Fruit Farm Hygene,

[Lickey]

I would think a lot of you good farmers would remeber my posts on mealy bugs and ants recently,

The spray i used seems to have halted the progress very well, the mealy bugs were on the papaya [a lot of which had to be destroyed] on the cassava and Sister in laws rubber trees.

The bugs in turn increased the ant population 100fold, [they feed on the bugs excretia] and spread the bugs to other plants, so they can have more excretia [shit, in case ive spelt it wrong} .

2 months ago, i done a trial, i pressure washed the bugs from the papaya and painted a grease band 2in wide around the trunk, this was done on about 200 plants, today, they look healthy and have good fruit, Other plants i sprayed with inseticide, about 300 plants, This seems to have got rid of the bugs as well, but it looks like the ants are back, so will grease band these too.

I left 300 odd plants to fend for themselves, to see if nature would take its course in hoping there is a natural predator for the bugs, it seems the heavy rains and high winds have helped to clean these plants, or knocked the ants and bugs out,i dont know?

All of which brings me onto my recent and ongoing problem, SNAILS!,

The grease banding stops the snails eating the papaya fruit, but all these plants are intercropped with banana plants, and of course are fighting for sunlight, 90% the leaves touch so the snails can get to the fruit, they live and breed under the banana leaf as well.

Apparantley, when its wet and humid they breed like crazy under a fallen or cut off banana leaf, so the plantation has got to be cleaned up, Then i can apply some pellets to kill off the snails.

So i know where the ants and snails come from now, but ive googled til my fingers are numb to find out why we had the mealy bugs in the first place!

Would really appreciate some help with this one,

TIA, Lickey.

[pnustedt]

I recently planted a cashew orchard with trees from Sisaket Agricultural College. We, too, have loads of ants and I asked the college how to get rid of them. They were quite emphatic that we should not kill the ants because they eat the mealy bugs etc. and help keep the trees healthy.

Now how do I stop my wife, who has a personal mission to kill every ant in Thailand?

[meandwi]

You may want to do a search on google for "ants tending mealy bugs". I found this article that was interesting.

Mealybug control often focuses on the control of caretaking ants that are essential for the proper development of mealybugs. They provide the mealybugs shelter, protection from predators and parasites, and keep them clean from detritus that may accumulate in the secreted honeydew and be deleterious to the colony. Because of the essential role of the ants, management practices often include the control of tending ant species. Without the ants, mealybug populations are small and slow to invade new areas and the field would be free of a serious mealybug infestation.

As for snails, Yours are hiding under the banana leaves from the day sun. When you do your clean up, make sure you destroy any snails you find. We use old boards/ lumber to collect them. We place stones under the wood to raise about an inch off the ground. During the day they hide under them making it easy to destroy. They only come out at night, so sometimes we go out with flashlights to help control them.

good luck,

meandwi

[Lickey]

Pnustedt, from my own experience it seems Sisaket college is very wrong about mealy bugs and ants, ive researced this no-end and all it comes back is that ants are very responsible for spreading the juice sucking bugs, they love the honeydew [shit] from the bug and will go out of its way to protect the bug and spread it, so your Mrs is correct, and if she wants to kill all the ants in Thailand, then i will campaign with her, you know, banners in the street, march on parliament ect, Ants have lost and cost me a lot of money this year on control of them.

meandwi,

Thanks for your post, as you can see, im up to speed with the mealy/ant problem, ok, onto the snails, the snails that are in the papaya already are hiding between the fruit and the trunk, to keep out of the sun i suppose, what ive been doing today is painting on the grease band, then giving the trunk a sharp blows with my hand or foot, this dislogdes the snails and they come raining down, they or the ants cant go back up the tree because of the painted on grease band, [2 months on and the greased trees look ok, in the long-term i dont know what effect the grease will have on the tree or fruit?] I was in a do or die situation there.

I did see some stuff on the net about using wood for a snail shelter, with 800 papaya and near 1600 banana plants its a tall order, but with all the offcuts from the the 2 sawmills on the farm, possible!

I really dont want to use snail pellets if i can help it, the neighbours chickens and there latest brood wander about the plantations, and his dogs keep the vermin down,

Cheers, Lickey.

[lannarebirth]

Hi Lickey,

I was at the ag Fair today here in Chiang mai and went to speak with the government ag agent charged with pest control for farmers. I explained to him about your mealy bug problem and he had a solution. In addition to him wanting to give you a whole bunch of beneficial insects (free or near free) he had a fungus culture he was pushing that he was pretty certain would take care of your problem. I wrote down the name of it. It is " Beauveria Bassiana " and here's a Wiki writeup on it's capabilities:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beauveria_bassiana

The Ag show runs through friday, here in Chiang Mai at the Royal Flora grounds. If you can't make the show, his offices are only a couple of hundred meters away from there anyway.

For rice farmer, there was a pretty good display of nearly 100% mechanized rice farming methodolgy and implements. Pretty good show.

[Lickey]

Hi Lannarebirth,

Thankyou very much for thinking of my problems and a great link, I had a bit of time on my side this morning and came up with another great link.

http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Publications/Zoo...ers.cfm#anchor1

It explains all about ants, including the funghi you mention, and it seems it can be bought as a powder with the spores that react when spead or sprayed to eventually kill ants and importantly the queen.

