Aphid Most kinds of aphids produce a sweet fluid called honeydew. This fluid is one of the favorite foods of the ant. The ant licks up the honeydew as it pours out of tube-shaped organs called cornicles at the tip of the aphid's body. In order to have plenty of honeydew, ants take good care of some kinds of aphids. They move the aphids from one plant to another and may infest an entire garden.
Aphids multiply very rapidly.
The males and females mate in the fall. The females lay fertilized eggs that hatch the following spring. These young aphids do not mate and lay eggs. They give birth to living young hatched from unfertilized eggs within their bodies. During summer, many generations of fatherless aphids are born by this process, called parthenogenesis.