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Ants
helen378
Posts: 23
Hi can anyone help I have a duo apple tree in a pot and noticed the leaves on one of them have gone yellow. On closer inspection it is covered in ants and what look like ant eggs. How can I save my tree?
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Posts
they'll not be ant eggs they'll be aphids, the ants are farming them for honeydew, remove the aphids and the ants will g (high pressure water works well, if not insecticide. the damage to the leaves will not heal, but any new growth will be fine.
Thank you for the advice.
Hi everyone just to update on my apple tree, after using a bug spray killing the black fly and putting an ant trap in the pot (right in the path of the ants). I succeeded in saving my apple tree and after a couple of feeds although it already has apples on it, it has started to blossom again.
Thank you for the advice
More chemicals
In the sticks near Peterborough
A spray of water would have done the job, without wreaking havoc on the environment.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
Blossom on an apple tree at this time of year is not good news ... It indicates a plant under extreme stress.
It sounds to me as if that tree has been so thirsty it thinks it is dying and it is desperately trying to reproduce itself before that happens.
The fact that ants have been nesting in the pot indicates that the compost was much too dry - ants don't choose damp regularly watered pots to nest in.
Aphids may cause damage but they won't kill a healthy tree ... drought will
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
The tree gets watered everyday and I stand there with the hose pipe on it for 10 to 15 min until it looks like it can't absorb any more water. I did try the other methods suggested to kill the bugs and I hate using chemicals but sometimes you have no choice. I even moved the tree before spraying to try to prevent the chemicals from going where they are not needed. I try to encourage wildlife into my garden. I have 3 other trees in pots which I water the same way unless of course if it's raining and I've had no problems with them. In fact my apple tree has been looked after and cared for more this year then ever before yet it's had more problems then ever. If yous had seen it last year then yes it probably was suffering a drought. How ever I learnt that I had not been feeding it which I have started to do.
Last edited: 14 July 2017 08:44:56
there is always a choice re using chemicals
In the sticks near Peterborough