anesr: Ants in dead pear and apple branches are not the cause of branch dieback. They are there as opportunistic foragers, eating the dead wood. The branch dieback can be caused by a wide variety of factors, including several diseases, but in this case may simply be old age. Branch breakage of overloaded limbs is another matter, and can be reduced or eliminated by thinning the fruit before it reaches the overload point. Full-size apple trees on seedling rootstocks are capable of living beyond 40-50 years, but will suffer some branch losses along the way. To reinvigorate an older tree, first remove all of the dead wood, then prune back even living branches to induce the growth of healthy new wood. So have a crack at it, and try pruning down both the apples and pears to see if you can't stimulate some healthy new growth. It will either work or won't work, and if it doesn't you can consider planting some new trees. I am always a fan of planting a few new fruit trees whether you need them or not. Meanwhile, the ant, termites, or whatever they are, are not the cause but an effect of the dead branches, since they are not interested in healthy, living wood. Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

g'day charlie, seen some termite action in our new gardens but no worry they are recyclers in nature, and may not be the type that eats houses(we build in steel and material termites can't eat) so long as you are maintaining your termite barrier around the house ie.,. a dry zone for 1 meter out best using some sort of stones, blue metal good if you can do a depth of 300mm. then if you want a path around house lay that over the next meter, so you have a 2 meter wide zone of no plants. then have a treatment done as most people live in homes of timber. len Here is a link that might be useful: lens bale garden

The boards were not any heavier than some fresh wood I bought at Lowes to finish the boxes. I do feel slightly relieved after reading your responses. I inspected the box where they were crawling after work today and didn't see a single bug, but it was also lightly raining. I'm actually a bit perplexed as the wood for that box is mostly new and of the old pieces.. I don't see any 'iffy' spots, holes or rotting. I actually moved that box and replaced it with another box in the same spot (lettuce sprouted in the ground there last week and it's too early to not protect them). Looking over the 'infected' frame.. I didn't see any structural damage and not a single bug anywhere in or on the wood. When it dries out, I'll see if they return. So I should look for knots and hollowed-out parts on this wood? One other possibility...I collected pine needles last fall for compost materials from a random neighborhood close to where I work. Maybe they came from there? I have a couple plastic bags of these needles under my deck, so I better inspect those too. The good news is that if they try to eat the treated wood that comprises my deck (arsenic) it'll be the last piece of wood they ever chew. Do the queens lay eggs and move on? Maybe the warmness in the boxes allowed them to hatch?

Im not trying to be childish at all it just seems that there are alot of people on this forum that are so critical about random stuff. I apologize for not using punctuation but it seems to me that a garden forum is kind of a dumb place to have a hen pecking contest, Im sorry I am the VP for one of the largest fiber operations in TX leaving me with very minimal time to even post questions much less make sure that all my I's are dotted and T's are crossed, and she didn't even offer any helpful advice it was just blah blah blah I think your stupid and I'm smart because I am ever so eloquent and use punctuation marks big whoop my 4 year old learned that this year. Listen guys I am an extremely hard working business woman who is a mother of four and a leader to many and if this was and email to one of my clients, or sales reps I would make sure all of the punctuation marks that were necessary were there and I had sectioned my thoughts into stanza's and paragraphs but Im doing the best I can with what little time I have life is too short and I can't believe I'm writing this, because this is five minutes of my life spent in trying to offer up some insight to the people on this forum that I feel hide behind their computer and have nothing better to do than to pick fights on local POP servers! So that being said I bid you adue and just know I really dont want to make garden buddies and I will eventually get the help I need I just use this as a reference point, I hope I didn't offend anyone with this post but if I did get over we are all here to do what............ you got it grow some tomatos :) have a good one!