Quasimoto was doing very well until the other day. Five well formed young ones and what looks like another fifty on the way. I discovered a group of ants crawling about and puncturing
the babies. They then oozed white stuff which the ants were harvesting and carrying away.
We have instituted a 24 hour watch but they are sneaky and slip by from time to time. Now I have sprayed Quasi ( My affectionate name for the tree ) with anti ant spray. Success for the
moment.
Of all the colonial hymenopterous insects, the formicidae are my least favorite. There are many different types, most of them swarming about our modest garden. We have enormous black ants with the annoying habit of crawling onto ones arm or leg.Nasty fire ants also like to get on ones body and they pack a nasty sting. I remember , as a child, that big red ants were prevalent. We see very few of them in this area. The ones after the papayas are black and medium sized. I don't suppose there is any way to eliminate them.
1 comment:
If you can tolerate a sort of hippy-ish solution:
Diatomaceous earth is a fine dust made from the ground shells of diatoms. Apparently this stuff penetrates straight into the chitinous bodies of insects and just tears them to pieces.
I know it sounds hokey, but I have used it in my garden for years and have never seen it fail.
Just sprinkle it all over the ground around Quasi.
xox
~F
Post a Comment