Ants — the tiny architects of a healthy planet

With often secret civilisations beneath our feet ants have sophisticated social lives and even practiced agriculture millions of years before humans 

An anthill in the Burren in County Clare, with wild thyme growing through it. Picture: Anja Murray

Old fields, long grazed by sheep or cattle, untouched by ploughs or fertilisers, are rich in life. Small broadleaved herbs nestle among the grassy sward, flowering through the spring and summer, mingling with mosses and maintaining a dense cover of roots, shoots, and leave. Flowering plants sustain, and are sustained by, an array of pollinators — from burrowing bees to hoverflies, moths, grasshoppers, beetles and butterflies. But one among the creatures of old meadows are now recognised as ecosystem engineers — ants.

There are more than 20 different native species of ant in Ireland. Some build anthills. Where there are round hummocks in old fields, these may be active anthills, containing a busy community of tens of thousands of ants. These anthills are distinguished by different plant community to the surrounding grassland. In the species-rich grasslands in the Burren in County Clare, for example, I’ve often noticed the gorgeous little purple flowers of wild thyme blossoming profusely from the rounded mounds of anthills.