These ants are ballooning with microbe-killing honey

Buried deep underneath the red, sunbaked soil of Australia’s deserts are hidden treasure troves of honey. It’s not the delicacy produced by bees, but rather the only type of honey made by ants. It’s also, a new study confirms, a potentially powerful medicine with antimicrobial properties. Australia’s Indigenous peoples have long used honey from honeypot ants ( Camponotus inflatus ) to treat a variety of maladies, from sore throats to infected wounds. Now, Western scientists are finally getting up to speed. In a study published today in PeerJ , researchers show that the honeypot ant’s honey has extremely strong antimicrobial activity against common pathogens . It could also help scientists find new strategies to fight antibiotic-resistant microbes. “Western medicine is playing catch-up with what many traditional societies have known for thousands of years,” says Danny Ulrich, a member of the Tjupan language group who runs honeypot ant tours in Western Australia. “Indigenous knowledge is really an untapped resource.” The ingredients for the honeypot ant’s golden concoction come from rounded, shrublike mulga trees and the aphids that live on them. The ants stroke the aphids with their antennae, explains study co-author Kenya Fernandes, a microbiologist at the University of Sydney. That movement causes the aphids “to excrete excess honeydew from their bums, which the honeypot ants then sip up.” Then, worker a...
Source: Science of Aging Knowledge Environment - Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research