Woodchips and Ants

[bigboreblr]

Anybody have ant issues with their trees? Wondering if using woodchips makes the problems worse. I was tempted to mix in woodchips into heavy clay soil, but avoided that with my tree plantings so far. Still tempted to try that though. I get pickup sized loads of woodchips for free from time to time. Probably got the equivalent to 2 dump truck loads so far this year.

I do have gravel I can use instead of woodchips. Was thinking of doing a hybrid approach. 3ft diameter of landscape fabric and stone, then the next 2ft out around the cages woodchips.
I had the ant / aphid issue last year. I want to say it was worse with store bought wood mulched site vs stone, but did see some on stone sites too.

I am also trying the sticky paper around the trunk to keep ants and caterpillars out. I prepared one tree spot better than others with plenty of peat moss last year. That tree virtually had no ant activity. I did apply granular ant killer monthly. Terro alternating with walmart brand the net month. Wonder if peat moss upsets ant colonies. These trees are at the edge of hedgerow between me and my neighbor. Lots of old rotting branches in there to keep the ants thriving.

 

[SD51555]

I've had a hell of a time with carpenter ants on my purchased spruce trees. Mind you, they've been in the ground for 7 years, they still get ant problems. Never see that on my native trees. I walk those trees every week during the growing season just spray them with the blue and orange can of Cutter fogger spray. 2022 only took one application, and a follow up to get a few stragglers. 2023, I had to zap some every week all summer it seemed.

It's helped though. I'm not losing my new growth to ants. I don't have any mulch or matting of any kind around those trees. Where I've got spruces mulched with wood chips and mats, there is no difference in ants. If anything, there are fewer, but I wouldn't call it a correlation.

 

[Ikeman]

Any spots where you improve the soil structure and provide mulch will attract ants. If they are causing issues with them damaging the trees, I would consider using something like amdro to provide lasting control. If you want something more natural, and are okay with more frequent applications, you could spread Diatomaceous Earth over the wood mulch.


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[Telemark]

I have ants try to colonize the sand layer of my new leach field. I generally use a good dose of wasp killer in and around the hole. It tends to knock them out for at least the rest of the year.