Are Ants Good For Fruit Trees?!?!
 

Hello, I'm new here and have this question.

We have two young fruit trees which are plagued with green fly.

The ants love and look after them by harvesting their sweet residue and they also scare off any preditors like spiders, grubs, etc etc..

Is it better to have the green fly or the grubs?

Grubs eat the young leaves whereas green fly dont actually kill the leaves they just take their fill of sap. If we keep the ants away then surely we will have grubs and green fly as opposed to just the green fly.

Cheers

Are Ants Good For Fruit Trees?!?!
 

The message
from shEdward contains these words:

Hello, I'm new here and have this question.

We have two young fruit trees which are plagued with green fly.

The ants love and look after them by harvesting their sweet residue and
they also scare off any preditors like spiders, grubs, etc etc..

Is it better to have the green fly or the grubs?

Grubs eat the young leaves whereas green fly dont actually kill the
leaves they just take their fill of sap.

No they don't *ONLY* take the sap - they transmit viruses too.

anti-EC whisper
Acquire a few rhubarb leaves and boil them to extract their
'essence'. Add a small amount of a good washing-up liquid. Spray the
aphids with this and that'll put paid to them.
/whisper

Then paint round the base of the trunk with a sticky paint you can buy
just for the job - stops wrigglies and crawlies getting up there. (Not
aphids though - they come airmail.

If we keep the ants away then
surely we will have grubs and green fly as opposed to just the green
fly.

Ladybird larvae are all very well, but not quick enough, unless you can
find a lot of them somewhere else, and rehouse them. Otherwise, you have
to wait for eggs to be laid, for them to hatch, and for the larvae to be
big enough to make a difference - by which time, there will be
infestations elsewhere...

--
Rusty
Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional.
Direct reply to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co period uk

You do not want ants, greenfly or grubs. Encourage your local birds, particularly the bluetits who should be taking these to feed their offspring.