Mealy Bugs and Fire Ants

[FloridaGrower69]

Interesting - today I noticed Mealy bugs being herded by fire ants. I’ve read about this phenom, but have never seen it happen (the ants get a reward for protection with a honeydew the Mealy bugs produce). When I opened the pineapple plants leaves, the fire ants took notice and rushed to pick up the Mealy bugs and move them out of sight. Fascinating.  Anybody else run into this? 

[Ognin525]

Never seen it with mealy bugs but iv herd of it,  iv seen them moving scale before. It really is crazy to think they just know what to do when they run across scale or mealy bugs.

[Jaboticaba45]

Amazing. Right now, some trees are wrecked with scale and guess what? The ants are farming them. I sprayed some organic thing and it killed the scales, but the ants are still swarming it.

[Epicatt2]

I found that an Imidacloprid (systemic granules) broadcast and watered in well, while it did not directly bother the ants in any way it did kill the scales and the meailes –after which the ants finally moved on.

Had to repeat the Imidacloprid treatment every three months or sooner depending on how much rain we got cuz the ants would return to farm pests but the Imidacloprid did work each time.  After about two years the ants seemed to finally give up and did not showp up again.

This may or may not be your cuppa tea but it was the only thing that worked for me.

Just sayin' . . .

Paul M.
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[FloridaGrower69]

For pineapple I shy away from systemic pesticides and work on a ‘control’ schedule of neem oil and natural pyrethrin. The neem wipes out the mealy bug population and the pyrethrin knocks out the ants. 

Again, here at the farm its control vs eradication. The ants will always return and other than stings when tending the plants they dont do much damage. Some of the systemics have chemicals I wouldnt want family or friends to take in when enjoying the fruit.

I have to give the fire ants some credit though. They are tough bastards. 

[brian]

Imidacloprid seems to be totally ineffective against mealybugs in my experience, and I don't think it is labelled or recommended anywhere for controlling them, both spray and soil drench.  I have been fighting the same mealybug infestation for years, using imidacloprid repeatedly didn't seem to help at all.  Hort oil so far has worked better but they always come back.  The fact that it works for you gives me some hope and maybe I will try again!

Tanglefoot works to stop ants, but it is messy and annoying to apply to large number of trees.