With the rollback of insecticides, novel tools for pest control are urgently needed. Aphids are particularly a major concern with few sustainable control alternatives. Ecological intensification has been promoted as a way of “inviting" back nature’s self-regulating abilities into agricultural production systems. Although such measures enhance the presence of natural enemies in agroecosystems, we demonstrate that in an ecologically intensified apple orchard, biocontrol of rosy apple aphid was minimal. We verified why the biodiverse settings did not result in enhanced ecosystem services, i.e., biological control of the rosy apple aphid. Close monitoring of food–web interactions in thousands of aphid colonies showed that tending ants dominated responses, while those of natural enemies were weak or absent. However, application of artificial aphid honeydew diverted ants from tending aphids and flipped the myrmecophily-dominated state into favoring numerical responses of a guild of natural enemies. Responses were swift and controlled both Aphis pomi and Dysaphis plantaginea, provided intervention was synced with aphid and predator phenology. Although myrmecophily in aphids is well-known on its own accord, it has been completely overlooked in ecological intensification. To unlock the aphid-biocontrol potential provided through ecological intensification, myrmecophily needs to be disrupted. Although particularly true for perennial systems, generally practices that reduce soil disturbance favor ants and may amplify aphid pests, thereby reducing biocontrol impacts in ecological intensification efforts. Harnessing ecosystem services requires careful analysis and good understanding of agroecosystem intricacies.

随着杀虫剂的减少，迫切需要新的害虫防治工具。蚜虫尤其是一个主要问题，几乎没有可持续的控制替代方案。生态集约化被推广为将大自然的自我调节能力“吸引”回农业生产系统的一种方式。尽管这些措施增加了农业生态系统中天敌的存在，但我们证明，在生态集约化的苹果园中，玫瑰色苹果蚜虫的生物控制是最小的。我们验证了为什么生物多样性设置没有导致增强的生态系统服务，即对玫瑰苹果蚜的生物控制。对数千个蚜虫群中食物-网相互作用的密切监测表明，照料蚂蚁的反应占主导地位，而天敌的反应较弱或不存在。然而，人工蚜虫蜜露的应用使蚂蚁从照料蚜虫中转移出来，并将肉豆蔻占主导地位的状态转变为有利于天敌公会的数字反应。反应迅速并控制了 Aphis pomi 和 Dysaphis plantaginea，前提是干预与蚜虫和捕食者物候同步。尽管蚜虫中的肉豆蔻本身就广为人知，但在生态强化中却完全被忽视了。为了释放通过生态集约化提供的蚜虫生物防治潜力，需要破坏肉豆蔻。虽然对于多年生系统尤其如此，但通常减少土壤扰动的做法有利于蚂蚁，并可能放大蚜虫害虫，从而减少对生态集约化工作的生物防治影响。利用生态系统服务需要仔细分析和充分了解农业生态系统的复杂性。