How to get rid of ants on an apple tree
Ants on an apple tree are quite common. With their appearance, gardeners lose their crops. They spoil apples, eat flower buds and damage trees. Together with ant colonies, an even more dangerous insect comes to the apple orchard - aphids, which in a short period of time kills the apple trees.
Fighting ants on an apple tree
Why do ants appear
Ordinary red ants are forest orderlies, they free trees from the attack of harmful insects, loosen the soil, pollinate the inflorescences.
And black representatives are a real danger to the apple orchard. Due to their predisposition to sweets, they become distributors of aphids, which secretes the juice they need in the process of life - the honeydew.
At the same time, ants carefully protect this pest from the attack of other insects.
Black ants are the harbingers of the subsequent appearance of aphids in the garden.
Lovers of buds and fruits appear at the stage of ovary formation and apple ripening. Large ant colonies were also observed on high fertile soil.
How to protect apple trees from ants
You can get rid of ants on an apple tree in different ways. It depends on where exactly the insects have settled.
In hollows and roots
When ants appear in tree hollows and on the root system, the advantage is given to granular preparations, which are placed directly in the hollow, having previously freed it from debris.
The released dust and insects are poured with boiling water.
Among the specialized granular compositions that allow you to effectively fight insects are Barguzin (1-2 grams per 1 sq. M.), Thunder (2-3 grams per 1 sq. M.), Muravyin (3 grams per 1 sq. M.) m) and others containing diazinon.
It is permissible to use granular insecticides only at the very beginning of the autumn season.
The use of these compositions at other times, including in spring and early summer, can adversely affect the metabolic processes of trees, which subsequently will adversely affect the quality of apples.
Under the bark
If ants settle under the bark of trees, inside the trunks, getting through damage on the surface of the wood, insecticidal preparations are not used, because they have a detrimental effect on the apple tree.
In such cases, in order to get rid of them, artificial passages are drilled or sawn in the trunks, and scarers are placed in them.
After that:
- remove rotten wood;
- the affected area is sprayed with an antiseptic;
- the cavity is dried and sealed with garden pitch or polyurethane foam.
Useful Tips
Struggle at the stage of flowering and fruiting
You can get rid of pests with the help of folk remedies.
At the fruiting stage, insecticidal complexes are not used; it is best to protect the apple tree from ants with folk remedies that do not have a toxic effect:
- spraying apple trees with kerosene (10 tablespoons) mixed with laundry soap (4 pieces) and carbolic acid (30 g), while not only the trees themselves, but also the anthills located near them are sprayed with such a mixture;
- spraying with a soda-linseed solution (10 g of baking soda, 60 g of linseed oil, 2 liters of water);
- spraying with tobacco infusion prepared from 0.5 kg of tobacco, 40 g of laundry soap and 10 liters of water, aged for 3-5 days;
- treatment with yarrow infusion (0.8 kg per 10 liters of water) with laundry soap (40 g).
Sprinkling the inflorescences with ash powder and spraying with a soda solution (3 tablespoons of baking soda for 6-7 liters of water) allows you to preserve the color at the budding stage. Such treatments are repeated 3-4 times.
When curling foliage
In some cases, on apple trees, when ants appear, the foliage twisting process is observed.
This is the initial sign of aphids that have appeared with insects - it is easy to see if you open a twisted leaf.
To get rid of the pest, the industrial compounds Cypermethrin, Iskra, IntaVir, which do not cause burning of foliage, allow.
Tobacco and ash infusions help as folk remedies.
Chemicals
The choice of chemical agents for the destruction and repelling of ants depends on the time and type of processing of apple trees:
- for spring spraying, the choice is made in favor of formulations of complex action, including fungicides and insecticides, destroying, among other things, bacterial and fungal infections (rot, spotting, scab, cancer); such funds include Bordeaux mixture and iron vitriol with a concentration of 3-4%;
- at the budding stage, apple trees are treated simultaneously from leaf-gnawing pests and fungal infections with Bordeaux liquid with a concentration of 1-2%, 0.5% Decis, 1.0% Karbofos, 0.3% Topaz are also suitable for this purpose , 0.3% Chlorophos;
- Insecticidal traps, for example, Raptor and Kombat, are often placed in a sawn-out artificial passage when insects settle under the bark of a tree.
In the spring, to obtain a stable effective result, apple trees are treated from ants twice: initially, before the buds swell, and again at the budding stage before the flowers bloom.
Recommendations
When choosing the forms of chemical compositions, they proceed from the area requiring processing:
- the use of aerosol insecticides makes it possible to treat a large area of space, however, they quickly erode, therefore, they will remain effective for a short time;
- the use of gels allows you to decompose the insecticide in the desired places, it is more stable, however, if you are close to the garden of the hives, if you carelessly handle the gel, it can poison the bees.
At the stage of apple ripening, it is recommended to use biological compounds that do not accumulate in fruits and do not harm the health of animals and humans.
Traditional methods
An alternative way to combat an ant invasion, without having a toxic effect on garden culture, are folk methods of destruction:
- planting onions, garlic, wormwood, celandine along the perimeter of apple growth, the smell of these crops has a deterrent effect for ants;
- planting marigolds, calendula, fennel, which attract useful ladybugs, lacewings, hoverflies, which are natural enemies of aphids;
- covering apple tree trunks with biological glue; instead, gardeners often use soot mixed with linseed oil;
- coating the base of tree trunks with caustic tar, its smell repels insects;
- putting on a metal ring or a foil hoop on the trunk so that the ants cannot get to the tree bark under it, they begin to fight the ant invasion with the help of such girdle rings already at the end of winter - early spring.
Outcome
Ants that appear on apple trees cause damage to immature shoots, buds, ripening apples and damaged tree bark.
Their activity leads to loss of crops.Together with them, they bring aphids, which can destroy the entire apple orchard. Chemical and folk remedies help to protect garden culture.