Chrerry Tree Infested w/ Ants or Termites?

Sounds like carpenter ants. The dust is from their galleries. They control the environment inside the tree by limiting moisture. Too wet or too dry stalls the decay pathogen. In this sense ants are a benefit for the tree. They stay within boundaries set by the tree after wounding.

Ants are good guys. Leave them alone. Even if you have them in your house, the reason would be rotten wood in your house. They stall the rot process in building materials as well.

termites also respect boundaries set by the tree. If you are in the south many times the problem which caused the termites to be present was flush cut pruning.

Your description does not sound like ants.

As far as your use of pesticides, user beware.

Anyway, the cause of the issue with the presence or organisms is wounds to the tree. Even termites follow wounds and stay in chemically altered wood from the wound.

Sincerely, John A. Keslick, Jr. Arborist

What I was trying to say is that you

1. Diagnose
2. Treat
3. Access

The problem you made was you treated, now you are trying to diagnose.

Sincerely, John A. Keslick, Jr. Consulting Arborist

More important than the presence of organisms are the following. If you have addressed these issues you should be in good shape.

Many tree problems are associated with the following: They are Case Sensitive.

Troubles in the Rhizosphere

Improper Pruning

I 100% agree in leaving ants alone if at all possible. I am skeptical about your statement implying that they only come into your house if there is rotting wood. I'm also skeptical that they halt the rotting process. How does the formic acid ants exude do that? I'd think it further breaks down the lignite in the wood - that is ants destroy wood rather than make it last longer.

Near me there is an ancient Indian city named by the whites Chaco Canyon. Abandoned by Indians due to changed climate (dried out) you can go there and find large pieces of wood which were trees over 700 years ago. The ranger there told me that the wood still exists because there are no ants (no water) to digest the wood. Was that information wrong?

-paul

could be a number of type of ants, but all of them are beneficial to the tree...they are not killing your tree but excavating in already diseased/rotted wood. They are just a symptom of another issue.

Lar

Thinking you are meaning carpenter ants here but even then 85%-90% of all carpenter ant work I do in homes has nothing to do with wood at all much less wet/rotting wood and the c-ant nest that I find around wood is more so for the hollow void rather than it being wet. (hollow core doors & crown molding are usually the culprits)

Lar

Ants stall decay by limiting moisture.

It gets worse in that I sprayed Bonide Termite and Carpenter Ant Killer into an opening in the tree which caused the ants to rpidly exit the tree and I suspect the carpenter ants won't ever return to inside the tree because of the spray and the spray may hurt the tree. Is it possible that fungus could be in the tree? Fungus is on the outside of the tree.

The Bonide Termite and Carpenter Ant Killer looks to be a couple of pyrethroids, which breaks down so ants probably could be back in within a couple of months, hard to say. Fungi infected wood probably was what gave the ants a place to nest to begin with. The fungus will be in parts of the wood that are staying wet, not sure if there any way to avoid such areas in any large tree.

Lar

Why not just cut the tree down and be done with the ants?

Well, I think not when I can pour 5lbs of salt arounf the roots wait two weeks then burn it then plow the ground.

Several years ago, beofre I bought the house someone and trimmed it resulting in several places on the trunk that are entrance points for the ants.I think the tree has fungus inside and the ants were probably carrying out the rotten wood.

next time I'll check w/ this group before doing anything. I hope the tree survives and the ants return to their home.

"symplastless" expounded:

Healthy trees do not have ants. Trees that are compromised in some way have ants. If you were any kind of an arborist you'd know that.

In fact many healthy trees have ants. An understanding of compartmentalization or decay in trees is a must. Trees wall off areas and within the areas the wood is symplastless. A new tree grows around the old tree every year. You really need to understand CODIT which means compartmentalization of decay in trees, to understand the role of ants. Do you also proclaim that a healthy tree has no relationship with fungus as well? Why without mycorrhizae many trees would not maintain a symplast. Ants and trees have been around long before us and will remain an associate of trees when we are long gone. Ants stay the decay pathogen which can lead to a healthy tree. I mean healthy in a mechanical manner as well as a biological manner.

Look at this.

No, ants and trees and wood peckers get along fine.

If they made flush cuts and used wound dressing I am sure you got rot. Just the flush cut alone will stimulate decay because it removes the collar of branch and truck tissue collectively termed the branch collar. The collar has little chemical factories that resist the spread of pathogens into the trees. If you remove the collar you remove this defense feature. In Texas, years after years of flush cutting and applying wound dressing has really stimulated oak wilt. If you want to make a home for small wildlife you can make a flush cut and a cavity will form. Not good for the tree but good for small wildlife.

"symplastless" expounded:

I give up. If you think trees with decay, fungus and ants are healthy then you must be right.....ya.