AusBonsai

I had to throw away this collect stump ...... think it was moreton bay or PJ yesterday as just before watering i noticed it budding up in all the right spots then after getting all excited and having a closer i noticed what looked like wood shavings at the base then on a even closer inspection i noticed white ants " dont know which of the hundreds of species they were " i quickly disposed of the stump after setting it allight with the aid of some petrol but it was very upsetting as it had budded up in all the right places and was a decent trunk at that. I will be carefull in future to have a long hard look at what i am collecting.

One thing you could try next time is to put the pot which has white ants in it ,next to some black ants and they should come take them away, give it a go

Really or are you havin a laugh

Craig wrote:One thing you could try next time is to put the pot which has white ants in it ,next to some black ants and they should come take them away, give it a go

I have black ants all over my figs, never seen anything else. They are the go.

GREAT tip thanks craig .....hey I get the impression you like Figs ...... on Monday I may have a cracker to show you a new addition i might be aquaruing from a lovely old lady who has had it for 50 odd years cant wait stay tuned as I would like your opinion on it. Thanks again craig.

Regards Mick

Yep - white ants may be terrors to timber but they are pretty well defenceless against the black ants which eat them. Quite often where there have been termites you find black ants have moved in and devoured them.

Do black ants prey on aphids???

VelvetSicklid wrote:Do black ants prey on aphids???

I wish. I watch them run past the aphids all the time on my roses. You should see black ants against maggots. My wife decided to take bones off our 2 dogs and the flies got to it instead. Placed on the ground and in 5 minutes no more maggots. SMASHED by the little black ant army.

Lady Beetles will clean up aphids

steve_84 wrote:

VelvetSicklid wrote:Do black ants prey on aphids???

I wish. I watch them run past the aphids all the time on my roses. You should see black ants against maggots. My wife decided to take bones off our 2 dogs and the flies got to it instead. Placed on the ground and in 5 minutes no more maggots. SMASHED by the little black ant army.

Lol gotta love nature.

Thanks nick, i have a lot of micro jumping spiders on my plants too, so im gathering they live off something a well.

emi93m wrote:Really or are you havin a laugh

Serious. Just don't let the ants take up nest in your pot.

emi93m wrote:on Monday I may have a cracker to show you a new addition i might be aquaruing from a lovely old lady who has had it for 50 odd years

Sounds interesting Mick, can't wait for a look,

I know this is a little late, but just a little info, I work in pest control and deal with both ants and termites on a daily basis. I won't bore you with too much info, but if you have termites in a potted plant, onebway of solving the problem is by moving the pot, yes it's that simple, most termites nest underground. Yes often they'll nest in crowns of trees but I doubt anyone's bonsai would be lage enough off a colony to nest in.

By shifting the pot the termites won't have access to the plant, any remaining termites in the plant will die off in a short period of time, if your worried about them doing ny further damage to your plant they cn be easily treated with various chemicals available from hardware/nursery stores which is another option.

As for ants eating termites, yes they will, but only if they have access to the termites. Termites build and live in a sealed environment to protect themselves from predators like ants and from unfavourable environmental conditions. Ants will kill them only If they have acces to the inner working of a termites environment.

So in short, don't kill any plants, just sort out the termites. With any luck the plant will recover.



Cheers


Ps. Just read the original post, maybe the stump had wood borers in it? Without looking at them I couldn't say, but termites don't leave any dust or wood shavings, they eat the lot as they go through whatever it is they're eating.