first of all, please, i beg of you, do not move this into the dead Pests and Diseases forum. i really need an answer quickly. here's the scenario: i collected a maple last week from my grandparent's farm (yes, last week. i got it then because they are moving soon, and the tree would be unavailable. i thought i'd take my chances.) when i got the tree, it had been cut down by a lawn mower many many years ago, and had a nice very thick trunk and it's only about 1 foot tall. also, ants were living in the heartwood and had killed it all and made a nice sabamiki on the whole trunk. after i dug it up, i carved out much of the dead wood and disposed of what i thought was all of the ants and eggs, then i submerged it overnight. they appeared to be gone, so i cut off all the leaves and almost all the shoots, potted the tree in a nursery can and put it in the shade. since then it's surprisingly been doing GREAT. i counted at least 30 new buds in just yesterday. then today i noticed one leaf died where the bark was scraped away and the cambium was healing over with a shoot sticking out of it. then i noticed a little burrowing hole in the branch, which means the ants are still there and living inside my beloved tree. even though the tree is doing very well, remember it's only been out of the wild for a week. what should i do
dig out more deadwood till they're extinguished? apply some sort of pesticide? i'm freakin out!