not without a pic ..

i am of the opinion.. that ants never kill a tree ... they are usually indicative of other problems.. usually aphids or dead interior wood ... but then i dont recall aphids on pines.. if they are attacking dead wood... we have to ask what killed the wood.. not worry about the ants in it ...

often peeps use PINE generically for any evergreen conifer ... are you sure on the ID????

can you post a pic??

ken

i will try to get a pic, but i am sure on the ID
its a basic white pine (as listed on the nursery tag)
a few other points..
the dead wood looks dark and charred in spots. also this was a beautiful and full tree purchased from a nursery which sells quality stock, it was planted 3 years ago and although it blooms each spring it never seems like a healthy flourishing bloom compared to my other pine, more retarded sort of like it never got completely on its feet

GW:

Ants do kill trees--this is well documented. Allegheny mound ants will kill young white pines, and other species of trees, that are near their mounds by injecting formic acid into their trunks. You can do a Google search and get the basic information about this problem.

I planted many hundreds of white pine seedlings, and learned the hard way. My project forester advised me to get rid of the ants, but I did nothing until I had some die. I have had ants kill a fair number of white pines, up to 6 or 7 feet tall. I then tired to research the issue, and even took a tree into the headquarters of the USFS in Washington DC, and was given the diagnosis there. That was before the internet was the tool it is now,

I an not sure if they will kill larger ones, because after I discovered the cause of the death of these trees, I took care of the ants.

If the pine tree is young and still has smooth bark, one can see the little "blisters" that the formic acid injection causes.

I doubt that ants will kill large white pines, those more than about 5 inches in diameter, but I am not sure exactly what is the size limit.

Can other kinds of ants kill trees--I don't know, but the Allegheny mound ant sure can, in fact they very regularly do.

--Spruceman

well!!!! thank God i am not in Allegheny .. the river.. the city .. the county .. where ever ...lol ...

make one generalization.. and blimey.. there is one exception ... lol ..

check to verify.. you are talking about Pinus strobus ... and get us some pix ...

may as well tell us where you are too .. and find the distribution of these pine killing ants.. and find out if you are within such ...

i had some large strobus over the deck ... it started by staining the deck black.. which should have been my first clue.. and then i started noticing the ants ... which was the trigger.. to find the aphids sucking the life out of the tree .. and sweating their honeydew.. which the ants milked them for... being that they were over 3 feet tall and 1.5 foot trunks.. they didnt kill the tree .. i mean the aphids.. and the ants werent interested in the strobus ... [count needles in a cluster to confirm such and compare needle length]

ken

My word, Ken, you definitely had a problem if your ants or aphids were 'over 3 feet tall and 1.5 foot trunks' !! Lol, couldn't resist....

Plainly ken's pines are under siege by the dreaded Elephant Aphids and the Elephant Ants which farm them.

[1.5' trunks.]

i investigated further and it looks like aphids
they are all over the tree, and i noticed them all over another healthy white pine nearby.

my next question is how to get rid of them???
i will also start a separate thread in trees.

Aphids are very soft-bodied. A sharp spray of water kills them. Repeat every couple of days until they're gone.

tj