This is a corn tassel with an AMAZING aphid problem

see also: fire ants tending the aphids

Whenever there's a big aphid blowup like this I like to just leave them alone & come back later to see what showed up to eat them. This is because I live for drama

If you look closely, there's actually a predator already there right under the fire ants' noses: syrphid fly larvae

see this little green caterpillar-looking thing? DON'T FEEL BAD, THE ANTS DIDN'T EITHER

this one was sucking an aphid dry when the photo was snapped

Aphids are defenseless, but their ant fan clubs aren't. So critters that eat aphids need ways to get around the ants.

Adult ladybugs have those hard, seal-to-the-leaf domes for a reason- it's armor the ants can't get a grip on.

Syrphids hide. They look & smell like aphids.

But it's not foolproof

Here's the same tassel a few days later. Aphids are GONE, syrphids ate them all. (The lil white flaky things are old molted aphid exoskeletons.)

Now the syrphids have no aphids left to hide behind, & the ants are hungry & pissed.

Syrphids eat so many aphids they'll just clean them all out

which is about when the ants start wondering where all the aphids went.

They kick into high alert, finally notice the syrphids (bc there are no aphids left to blend into), & go into search & destroy mode.

RIP syrphids

there's a moral about being too good at your job in here somewhere