A common competitor of sugar ants are meat ants, which have been observed blocking banded sugar ant nesting holes with pebbles and soil to prevent them from leaving their nest during the early hours of the day. The ants counter this by preventing meat ants from leaving their nest by blocking their nesting holes with debris, a behaviour known as nest-plugging. If meat ant nests are encroached by trees or other shade, banded sugar ants may invade and take over the nest, since the health of the colony may deteriorate from overshadowing. Members of an affected meat ant colony later move to a nearby satellite nest that is placed in a suitable area, while invading banded sugar ants fill nest galleries up with a black resinous material. In a 1999 study, "Pogonoscopus myrmex" leafhoppers were placed in a banded sugar ant colony to test the reaction of non-host ants. These leafhoppers were attacked, suggesting no symbiotic relationship between the two.