If the tree is small, can you just scrape off the scale? There are some horticultural oils that are less expensive than neem. If you want to avoid having ants again, try wrapping a 2 inch wide piece of cloth around the trunk and applying tanglefoot. It is very sticky and the ants can't get past it.

Thanks for replying. I will try the tanglefoot. Spent a couple of hours scraping this morning. Do you know of any brand names of the horticultural spray? I am still unsure of how much light to give the tree post spraying with the orange oil/water mixture. I understand the active ingredient of the orange oil is d-limonene which supposedly breaks down the waxy membrane of the scale.

I broke down yesterday and bought some neem oil and sprayed. Today there are still ants!! Lots of them. Do I put the baking soda/sugar directly on top of the 5-1-1 mix? How much of each?

i would put the mix around the pot. watch where the ants are going and put it along their street.

You might have better response if you didn't refer to our entomologist gurus as "bug people".

Susanne - Thank you very much!!
Johnmerr - Good to see you are a kidder, too. Very much like the SELF-depreciating humor I used when choosing MY user name - to reflect MY profession (look closely). Have found humor to be of great value in my profession. I will assume you, too, are of a GOOD, friendly heart and wish you many, many blessings Johnmerr and a happy Father's Day - and much CHEER! To those on whose behalf you spoke, uber blessings to them as well. Now, am back to work on the bugs.
Signed by undeterred blonde yakkwak.

yakkwak,

PLEASE do not publicly accuse me of having a sense of humor... it totally ruins my reputation of being a curmudgeon.

Thanks,

John

;-). LOL