Ants in your region don't eat leaves. Look for a different critter.

jean,

thanks for the response, but i do have to disagree.

last year they were doing this to those same trees and i posted here and got that same response. at the time i did an extensive ( exhaustive ) little research project on the subject. i did find there are ants in the mid- atlantic states that do eat leaves but far away from my local.

they are not leafcutters and hauling away their booty either.

in my search i did come across a paper done at a university that stated there are many thousands of species of ants and little is known of most of them. i just now had to stop and rescue a small bull snake the cats brought in . grrr ! it reminds me of a rubber boa i caught here on my place a couple years ago. they are so rarely seen that nobody knows if they are endangered or not ( i have yet to find anyone here who has ever even heard of a rubber boa let alone see one). didn't find any available reseach due to the rarity fact. i did play with him a bit and took some photos for posterity. i think this ant thing may be the same deal.

last year a bull pruned the 2 asian pears down to just wood. this was mid-summer. when it sprouted new leaves the ants ate them as quick as they tried to unfurl and then the trees just eventually went dormant. newly planted and nice caliper about 3.5 feet tall. the ants were on the clapps but it held its own and survived but didn't grow much.

as they came out of dormancy the ants were back and again eating the half dozen or so leaves and the new growth before it unfurled. both asians. i've been fight them with a locked finger snap and applying double sided tape on the trunk and this has slowed them down enough that my hosui may be out of the dark and fighting them off. the 20th century is still trying to get a start. just started spraying the trunk with deer repellent and this is slowing them down also. the clapps probably has half its new leaves gone.

with the small size of the trees and my ability to exam the few leaves and new growth that exists i can guarantee there are zero other critters. even with a magnifying glass i can see nothing else. i exam them repeatedly over the course of the day and flip the ants off.

these same ants are on my other fruit trees and appear to do zero damage to them. this includes other asian pears that are just beautifully leafed out. i did see one of the red head type ants on an apple leaf that when i viewed it from underneath i could see light thru the leaf where the ant was eating.

i think once the trees are leafed out and putting on growth the ants do basically no noticeable damage. hence my question on whether my 20th century will hopefully try and leaf back out or if i'm gonna loose another years growth .

i will try and get a few pics for u but recently when i tried to get some from photobucket i must have forgot how and wasn't successful. old age and crs.

wildman

I would ask yourself this question. Do you want to save the trees or the ants? If it is the former, get some ant bait or insecticide and do it. If the latter hope.

the 20th century tree is leafing back out and it may just got enough of a head start with my efforts with the ants. can't let up as i noticed a couple of ants working it but i'll hit it again with the deer repellent on the trunk, that worked for a few days.

the cherry just looks worse everyday although lower on the trunk , it appears to have some fresh new buds.

wildlifeman

Wildlifeman,

I had a North Star Cherry do the same thing to me this year. I'm in a zone 5 too. I wonder if we got a late frost that took out the buds?

dude,

i can rule out the late frost. heck i'm even gonna get some apricots this year. my sweetheart is dying. i scraped a limb and trunk for a peek at the cambium and its turning sickly light green and brown. wish i knew what happened.

jean,

i've been diligently keeping the ants off my 20th century and like the hosui is now leafing back out and looking good. my clapps favorite has been releafing and also looks great. all i did was keep the ants off. i sprayed deer repellent on the trunks and from this day forth shall be called ant repellent. it lasts a few days before it needs reapplied. they are pushing wood so i think i'll only spray the trunks once more. it is those red-headed ants that did eat or destroy somehow the new growth. they bite and according to a local here they are a huge problem to eliminate . i sprayed them with ant spray and it doesn't even faze them. boiling water does make them scurry and leaves a few carcasses behind.

at this point the trees can handle them and i'll bet i'll have nice growth for the rest of the season.

wildlifeman