ANTS!!

[Boone]

How do you keep ants off your trees? I'm seeing a lot of them on my young apple trees. One chestnut crab doesn't look good as the leaves are curled. I will get pics this weekend.

 

[chickenlittle]

Kill the aphids.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

X-2 ^^^

 

[Prof.Kent]

And give the ants some Amdro bait/poison to take back to their queen.

 

[Boone]

Kill the aphids.

Seven?

 

[Prof.Kent]

I refer a bait/poison to a contact poiston (they take it back and feed it to the queen ant); like Amdro Ant Killer

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Unless they are eating into your fruit trees, ants can be a signal that aphids are in your trees. Not a bad thing entirely. They alert you to check for aphid damage, and if it's severe enough to treat for the aphids. A little aphid damage won't hurt a bigger, healthy tree. Younger trees need sprayed so they get a good start in life.

 

[Boone]

Unless they are eating into your fruit trees, ants can be a signal that aphids are in your trees. Not a bad thing entirely. They alert you to check for aphid damage, and if it's severe enough to treat for the aphids. A little aphid damage won't hurt a bigger, healthy tree. Younger trees need sprayed so they get a good start in life.

What do you suggest spraying? Seeing alot of ants on my trees lately.

 

[Buckly]

I’ve always used Seven spray. But an ant bait at the bottom of the tree will take care of most ants

 

[Bowsnbucks]

For insects I've used Sevin. But as Prof. Kent said above, some poison ant bait will put the clinkers to the colony. The ants are most likely a sign that aphids are on the leaves of your tree(s). If a lot of your leaves are curling and turning brown, you may need to spray for aphids. Younger trees are more susceptible to aphid damage than older trees. The first 6 years or so are the "tender" years. Bigger, older trees would need a biblical sized infestation of aphids to be a worry.

I learned this bit of aphid info from Maya, who has a big commercial orchard. Just passin' it on. Thanks Maya !!

 

[Peeps]

Imidan works

 

[PoorSand]

Around here, the ants that attack my apple trees build mounds one to two feet high out of sand, twigs, and pine needles. Once they pick an apple tree to target, they go to work defoliating it, occasionally killing the tree entirely. I pour vegetable oil over the mound at a rate of about one pint per square foot of surface area. The mound becomes lifeless within a day or two. I think it cuts off the air circulation they need to survive in the mound. I suppose they might just move elsewhere, but as long as they leave, I'm good with that.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Poor Sand - I've never seen ants defoliate trees here. Maybe you have a different ant species than we have here?? Sounds like a bummer if they clean your trees. Wishing you good luck with the ants.

 

[PoorSand]

The State calls our ants like that "Field Ants". https://hort.extension.wisc.edu/articles/field-ants/

 

[PoorSand]

I think that perhaps the lead Field Ant leaves behind a scent trail on its way up and/or back down, because I've seen them start defoliating at new growth on the tip of a branch and progress downward from that point, eventually spreading to the whole limb, and then moving on to the next limb. From a distance, a tree under attack can look like it was merely damaged by the winter cold.