Termites

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Am in a bit of a quandary on what to do about termites. White ants I thought I knew. But we have nasty little ones in the vegetable garden that get pissed off when I start weeding. They nip and it gets itchy. A good excuse for buying weed killer and spraying rather than trying to take the stuff out by the roots. What are these termites? Are they related to the white ant? How does one control them? Both with insecticide as well as organically.

 

There is a large nest at the base of a tree. Do they damage trees? Some say not.

 

Then we have three saplings and something is stripping the leaves almost bare. I see small black ants scurrying up and down the stem and suspect it is them. But I have been told not. They don't look like the biters. But could be one and the same for all I know. They behave more like those we have in the house. The ones that move like lightening when you try to squash them. But here again I am not sure whether we have different types or not. Some are minute and others more like the sugar ant I am familiar with.    

 

 

[tonray]

Does not sound like termites

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Ants that live and burrow in the soil. They are all over the vegetable garden. They nip and itch. I refer to them as mot dang. But I get most of the stuff I think I know about, wrong.  

[tonray]

Little red ants like that are all over Southeast Asia. They follow me like a scourge...in fact waiting for a bus yesterday in RatBurana I leaned on a tree and they were on me in a second !

 

The chemical they actually hit you with is formic acid. The best way to deter them if you want to stay away from dangerous chemicals is boric acid bait with some karo syrup or molasses/brown sugar. They eventually will eat it and feed the queen, she will then stop laying eggs and the colony will perish.

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Does it work for white ants as well? Does it work?

 

I am wanting to use dangerous chemicals on the wooden house we have just renovated without protecting it during the rebuild. But would prefer to minimise the use of toxic in the vegetable garden. Figured I will need to treat the soil with a vigorous insecticide initially, just to knock them back, and then start gardening more responsibly. 

[cooked]

On 7/18/2017 at 10:31 AM, backtofront said:

Does it work for white ants as well? Does it work?

 

I am wanting to use dangerous chemicals on the wooden house we have just renovated without protecting it during the rebuild. But would prefer to minimise the use of toxic in the vegetable garden. Figured I will need to treat the soil with a vigorous insecticide initially, just to knock them back, and then start gardening more responsibly. 

Little point in trying to sterilise your whole garden, in doing so you would probably eliminate all the beneficial beasties (worms, bacteria....) that live there too. At the same time, ants (and beneficial beasties) will recolonise your garden rapidly if conditions are suited to them. You have to live with it, I occasionally use Chaindrite on individual places where I will be working for a period of time and is inhabited by ants. Deet seems to work up to a point.

I don't like doing this, ants are industrious home builders, doing what they have to do.

I have never seen termites actually in the garden, nor have I ever been bitten by one. I would only worry about them if they were likely to attack any wooden structures nearby. Termite hills are an excellent source of healthy, well fertilised earth, which I use for my potting mix, in the past farmers would let them form in their rice fields and break them down to be distributed before the next sowing.

Not sure if I'd want one in my garden though.

Ants of any colour may 'bite' including the little black ones, which are  as bad as the red ones in my experience. Seeing ants on a plant means that you have aphids of one kind or another that they are 'milking' and otherwise looking after. They are useful in as far as they draw your attention to the infestation before you notice the attack.

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2 hours ago, cooked said:

 

I have never seen termites actually in the garden, nor have I ever been bitten by one.

I think the problem I have is identifying what is what and then how to manage them. The big red weaver ant apparently protects trees against other insects. I thought of trying to guide them to the small trees we are growing to help deal with the black ants I was convinced are stripping the leaves. However you have indicated that they might be after aphids rather than the leaves. And those red ants also harbor and protect aphids. So this would be a mistake? Yes? 

 

Have attached pictures of what I think is a Hu Kwang and the other which I am not so sure about is a Hu Gajong.

 

I understand that termites eat wood and that harvester ant’s nest in wood rather than eat it. We have a nest in the roots of one of our larger Hu Kwang shade trees. I think they are the small red biters that also infest the chilli bushes. Do you know if these are harvester ants and whether they are damaging or protecting the trees and bushes?

[cooked]

As far as I know, there are no ants that directly eat leaves, though leaf cutter ants obviously do damage. Harvester ants eat seeds.

I never had experience with weaver ants but I'm pretty sure they cause no actual damage to a tree apart from the fact that the leaves that they nest in are deprived of sun light.

The leaves on your plants look like they have had weevil or possibly caterpillar attacks, but aphids don't make holes in leaves, they turn the leaves yellow, making them curl up and become useless, by sucking the sap.  Maybe you have all three!

The ants eat their excrement, called honey dew and in my case at least are the first sign that I have aphids.

I combat them with alternate treatments of Bai sadao (Neem oil) and wood vinegar, works up to a point and is more preventative in its action. In fact without Bai sadao , no chilli in our garden.

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Asked the wife about Bai Sadeo and she said I have eaten it. This is not the answer I was looking for. Where does one get the oil? And wood vinegar for that matter? Do you mean that there would be no chilli in your garden if there was no Bai sadao? How do you apply it? Spray?

[cooked]

4 minutes ago, backtofront said:

Asked the wife about Bai Sadeo and she said I have eaten it. This is not the answer I was looking for. Where does one get the oil? And wood vinegar for that matter? Do you mean that there would be no chilli in your garden if there was no Bai sadao? How do you apply it? Spray?

Wood vinegar can be found in Homepro and Thaiwatsadu. Bai sadao:  I ate one leaf and immediately got rid of a  huge eructation that cleared my stomach ache of three days. Neem oil is a different kettle of ants and you need to ask in specialist farmers' stores. Spray, I use a ฿20.- sprayer. You can make a neem tincture, I only did this once and it didn't seem to work well at all.

If I didn't spray regularly I would have no chili in the garden.

Wopod vinegar is also poisonous, so google before using.

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You spray regularly and alternate. But made a neem tincture only once? Didn't work?

 

Sorry for all the questions and not understanding. It's all new.

[cooked]

2 minutes ago, backtofront said:

You spray regularly and alternate. But made a neem tincture only once? Didn't work?

 

Sorry for all the questions and not understanding. It's all new.

Oh dear. Tincture isn't the same as oil. It can be difficult to find Neem oil so I made tincture. People in the village were amused, it doesn't work well and gets washed off easily.  Oil works best, as it also suffocates the beasties.

Yes I spray alternately with vinegar and Bai sadao.

Please google Neem oil and Wood vinegar, then come back with more questions if you have any.

Learning is what I like best about gardening... remember, I am not promising the perfect treatment, and I only have your fotods to go on.

 

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Frustrating as it is, it is all learning. Thanks for info.  will take a strong tot of good humour in the morning and head off to Kanchanaburi to see if I end up in that fish restaurant again.