Formic acid

 

Formic acid

It is not just ants that produce formic acid. It is found in other insects, plants, fruit, and vegetables. Pineapple has 0.32 mg formic acid per 100 g, while apples have 2mg per 100 g. Onions have 45 mg per 100 g - no wonder our eyes stream when we slice these humble but essential vegetables.

Ants use the acid, which they squirt from their abdomens, to dissuade birds and spiders, as well as larger animals, from attacking them. Formic acid is used as a natural antiseptic to clean an ant nest and the eggs within it. It helps to prevent the spread of disease. Some ants, like the Carpenter ants, bite their victim and then spread or drench acid into the punctures to prevent it moving or kill it.

In similar vein, ants swallow minute amounts of formic acid to kill any harmful bacteria they may have ingested.

Since the second half of the twentieth century, as a by-product of acetic acid production, it has been found useful in livestock feed for its preservative and antibacterial properties.

Beekeepers use it against destructive mites in bee colonies. It is also used in limescale removers, leather tanning and the production of rubber.

Other potential uses involve the production of biomass – ‘renewable organic material derived from living or recently living plants, animals, and microorganisms’ - and as an instrument of hydrogen storage.

The humble ant, like so many minor organisms, has provided much of value to the wider world.