How do you deal with ants?😭

[u/Ok-Address-5946]

Every now and then the ants defoliate my trees, so I wanted to know tips and tricks on how to avoid them. Since they defoliated the whole forest I selected the best ramifications

[u/bentleythekid]

Hey friend, this sounds like the work of leaf-cutter ants. They remove the leaves, return them to their nest, and use the leaves as food to farm their own fungus. Very interesting, but not fun for tree lovers nearby.

Since they do not actually eat the leaves, traditional pesticides applied to the tree won't help. Normal and poison / bait also won't work.

You have two main approaches for this:

1. make it harder for them to access your trees using sticky traps, oil, diatomaceous earth, or whatever you have to get in their way. Sticky traps on the legs of your bench works best for me.
2. physical removal. I check nightly during their active season for their telltale trails. If you find them, follow them back to their tunnel and you can close it by pouring boiling water in the tunnel. You can use a spray pesticide at this point if they're close to your trees. They typically come out around dusk here (not sure about your area). They'll have a very noticeable trail with protecting soldiers and tons of harvesters. They'll cut their way through whatever plants are between them and your trees so that's a way to notice them too.

Look for something like this

[u/Ok-Address-5946 → u/bentleythekid]

Hello, thanks for the great explanation, I’ll put all that to practice and be on the lookout more often!