AusBonsai

On one of my olives I have notice a few ants and few red little spiders but what has me worried is if a scratch surface of soil little flying ants appear...problem??

Is there an ants nest in the soil? Take a look if you have scales on the leaves.

If you got bugs in your soil, safest option is new soil.

Edward, when would be the best time for a repot on an Olive?

If you don't want to repot just yet, you can probably find a good natural insecticide. Dead insects are good fertiliser, they just need to be processed by another insect and pooped out first.

Cheers
-Mo

I can't see any scale

MoGanic wrote:If you got bugs in your soil, safest option is new soil.

Edward, when would be the best time for a repot on an Olive?

If you don't want to repot just yet, you can probably find a good natural insecticide. Dead insects are good fertiliser, they just need to be processed by another insect and pooped out first.

Cheers
-Mo

Mo, I live in sydney where winter are mild and I repot olives all year round. But the best time may be early spring perhaps. Olives are easy, very very hardy so you can pot them up all year round. Best during warmer months though.

Ants love the warmth and moisture in a pot above the ground . You can imerse the whole pot in water and they will all climbup the tree and then you can dispose of them or dip into a solution of insecticide meant for plants Eg, Malathon or Confidor, and that will kill the whole lot.

Goff wrote:I can't see any scale

Thats good. But follow the ants and see what theyre up to and check where theyre coming from. Sometimes you can see them farming scales. There you go, Hacki has a good suggestion for you in getting rid of insects.