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Fig Tree Pests - Bees, Ants, Etc.

13 years ago

PLEASE HELP!

Last year it was bees, yellow jackets mostly, that were eating all of my figs, and now this year, tiny ants have joined the feast. What can I do to prevent this from occurring? I prefer natural remedies, but at this point, I'd consider nuclear weapons if it would help...

Thanks!!!

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Comments (3)

crez
13 years ago
On my cherry trees, I have wrapped plastic food wrap around the trunk, somewhere where the bark is fairly smooth. Over the plastic wrap I smear a band of grease about an inch and a half wide, so there is no way up the tree for the ants without crossing the grease. I'm not sure that the tree would like the grease straight onto the bark. If the bark is not smooth sometimes the ants find a way under the wrap. Tanglefoot can be used instead of grease. I have had ants eat my figs, but never a real problem.

David
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dieseler
13 years ago
Tanglefoot stops the ants i use this. The yellow jackets can be fierce and seem to tell the friends when they find something and before you know i you have so many and this sounds like what your going through.
It happened to me and the culprit was my pussy willow tree they were attracted to it, that winter a storm split it real bad and i cut it down. Now i get the occasional yellow jacket here and there and any fallen figs must be picked up as this will attract them as well. Watch if they have a nearby area in my case this year they were going into 1 of my chainlink fence pipes (gate posts) and that was taken care of. Also had to spray a nest in corner roof of shed as they were there as well which is near the trees.
In short anywhere you see them gathering in a pipe, fence, corner of roof etc you would have to get them outta there.
Another option is to buy or build some homemade wasp trap these will capture many as well but keep them away from your fig trees not to attract them there in that area.
I still get some yellow jackets here and there and shoe them away with my hat i wear but nothing close to the many before.
You will never get rid of them just manage there numbers hopefuly.
Martin
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I picked the ants out of the figs the birds left behind and ate them. A little crunchy and tart, were they? :o) Okay, seriously, ants *can* be one of the worst invaders (my aunt's Brunswick figs in Chincoteague were always crawling with the tiny opportunists whenever the fruit got at that near-perfect ripeness), but Gene's concept of the Tanglefoot barrier at the tree base is as near to foolproof as I can think of (I've used a similar system keeping them out of my hummingbird feeder hung on a shepherd's hook). Wasps are tougher to deter, and all I can think of is a fine netting hung over the tree/bush to ward off the flying kind of pests, although wasps will be more persistent than birds to get under it, in my experience shielding my blueberries. The other deal with wasps is that sometimes you don't see them sitting on the fig, and I've come very close to grabbing one in my hand twice last season, when they were hanging on to the fig in the early evening and were almost indistinguishable from the fruit in the half-light. Be careful when harvesting! Sherry (totally toast on a Friday at the end of work)
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Nothing you can do about bee except if you find the nest,kill it. What you can do is harvest figs early in the morning before bee start flying. Or after night fall,with a flash light. If they are wasps they are good for environment as they eat mosquitoes too. Wasps are docile if you do not bother them and use cotton gloves when harvest fruits.
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oregonwoodsmoke
13 years ago
Yellow jacket traps work well. A fine netting would keep them off the fruit.

The plus for them is that they are bug eaters. The minus is that they are aggressive about stinging, so I get rid of yellow jacket nests. The other hornets I leave alone unless they are getting into the house or decide to get territorial about the fruit.

One option is to harvest after dark when they are in bed. So what if the neighbors doubt your sanity as you are out there with a flashlight picking figs?
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