Ant-mediated biological control: a global meta-synthesis of antagonistic interactions against pests

Ants’ deep and pervasive ecological impacts on terrestrial ecosystems also translate into several meaningful services and disservices for human activities, whose balance can often be complex to assess. Biological control of pest insects appears to be the most economically relevant in agricultural settings and Asian waver ants being also the first insect used as biocontrol agents to be known in history. However, several more ants participate in biological control across the world. We carried out a first comprehensive meta-synthesis of these antagonistic interactions, reviewing 182 articles published between 1953 and 2025 and documenting the action of ants against pests of 54 cultivated plants and zootechnical activities. A total of 134 ant species from 46 genera and 8 subfamilies were found to control 155 pest species from 126 genera, 57 families, and 19 orders including mostly insects but also mites, mammals, weeds, and fungal pathogens. This amounted to a total of 328 unique ant–pest combinations documented from 69 countries across all continents except Antarctica. Data are released through a public dataset organized in 403 rows, each detailing an ant–pest pair interaction from a specific article and country. In most cases, the biocontrol activity of ants occurs without the need of targeted management, but management can have a serious effect. We discuss the identity of the species involved, the settings and mechanisms of antagonistic interactions, as well as the development of management strategies to enhance ants’ role in biocontrol and drawbacks of ant activity.