Tiny black and white insects under every pot

Question

In my small garden, I used to have a lot of garden ants living under the pots. With these ants, there used to live black, and some white insects. They (ants and those insects) live under every pot.

Now I got rid of ants and I thought these insects will go away too, but they are increasing in numbers. Ants are gone but they are still there.

• What are they?
• Are they dangerous?
• How can I get rid of them?

Here, I have tried to take pictures of them. There is also a video of them at the end. The pictures are not great as the insects are so tiny.

Here, you can them in the video moving around. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pOKLDrWaWfmZ95KlGFH6Sif_EJOvqiuV/view?usp=sharing

Answer 1

Ants are know to farm some aphids and scale insects. It is possible that these were being herded and farmed. Maybe with the absence of ants they are able to multiply more.

Ants farm aphids in a symbiotic relationship
One of the most common is the herding or farming of sap feeding insects ‘homopterans’ such as aphids, scale bugs and mealy bugs.

These insects obtain their own food from plants and pass some of it on to the ants as highly nutritious nectar or honey dew. In return, the ants tenderly look after and protect them from predators.

By stroking the back of some aphids with their antennae, the ants can induce a honeydew droplet.

The ants may move the insects to areas on the plants with the best sap.

When it rains they may move them to sheltered places, even sometimes into their own nests.

Although this process seems very pleasant for both parties, recent studies show that ants sometimes clip the wings off aphids to stop them flying away. They also use chemicals found on their feet to drug them, preventing their wings from developing. It appears that the ants are very much in charge.

From antark. I am not associated with the site.