Nest cedar lumber. When digging the nests, they use the wood shavings scraped from the wall to create partitions within the tunnels. The nests are usually round and have about 1-4 tunnels, each with multiple branches. Because these materials are often useful for humans in construction, "X. virgininica's" nesting behavior presents the disadvantage of weakening wood in manmade structures. The abundance of biological resources within the nest has led to a number of specialized predators. The aardvark and the ant eater use long tongues to prey upon termite and ant nests. Birds such as the honey buzzard specialize on wasp and
Leafcutter ant virulent fungus, has the potential to devastate an ant garden, as it is horizontally transmitted. "Escovopsis" was cultured, during colony foundation, in 6.6% of colonies. However, in one- to two-year-old colonies, almost 60% had "Escovopsis" growing in the fungal garden. In some parts of their range, leafcutter ants can be a serious agricultural pest, defoliating crops and damaging roads and farmland with their nest-making activities. For example, some "Atta" species are capable of defoliating an entire citrus tree in less than 24 hours. A promising approach to deterring attacks of the leafcutter ant "Acromyrmex lobicornis" on crops has been demonstrated.