–but acushi ants just as determined to reap
“IF IT wasn’t for these ants, my yard would be full of fruit trees and greens today,” said Mr. Barker, a farmer of Kuru Kuru, a little community off the Linden/Soesdyke Highway. Like every other village along the Linden Highway stretch of road, Kuru Kuru is lost in an expanse of white sand that characterises the Upper Demerara area. Highway residents boast that its high elevation makes it less susceptible to flooding during the rainy seasons, unlike the lower coastal plain, where huge sums are expended on drainage. The sandy nature of the soil also ensures that water is not trapped on the land surface, as in areas where clay dominates.
The advantages of location end there. “Because the area is sandy,” one resident said, “it is less fertile than where there is clay. If you want to plant anything, you have to keep putting organic manure constantly around the plants.”
Apart from the fertility challenge, residents say, the white sand tends to reflect greater heat than dark soil would, thereby subjecting growing seedlings to tremendous stress. To combat this difficulty, some residents resort to mulching, placing leaves and cut grass around the roots of plants to prevent heat radiation and rapid evaporation of moisture.
Although it is far more difficult to raise crops on the white sand than elsewhere, some farmers struggle against the conditions and manage to raise some crops. But after putting in all that hard work, and seeing the first shoots of their plants emerging from the earth, Mother Nature subjects the hapless farmers to one last obstacle:”As soon as leaves begin to come out of the plants,” residents complained, “the acushi ants come to destroy them.”

Dreaded acushi ants
The acushi ants are a species of vegetarian ants that live in sandy
areas.  Experts say they build their nests underground in the shade of
the foliage offered by the trees of the forest.  The ants seem to have
a preference for crops grown by man, and emerge in their millions to shed the leaves of these crops and transport them to their nests underground. In fact, the ants have a reputation for stripping bare entire cultivated plots overnight.   
One farmer related how, in the early 80s, she had a rude awakening to what the ants can do.  
“I went to bed one night after examining a cultivation of orange plants and seeing that everything was all right.  When I woke up in the morning, I found I could see clear through the entire cultivation, since the ants had stripped off all the leaves during the night.”
Because of the problems with the ants, many farmers gave up the fight over the years, rather than see their hard labour disappear in an instant. Others have, however, persevered and have seen their efforts
rewarded.
“Nowadays we can buy the acushi ants bait and kill off whole colonies of ants overnight,” said George, a long-time resident and farmer in the area.  “The bait is spread around the roots of plants which farmers suspect the ants will attack. When the ants feed on the poisonous bait, they experience the ‘Jonestown Phenomenon’.”
“I will continue to battle them”, the determined Mr. Barker said.
“Other people successfully grow crops after using the bait, and I find it works.”
Recently, former Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud had announced government’s intention to spend millions of dollars to battle the acushi ants.