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Sue Quinnell starts with ... Has anyone developed a physical method to control ants and scale on citrus trees? I have used white oil with limited success (except removal of sotty mould). I have applied vaseline bands around tree trunks. The ants removed this over 2 days and continued farming the scale. I think the drought has made the trees very susceptable. They have at least 4 types of scale.At night literally millions of ants swarm over the trees thanks for any help Sue | About the Author Yugar 29th June 2007 11:18am #UserID: 1 Posts: View All 's Edible Fruit Trees |
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Kath says... Sue this is very interesting as I am currently on the same mission and have been feeling very smug since I set up my Vaseline bands about 4 weeks ago, so far they are working very well and the recent rain is washing all the sooty mould off the leaves of my finger lime tree which is looking healthier than it has all year. This is how I made my bands. I wrapped some grafting tape around the trunk of my tree in a band about 6 cm wide. I used this in particular as it stretches so it will not ring bark my tree and it breaks down and is easy to remove. Plumbing tape would work in the same way. I then smeared a 1 cm thick 2cm long band of Vaseline all the way around the trunk of any trees in my orchard with ant activity or scale. Citrus and star apples are particularly attractive to scale so these had the most ant activity. My ants were stumped immediately, it took a few days for them to all fall or drop out of the trees but there is not longer any movement of ants up and down the trunks of my trees. Make sure there are no other access points for the ants like stakes or nearby trees that are touching as they will move onto these highways if they can. I anticipate replacing them every month and will move them up and down the truck of the tree when I do this so as to not damage the stem in any way. | About the Author Kath Cawongla 29th June 2007 11:49am #UserID: 2 Posts: 363 View All Kath's Edible Fruit Trees |
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About the Author 29th June 2007 5:44pm #UserID: 1 Posts: View All 's Edible Fruit Trees |
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Kath says... Sue, I have discovered that my partner has also been spraying our trees with white oil while I am not looking. So together we are succeeding in our battle against the ants and scale. Our ants do not seem to have moved the vaseline yet but we may have different types of ants to you. A blast with a high pressure hose usually works on the crawlers and will clean up any sooty mould and dead scale also. | About the Author Kath1 Cawongla 6th July 2007 8:58am #UserID: 7 Posts: 8 View All Kath1's Edible Fruit Trees |
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About the Author Ross Coe Whiteside 21st September 2007 12:45pm #UserID: 325 Posts: 1 View All Ross Coe's Edible Fruit Trees |
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Correy says... Here are some great photos of how to rid ants from your fruit trees. There is also a blog on this subject now: Blog: Ants And Fruit Trees
| About the Author Correy Woolloongabba, QLD 5th February 2008 10:34am #UserID: 3 Posts: 493 View All Correy's Edible Fruit Trees |
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About the Author John10 SB South Australia 5th February 2008 10:58am #UserID: 549 Posts: 127 View All John10's Edible Fruit Trees |
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About the Author Dekka Newcastle 5th February 2008 11:36am #UserID: 102 Posts: 219 View All Dekka's Edible Fruit Trees |
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About the Author Correy Woolloongabba, QLD 5th February 2008 5:27pm #UserID: 3 Posts: 493 View All Correy's Edible Fruit Trees |
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John says... Correy, I can get away with using it on a 3 month cycle. We are on basicly sand or what I call beach sand. Everything leaches right through and doesnt last for long. Coffee is leathal to snails in particular and slugs. We get inundated with little white snails, '000 per tree. So the coffee is required. However, for quality soils only use it as required. Its toxic to worms and the other good stuff in the soil. Overdosing consistenly may serilize the area. I've been using about 2 cups spread in a circle around my trees about a foot from the trunk for ten plus years. | About the Author John10 SB South Australia 5th February 2008 6:20pm #UserID: 549 Posts: 127 View All John10's Edible Fruit Trees |
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About the Author Dekka Newcastle 5th February 2008 10:53pm #UserID: 102 Posts: 219 View All Dekka's Edible Fruit Trees |
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About the Author Sue9 coffs harbour 24th October 2008 8:48pm #UserID: 1552 Posts: 1 View All Sue9's Edible Fruit Trees |
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About the Author Pauline Adelaide 24th October 2008 9:11pm #UserID: 1532 Posts: 293 View All Pauline's Edible Fruit Trees |
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About the Author peetah 4th October 2011 2:10pm #UserID: 543 Posts: 92 View All peetah's Edible Fruit Trees |
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About the Author JohnMc1 Warnervale NSW 4th October 2011 3:09pm #UserID: 2743 Posts: 2043 View All JohnMc1's Edible Fruit Trees |
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Abby E says... I tried the vaseline on my mandarin tree, but as mentioned above the ants climbed over it and then it melted down the trunk onto the soil. Had a few nervous days of cleaning it up and hoping it didn't harm the tree. It is holding its own, but scale and ants continue to be a problem. I use jets of water and the number of scale has reduced, but they are still there! Might give the white oil a try too. Not keen to try the vas remedy again though! | About the Author Abby Adelaide 11th March 2012 4:30pm #UserID: 6686 Posts: 2 View All Abby's Edible Fruit Trees |
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About the Author JohnI Melton 11th March 2012 5:06pm #UserID: 1975 Posts: 248 View All JohnI's Edible Fruit Trees |
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About the Author MaryT Sydney 11th March 2012 5:36pm #UserID: 5412 Posts: 2066 View All MaryT's Edible Fruit Trees |
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Original Post was last edited: 13th March 2012 7:27am | ||||||||||
About the Author Abby South Australia 16th March 2012 4:04pm #UserID: 6686 Posts: 2 View All Abby's Edible Fruit Trees |
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About the Author Sues Prospect 6th February 2014 12:14pm #UserID: 9444 Posts: 1 View All Sues's Edible Fruit Trees |
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JohnMc1 says... All I can offer is get it all off asap and hope for the best. If the area is ringbarked badly enough to kill the tree, you could try a technique called Bridge grafting, Google may be your friend there. You are lucky in one respect, now is the best time for a successful graft. I don't know if spraying the canopy with water/seasol/dilute nutrients regularly would help. Depends on how damaged the cambium layer is. | About the Author JohnMc1 Warnervale NSW 6th February 2014 9:17pm #UserID: 2743 Posts: 2043 View All JohnMc1's Edible Fruit Trees |
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About the Author JanetRD Busselton 6th March 2020 3:14pm #UserID: 21763 Posts: 1 View All JanetRD's Edible Fruit Trees |
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