It's attracting ants.. Lots of tiny red ants ..
I picked some up with my hands and killed them, but the closer I
looked the more ants I saw..

How do I get rid of these without harming the seedling?

On Mar 23, 9:48 am, "Ivan" wrote:
It's attracting ants.. Lots of tiny red ants ..
I picked some up with my hands and killed them, but the closer I
looked the more ants I saw..

How do I get rid of these without harming the seedling?

Note: The baobab is outside, always. As it is summer (well, autumn in
Australia, but still having scortching days of about 35 degrees), I
thought it be best to keep it in that environment.
I thought of putting it on a saucer with water (and thus creating a
moat around it) to keep the ants off .. But would this not increase
the humidity?
I don't know if these trees (especially at such young stage) tolerate
the humidity very well..

On Mar 22, 5:48 pm, "Ivan" wrote:
It's attracting ants.. Lots of tiny red ants ..
I picked some up with my hands and killed them, but the closer I
looked the more ants I saw..

How do I get rid of these without harming the seedling?

Ants themselves usually don't harm plants--unless they are leaf-
cutters--, but they can be a sign of other problems. Ants will "farm"
aphids (greenfly) and scale insects, if these are problems in Oz.

Some plants, herbaceous peonies, bull's horn acacia and some orchids,
for example, have a mutualistic relationship with ants. I don't know
whether baobabs do.


Check the plant for scale or aphids. One way to keep ants from
reaching the plant would be to use a sticky barrier such as Tanglefoot
or petroleum jelly in a band around the pot.


J. Del Col