Grapefruit trees in the household orchard provide a pleasing aesthetic encroachment and delicious yield crops that are in peril of pestilence plague by unlike varieties of ants . Contrary to distinctive belief , emmet do not merely show up on your Citrus paradisi tree because they are hungry but because another pesterer is already wreaking mayhem . Become intimate with this cuss relationship and provide attentive maintenance to invalidate problems in your citrus garden .

Care

Providing appropriate care results in vigorous grapefruit Tree with an ability to guard off pests that strain or counteract trees can not achieve . maturate Citrus paradisi tree in areas that offer full sun for the best growth of yield and goodish growth , according to the AgriLife Extension Texas A&M System . Provide moist , extremely well - drain territory as citrus tree diagram quickly suffer injury from waterlogged soil , draw them more susceptible to pest invasion .

Types

A change of ants assail grapefruit trees . Red imported fire ants ( Solenopsis invicta ) create vaulted mounds . Southern ardor ants ( Solenopsis xyloni ) build open mounds near the bottom of tree trunks ; these ants display wan flushed / dark-brown bodies . Argentinian ants ( Linepithema humile ) are brown - bodied emmet known as worker ants that work ant lines on tree control surface . Native grizzly ants ( Formica aerata ) display large gray organic structure and make nest within rocky region or surface soil .

Misconceptions

Common noesis propose ant flock to any nutrient source and therefore take up residency in grapefruit tree . However , ants are attracted to citrus due to an already existing pest infestation of wet-nurse bugs that remove tissue paper fluid from plants . During this feeding operation , bugs like aphids or surmount excrete honeydew , a sugary center . Ant infestations arise as pismire corrode the honeydew and continue on to jaw bark and twigs . Due to their dependence upon honeydew , ants move as protector of the sucking germ already present on the tree diagram , grant to the University of California IPM Online .

Effects

As a outcome of their protective function , emmet commove the controller of other louse pests that would otherwise not uphold attacking your grapefruit tree . Natural predators that feed on sucking hemipteron are turned aside from the tree diagram by ant . Additionally , ant cause ornamental damage to trees during feeding and are known to constipate irrigation arrangement . Consistent price chair to diminished health of tree .

Control

To hold ants on grapefruit trees naturally , remove branch from your grapefruit tree that repose less than 30 inches from the ground to make access to leave-taking more hard . Apply a wrapper to the trunk with a gummy open or the summation of a awkward kernel to trap emmet , preventing them from climbing onto fruit and foliage . stave off employ sticky nub directly to tree bark , as injury may come about .

For chemical control options , employ sweetener as a method acting of poisoning ant without go for toxins to the tree itself . For direct striking , lend oneself an insecticide with the combat-ready ingredient chlorpyrifos . Bait station may take longer to work but are more effective , as ants convey poison back to the nest before dying . Contact your local county filename extension agent to set up a command curriculum tailored to your particular ant infestation .

References

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