Abundance of Ants on Chili and Corn Intercrop Planting Techniques

Abstract

These Ants play an important role as predators in agricultural habitats, including in controlling insect pests. The conducted research investigates the abundance of ants in several intercropping techniques on chili and corn. The intercropping techniques applied were: chili and corn intercropping using plastic mulch, corn and watermelon intercropping that did not use plastic mulch, chili and corn intercropping that did not use plastic mulch, and planting monoculture chili according to the treatment of farmers using plastic mulch and pesticides. The parameters observed in this study were the average population and fluctuations of ants in each intercropping technique. The results showed that the chili plants intercropped with corn, using plastic mulch or not, attracted more ants compared to the monoculture chili planting techniques according to farmers' habits. Observation of the ant population fluctuations captured using the pitfall trap and hand collecting method shows that the ant population is increasing with each observation