter ants and their relatives (the attine ants) practice true agriculture: they cut and carry plant matter underground to cultivate a specific fungus, then eat the fungus and its nutrient-rich growths. They don’t eat the leaves at all — the leaves are compost.

Seed harvesting and dispersal. Granivorous harvester ants gather and store seeds in underground granaries. Many plants exploit this through myrmecochory — seeds carry a fatty appendage called an elaiosome that the ants eat, discarding the still-viable seed away from the parent plant, so the ant gets a meal and the plant gets a gardener.

Living larders and plant partnerships. “Honeypot” ants keep specialized workers, called repletes, that gorge on honeydew until their abdomens swell into living storage tanks for lean times. Other ants live inside specialized plants (myrmecophytes) such as bullhorn acacias, feeding on the nectar and protein bodies the plant provides while defending it from herbivores.

What ants eat in the wild, in your home, and in an ant farm

The same species can eat very differently depending on where it lives.

In the wild, ants forage opportunistically — tending aphids for honeydew, hunting and scavenging insects, gathering seeds, and sipping nectar. They are one of nature’s great cleanup crews and seed dispersers, and they are also prey themselves for birds, frogs, spiders, and specialized hunters, placing them squarely in the middle of the food web.

In your home, ants chase the easiest version of that diet: sugary spills and syrups, greasy or oily residue, pet food, and protein scraps. Which one draws a given species depends on the ant and the season.

How to feed pet ants in a formicarium

If you keep ants, the goal is to recreate both food groups cleanly. The two staples are a carbohydrate source (sugar water at roughly one part sugar to three parts water, or a drop of honey) and a protein source (small feeder insects such as fruit flies, crickets, or mealworms, or a commercial protein jelly). Seed-eating species like harvesters need a steady supply of seeds instead of insects.

Colony stage	Protein	Carbohydrate	Notes
Founding queen (fully claustral)	none yet	water only	She lives on her reserves; don’t disturb or feed until the first workers appear
Founding queen (semi-claustral)	tiny insect piece	sugar drops	Offer small amounts; remove if untouched
Small colony (≤50 workers)	rice-grain-sized insect, 1–2×/week	sugar source 2–3×/week	Feed in the outworld; remove leftovers in 24–48h to prevent mold
Growing colony	scale up portions with population	sugar always available	Increase protein during active brood-rearing
Harvester species (any stage)	—	—	Seed mix as the staple; keep a stocked seed chamber

Two rules keep a captive colony healthy: never leave uneaten food longer than a day or two (mold is deadly to ants), and always offer water through a method that won’t drown them, such as a cotton-plugged tube or a damp sponge.

What ants don’t eat (and a few myths)

Two myths are worth correcting up front: carpenter ants do not eat wood (they only tunnel through it to nest), and leafcutter ants do not eat leaves (they farm fungus on them). Ants are also generally uninterested in artificial sweeteners such as aspartame and sucralose, because these provide none of the carbohydrate energy the ants are actually seeking — which is why a sweetener “trap” usually fails where real sugar succeeds.

The 5 ant diet types

Despite the variety, nearly every ant fits one of five feeding strategies, which is the simplest way to make sense of the species below:

1. Honeydew-and-insect generalists — the most common; they farm aphids and scavenge or hunt insects.
2. Predators (insectivores) — active hunters living mainly on other arthropods.
3. Granivores (seed-eaters) — specialists that collect and store seeds.
4. Fungus farmers — ants that grow and eat fungus rather than their gathered plant matter.
5. Household scavengers — opportunists thriving on the sweets, fats, and proteins in human spaces.

What do different types of ants eat?

A quick diet summary for 15 common ant species. Each links to a full feeding guide.

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