The 300 odd plants i thought were to far gone and never treated miracously recovered and producing good fruit again, there didnt seem to be any airborne daytime predators or crawlers, so perhaps this funghi is already in the soil? or did the and carry them back to there nest, incubating them for the next fresh growth?

Last weekend i was gifted 10 ltrs of pure mollases, i dilluted 1/2 cup to 10 litres water and poured down ant holes and nests, some died off or moved off quicky like they do, next day i sprayed all of the bamboo plantation with a weaker mix, 2 hours later the place was overun with worker ants looking for a sweet drink, so the motor sprayer was filled with contact inseticide and sprayed all over.

Today was the 1st day in months i have been able to take a snack and ciggi break in the bamboo without a red ant dropping down my neck or crawling up my legs and biting.

I dont like interfering with eco-systems but the ants have interferred with mine for long enough now!!

Thanks again LB, Cheers, Lickey..

[jts-khorat]

I recently planted a cashew orchard with trees from Sisaket Agricultural College. We, too, have loads of ants and I asked the college how to get rid of them. They were quite emphatic that we should not kill the ants because they eat the mealy bugs etc. and help keep the trees healthy.

Now how do I stop my wife, who has a personal mission to kill every ant in Thailand?

With regard to Cashew Nuts and ants: http://www.echotech.org/mambo/images/DocMan/Cashew.pdf

"Fred and Melinda Rickson, scientists from the University of Oregon, found that spraying can be avoided by encouraging an ecosystem conducive to organisms, especially ants, which prey on cashew pests. Ricksons discovered that the nectaries (pits which secrete nectar) on cashew trees apparently attract ants to places where the trees are susceptible to pest damage (especially the young leaves, developing inflorescenses and young fruits). These nectaries also attract spiders and predatory and parasitic wasps. All of these insects then prey upon the cashew insect pests. The number of nectaries increases as the tree becomes larger, and therefore more ant species are found in older trees. With younger plantings, it may be advisable to encourage a more diversified habitat to attract more ants. Creating desirable habitats for ants and other beneficial insects is done by mixed plantings, having brush and grass understories, and leaving dead wood and flat stones in the area (Rickson and Rickson, 1998). If these growing conditions are met, preventative pesticide application should be unnecessary."

[Lickey]

I do undertand the importance of ants in the soil, and on some plants, from the numerous websites i have visited i have found none that actually condone ants as a cross polinator or a plant cleaner, in some cases they stop normal pollenators like bees from doing there job.

Ants are by nature sugar eaters, hence their relationship with aphids/mealybugs/snails ect, snails also like sugar bearing fruits, and the ants will follow the slimy trail to find out where the snail has been eating, all the sugar/carbs/nectar are taken back to the nest for the queen and her caretakers,and the bugs are quranteened till they are needed again.

Its anyones guess as to wether the onslaught of the snails was responsible for the ants removing the mealybugs back to the colony and saving them for future sap sucking/honeydew producing activities, myself, i dont know? but if the snails are chewing holes in the fruit, it must make life easier for the ant, not having to move the bugs from plant to plant.

We have warned the neighbours to keep there chikens of our fam and we have netted the barbed wire fence as much as we can, Snail pellets and furidan [ant pelletts] were broadcast allover the cassava/banana/papaya resulting in a very good clean up of these pests, but the chickens still get in digging up cassava roots...

The bamboo plantation i baited and sprayed is still pretty good, in fact, there are about 10 different types of mushrooms and funghi growing there now, even in the big ants nest i broke up, there is oyster funghi there, mostly inedible because of the spray, but it does prove to me that ants glean all they can from the soil and plants, just like we do!!

Thanks, Lickey..

[Lickey]

Update,,

It seems like the mealy bugs are near gone now, the snails and ants are still in abundance in the papaya and banana, and after spending 2500bht on pellets to kill them, that eats into the weekly profits a fair bit.

So what i do now is use a piece of wood to whack the trees and then squash the snails on the ground, with the banana, i set fire to the dead brown leaves, the snails hiss or explode and drop out, the ash is also a bit of control against snails an ants.

Sunday we were helping the banana buyer to collect the ready fruits, and spotted a fruit bat on one of the plants and another in the papaya, [see pics],

I didnt get a pic of the white/brownish frogs or the multi coloured small snakes and large spiders, but will try next time for your help in identifying them.

If Sir David Attenbourgh or Austin Stevens are reading this, they can have the run of our "Zoo" for 20k a day!!

And today, saw whitefly/aphids in the cassava, so more money for insectisides!! Cheers, Lickey..

Edited September 15, 2008 by Lickey

[Pond Life]

Lickey,

Do you have any Catfish ?

They like eating snails,

Big catfish will eat them whole, squish 'em a bit if theyre smaller.

Sometimes we collect them by the bucketful.

[Lickey]

Hi Pondlife,

no, unfortunatley we dont have any fish, but there is a lot of fish farms around here.

Perhaps they might want some free food, if they send labour or kids to pick the snails.

Thanks for the idea, will go out thursday and ask around..

Cheers, Lickey.