Getting Rid of Ants from Fruit Trees

For most gardening enthusiasts, their backyard is incomplete without a couple or more of fruit trees. Luckily, the climate in and near Dallas and Fort Worth, TX is ideal for growing a number of different fruit trees, including apple, fig, peach, pear, and plum trees.

Just like all other trees, your fruit trees require proper maintenance, which at times goes beyond the regular trimming and pruning. Call 469-789-6775 today for professional tree trimming services in Dallas and Fort Worth area.

While most care requirements for fruit trees are similar to those of the other trees, there is one additional problem that these trees have to face – ants! Now we’re not saying regular trees don’t get infested with ants, but the problem is more pervasive in the fruit trees.

When we talk about pest infestations in trees, ants are quite different from the other types of insects and crawlers. Not all ants pose a threat to your trees – some may even help you look after your trees better!

But the problem is: how do you distinguish between the ants that help your fruit trees from the ones that harm them?

Ants on Your Trees: Good or Bad?

Normally, ants are attracted to the trees for 2 basic reasons. They’re either:

Looking for the honeydew excreted by other critters, or
Searching for rotten wood or tree cavities to make homes in

Normally, ants don’t physically harm your trees. Instead, they present you with a red flag that your tree might be in trouble. You may require emergency tree service in Dallas and Fort Worth area to restore proper health to your fruit trees.

But, they’re always exceptions!

Like we mentioned before, there are several types of ants. Out of those, there are two types of ants that can actually damage your tree:

The Red Fire Ants

These ants can inflict any living thing they touch with terrible blisters. They are specifically harsh on saplings and young trees. The red fire ants live in dome-shaped mounds that they build usually around the base of the trees. These ants are aggressive and tend to sting anything that disturbs their home. Don’t touch these dome-shaped mounds, instead contact us for quality tree service in Dallas and Fort Worth region.

The Carpenter Ants

The carpenter ants announce their presence with the mounds of sawdust near the base of the tree. Black in color, the carpenter ants normally den inside trees with rotten wood. If you have carpenter ants residing in one of your trees, it’s a clear indication that the tree is weak and can fall anytime. It is best to consult a professional tree service like us in Dallas and Fort Worth area to see whether your tree requires emergency removal or not.

Getting Rid of Ants

An ant infestation may not be fatal for your tree, but it can spread into your homes and other parts of the landscape if not controlled in time. Good thing is that this breakout of ants can be limited and even reversed by simple remedies; alternatively, you can call S & P Tree Service for professional tree maintenance in Dallas and Fort Worth area. Here’s what you should do to get rid of ants:

Make peppermint oil and water solution adding 30 drops of the oil into a gallon of water. Spray the solution on your fruit trees. Ants abhor peppermint and will abandon your tree as soon as they smell it.
An insecticide or a horticultural soap will kill the insects feeding on tree sap. This will eliminate the supply of honeydew on the trees that attracts the ants. Our tree service in Dallas and Fort Worth area includes getting rid of insect infestations for you. Call 469-789-6775 today!
Ant baits lined around the bottom of your trees will capture them as they pass by it.
Sprinkle chilli powder around your tree bases and garden beds – the ants can’t stand chilli powder and will stay away from your trees.
Black pepper is another potent ant repellent. Sprinkle it around the trees and the ants will be gone before you know it.
Line the areas around the base of your trees with cinnamon and the ants wouldn’t cross that line.
Want to stop the ants from climbing your trees? Try wrapping your tree trunks with inside out packaging scotch tape. It will keep the ants off, but you need to be on your toes with regular replacement of the tape when it gets dirty with ants and debris.

Getting Rid of the Fire Ants

While we can efficiently manage the removal of fire ants for you as part of our tree maintenance services in Dallas and Fort Worth Area, this is what you need to do if you want to remove the fire ants yourself:

Take a large pot that can hold up to 2 gallons of water. Fill it with water and set it on the stove to heat.
Heat the water till it’s anywhere between 160 and 170 degrees hot.
Once the water is heated, silently carry the pot to the fire ant mound and pour it on the side of it – as near to it as you can. Be careful not to raise any alarm for the fire ants.
Douse the ant hill with the hot water – all of it. Remember, your aim is to kill the queen. So make sure you do this anytime before 11:00 am and after 2:00 pm – when the queen is not active.
You’re most likely to notice that the ants that survive the flooding would be busy building a new mound nearby. You, need to repeat the procedure – again – and continue so for at least 3 days or until you don’t see ant hills sprouting nearby.

*Please Note: Using this method on ant mounds built too close to the roots of your plants and trees can burn the roots and damage the plant/tree.

It’s best to leave jobs like these for the experts. At S & P Tree Service, we take care of all your tree maintenance requirements in Dallas and Fort Worth region. Check out our broad scope of tree services in Dallas and Fort Worth, for further information.