How to get rid of cutter ants

[mangaba]

My garden is infested with cutter ants.  Cutter ants  at night,  leave from their holes in ground  sometimes several yards away, as an army leaving a trail. They attack a tree by cutting the stalk of leaves. Leaves fall on ground forming a green carpet. Before dawn these ants return back to their holes.  The next day they return to the same site and cut the fallen leaves into small size pieces  and the army carries these cut leaves to the holes.  Has any member had similar problems ? Have tried  pumping  deltametrin powder in these holes  but this  procedure seams not to exterminate the ants.  Would like to if members of this  FORUM  have had similar problems and if there are more effective procedures and insecticides which can be used to exterminate cutter ants.

[brian]

Tanglefoot applied to the trunk is effective at stopping ants, if you are careful not to allow any alternate paths onto the tree.

Leafcutter ants are really interesting, the wikipedia article claims they will avoid plants that harm the fungus they farm, so applying a fungicide might help... but it also says they can defoliate a whole tree in a day so they probably won't learn fast enough to save the plant.

[Finca La Isla]

We have two products that work against cutter ants. The most common is myrex. When the ants are working you apply the granules next to their trail near the hole where they carry the leaf pieces in. They will drop the leaves and carry the Myrex in. It’s important to be sure that you apply at every trail, not only the ones that are coming to your trees in order to kill the entire nest. You can’t apply in the rain. The other product, Omnitox, works the same and is organic.
Peter

[mangaba]

Tanglefoot applied to the trunk is effective at stopping ants, if you are careful not to allow any alternate paths onto the tree.

Leafcutter ants are really interesting, the wikipedia article claims they will avoid plants that harm the fungus they farm, so applying a fungicide might help... but it also says they can defoliate a whole tree in a day so they probably won't learn fast enough to save the plant.

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    Unfortunately Tanglefoot is not available in Brazil. But I have tried two alternatives using this Principle of isolating the access.
        a)  I  use broad  adhesive tape   about 4" broad and circle the trunk.  Then I apply roller bearing grease in the middle of the tape keeping  half inch from  each side  of the breath of the tape.  This works to a certain extent for small trees and deters ants from climbing and cutting.
        b)   I  collect  discarded  car tyres  which do not have steel belts.  Using  a circular saw I cut  the tyre in the middle.  Each half I put around the tree bark  burying a part of the tyre.  Then fill the crevice with water.  This also deters access of ants to the tree leaves.
 
       What I was looking for was for more effective insecticides in powder form to pump inside the holes  and kill  and DESTROY the cutter ant colonies.

[mangaba]

We have two products that work against cutter ants. The most common is myrex. When the ants are working you apply the granules next to their trail near the hole where they carry the leaf pieces in. They will drop the leaves and carry the Myrex in. It’s important to be sure that you apply at every trail, not only the ones that are coming to your trees in order to kill the entire nest. You can’t apply in the rain. The other product, Omnitox, works the same and is organic.
Peter

  Senor Pedro, Gracias pela resposta.
    We do get  MIREX-S  in 500gr sachet. Composition is Sulfluramide N-ethylperfluoro-octane-1-sulfonamide: 2g/Kg (0.2%).
    I have used this product on the trails of ants but it is not much effective. Maybe the cutter ants of my region do not like the vehicle/dilute used.  It costs around USD 3$00 a lb.

[Finca La Isla]

Do the ants pick up and take the Myrex inside the nest?  I think that Myrex is originally a Brazilian product. I do lots of installations here in CR and it has always worked. I’ve heard people say it doesn’t work but I think they must not be using it right.
You need to really plan to eliminate the nest. Every active trail regardless of where it goes has to be applied. Sometimes a trail gets missed because the ants are walking on a root or they have a hole 30m from the nest. I often go at night to apply as the ants are more active then.
Suerte amigo y un gran saludo.
Peter

[Muni]

I've heard that if you put some ricinus communis (mamona) leaves on their path they will take them to their nest and that will interfere with the growth of their fungus. After that they will not return. I suggest you look into it and be aware of the toxicity of ricinus while handling it.