Ants in and around my bonsai pots?

[Pat093]

i have noticed ants all around my bonsai's.
do they hurt them at all?
anyone have bad info on ants round bonsai's?
Cheers

[Scott Roxburgh]

Maybe Aphids?

Check out the new growth on your deciduous trees any there?

[Levuccio]

Hey mate I used to have them because of scales. Check for scales, they look oval like brownish things on your stems and leaves.
Apparently ants feed on their sweet excretions or something and can spread them as well.

If the ants make a nest in the soil, they can damage the roots so you gotta be careful.

[Pat093]

righto thanks.
i got aphids on my lil saplings, but they dont have ants.
its weird i dont see any signs of scales either, will double check later.
maybe ants just exploring?

[Taffy]

Pat, ants don't normally explore 'en masse'. Usually it's only the odd one or two. Scale can come in many colours - black, brown, white and even red. Aphids can also attract ants for the same reason - the 'honeydew' secretions. They exude it to keep the ants from eating them. Aphids are reasonably easy to see, but scale not so easy. Look along the top vein of the leaves, under the leaves, at the base of the leaves, all over the branches including where they join another branch and the trunk - top, bottom and sides and also all around the trunk. If your trees have rough bark, check out the cracks in the bark as well. Quite often you will also notice that some of the leaves, branches or trunk have what looks like a sooty deposit on them - that's from the honeydew.

As Levuccio said, if ants make a nest in a pot, they can damage the roots, but not only that, they hollow out their nest then line it with some sort of secretion to 'waterproof' it. That would then mean your trees aren't getting the water required because the soil mix around the area will go water repellent. If you dunk your pots for an hour or so, then any ants nests should be destroyed. Just make sure the ants don't abandon their nest and hide up in the foliage. If they do, then they will come back down and resume their nest. Alternatively, you could sprinkle some ant granules on your pots and water it in well. That will kill any ants in a pot.

Have a real good look because a lot of ants isn't a good thing to have around your trees.

[Dumper]

ants are fine, they dont destroy trees.

it is what that attracts the ants that might destroy the trees. like aphids, scales.

also i realise if you use blood and bones. ants are attracted to either the blood or the bones, maybe even both.

[Mitchell]

ants are fine, they dont destroy trees.

My thoughts exactly. Just control them. I actually established/moved two colonies of ants into large cuttings to eat out the rotting timber for me... Natural shari.. If you find them in a tree, it is most likely because it is rotting out and they are feeding on the rot and moisture.

[Taffy]

No, ants won't damage a tree as such, but if there is an ant's nest in the pot then that is a section of the pot that there are not going to be any roots in - and as I said, that area of the pot will be water repellent. Why I said ants aren't a good thing to have around is because of the reason why they are there in the first place - usually aphids or scale, which will definitely do damage to a tree.

Destroy the cause, destroy any ant's nest - problems solved!

[Fish]

Awesome idea, how effective and how long did this take

ants are fine, they dont destroy trees.

My thoughts exactly. Just control them. I actually established/moved two colonies of ants into large cuttings to eat out the rotting timber for me... Natural shari.. If you find them in a tree, it is most likely because it is rotting out and they are feeding on the rot and moisture.

[Mitchell]

Tman, I don't let ants anywhere near my other bonsai generally.

Fish, not really effective, a while. Is of interest to me though.

[Loretta]

Hi Pat,
I agree with all that has been said above without a doubt, but my experience with ants also includes weather conditions. If it's raining or even if rain is expected the ants know and move their nests to higher ground so they don't get flooded out.
So if you are having rainy weather that will be one of the reasons you have them. I am getting inundated at the moment as we've had rain for the last week. I have sprinkled ant dust on most of my pots to try to deter them. I have also checked for aphid and scale and no sign of either on most of the infested pots. So apart from the reason that ants just love plant pots anyway, I'd say in my case the rain is the biggest factor at the moment.
cheers Loretta

[Mitchell]

Build one of these and move them.

http://www.instructables.com/id/3-Foot- ... uthentic-/

All the materials are available at Buzzings.