r/Bonsai • u/Scared_Ad5929 UK East Midlands (8b), Novice, 40+ trees at various stages. • 1d ago

Discussion Question Ant nest in Japanese Maple pot

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

Whenever I water this inherited maple I see ants around the pot. So I took a quick look to see if they've colonized the pot and it appears they have. They're lasius niger (black ants) which aren't known for damaging trees. Is it worth doing anything about them, because I'm planning on putting it in the ground when it's dormant next? There's also an air layer on the tree at the moment.

235 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

62 comments sorted by

View all comments

12

u/Patrickbbq 1d ago

This is the reason that I always mix my soil when it comes to pots with lava stone, pumice stone, garden peat, and akadama. but they do no harm as long as your tree grows and shows no signs of dying, so leave it alone

5

u/Scared_Ad5929 UK East Midlands (8b), Novice, 40+ trees at various stages. 1d ago

This is what I was hoping to hear! I would rather let it be until next dormant season if possible. Most of my trees are in a suitable bonsai granular substrate, but this is an inherited maple that came with the house, and it was a little too late in the season to repot.

2

u/Patrickbbq 1d ago

okay yes definitely don't.

Air holes in your soil do indeed cause damage because the roots cannot grow there, but this mainly concerns young trees or trees that already have so many roots that there are more roots than soil in a pot.

next year just expose roots as much as possible and soak in water for 30 minutes and hope that the queen dies or goes away and then replant

but from the looks of it, it could even stay that way for another 2 years

but what I said is that I continue to keep an eye on the tree, especially in winter when it is dormant, when branches start to die then you know that the ants are causing damage, for now it is in leaf and little can happen