Help! F-Tea has tennants.

EsteCate

Hello all. First time poster but long time reader.

My problem. I have an F-Tea that started dropping leaves two weeks ago. I have had this tree for over a year and it has never done this before. While removing dead leaves I noticed an ant on a limb. I removed it and continued to remove leaves. More leaves dropped over the past week but I didnt notice any new ants but white dots appeared on some of the underside of some of leaves. It continued to get worse and today I noticed another ant. I followed it and it went inside my tree! Using tweasers I found out that ants had borrowed into a spot where a limb had been removed. I found 3 ants inside. 2 small ones and 1 large one. These have been removed but there are little white dots on the leaves. After searching the web I found out that these might be alive. So I got out a mag lense and sure enough several of these dots were moving. I really am new to Bonsai and would not want to ruin my tree. Are there any suggestions on how to keep the ants away and help with removing the small white bugs?

Thanks in advance.

EsteCate

Advertisement

jalbright

EsteCate

Check out the photo on my recent post "Yet another insect question". I didn't have falling leaves or ants (yet) but plenty of white insects under the leaves. The helpful people here identified my perpetrators right away.

EsteCate

Jalbright,

Just read your post and it does seem like we have the same problem (minus the ants) lol..

I have attached a pic for all to check out.

Thanks,

EsteCate

Attached Images

ft_leaf.jpg (42.9 KB, 25 views)

Repotter

They are definitely aphids, they suck the juice from the new growth of the plant and ants use them as "cows" harvesting this juice called "honeydew" to be used as food.
Use a soap spray to get rid of them

__________________
http://www.tellys.com

http://www.Fourseasonsbonsai.com
The original Four Seasons Bonsai Club of Michigan.
Our guest master in August is Pedro Morales.
Tellys Greenhouse, 3301 John R road, Troy Mi. 48083

Four Seasons Bonsai Club meetings monthly.
Troy, Michigan

"Anything is possible when you don't know what you are doing"................someone famous I think.

EsteCate

Thanks for the info peeps.


I will do more research on what to use and come up with a game plan to get rid of this suckers!

Spirit_Helper

Repotter gave you good advice. FT are sensitive and I have found the safest thing to use is Safers Soap. I spray mine 3 days in a row...I mean really soak it, top, under leaves, branches. Several days later spray it again. A week later, repeat it. Do this for two more weeks and your problem should be solved. Look for the critters on other plants and treat them or your FT might get re-infected.

Good Luck