Here are some apple blossoms, sweet as can be.Here are some after the weaver ants got at them.

They eat out the core to get at the nectar. Bees are gentler about this. The ants, though, are hungry. Obviously. This small backyard orchard I was visiting is clear of bugs, because of thick layers of mulch, made from chipped trees. It’s a great non-chemical way to keep the asparagus beetles down…

The beetles have to go up and down through six inches of the stuff night and day. They can’t manage it. They don’t. It seems, though, that the desert it creates, as organic as can be, just isn’t good for the ants, so they turn to a starvation diet: apple blossoms. Who knew!

Complex environments have their advantages.