Now the berries are developing (not coloring yet) and the ants are in the berries/blossoms. I really do believe they'd eat the ripening fruit even if they haven't been eating the leaves. I grow organically - will just putting out borax/sugar baits in the rows control them or is it too late now that the fruit is developing? I know bait will take a while to wok - should have put it out earlier but we had 4" of rain last week.

BTW, some of the leaves are curling - it's been 90 the past 3 days, should I water even though we did just have all that rain?

I also have something eating big holes in my blueberry bushes nearby. But this year is the buggiest I've seen and the cicadas aren't even out yet! Lots of ants (we had them swarming over some newly chipped branches we spread and now ant hills all over, no carpenter ants that I've seen but medium sized red/black and these tiny black ones, crickets, beetles.

New shoot that was really wilted was halfway broken - not sure how. But I may have a bigger (literally) problem than ants b/c I saw some disturbed areas in the mulch on that hillside and 1 long slide down the hill where it looks like a bear might have been checking them out (no disturbances in the beds or aisles between) and then slid down the hill.

Neither aphids nor ants eat plants.

I hope the ant bait works before the raspberries ripen. I put some in my garden too, near but not right next to the strawberries.

And that tightly curled mature leaf on the blackberry had either a black egg mass or a bunch of poop in it so I snipped it off and threw it in the garbage.

Patty S.

I will keep an eye out for the sawfly larvae though. Will Bt work on those as well if it turns out the caterpillars are getting ahead of me?

I wonder whether what I thought was some small black wasp (pointed abdomen and wasp waist, but straight antennae) and exterminator said were male ants are sawfly? Entomologist from the state lab where I brought specimens 5/30 hasn't gotten back to me.