North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["William C. Garthright" <billg@inebraska.com>]

> All you have to do is stop the ants from climbing in the tree. ...
> You can surround the trunk of the tree with a wide band of masking tape or 
> other material, and on this tape put a ring of Tanglefoot (not directly on 
> the bark of the tree is the idea). The ring of Tanglefoot should be 
> continuous and wide enough (at least an inch) so that the ant cannot build a 
> bridge accross.


That is what I tried a couple of years ago, when the aphids seemed to be 
taking over my Asian pear trees. However, as I noted earlier, it gets 
pretty windy here, and the tanglefoot was quickly (within a week or so) 
covered by mulch, straw, grass clippings, and other debris that had 
blown into it. As far as I could tell, it was a complete waste of time, 
since the ants had many easy bridges to travel over the stuff.

But your results might be different, especially if you don't get much wind.

Bill
Lincoln, NE (zone 5)

--
40% of Americans in the 21st century believe that the devil sometimes 
possesses people. We hoped for flying cars, and all we got was voodoo 
and speaking in tongues. I feel a little bit cheated. - PZ Myers