Ants on my plum tree

[21again]

I have an Opal plum tree in a large pot which has quite a few ants crawling up and down tthe stems, not masses of them but enough for me to worry about.

I have a few little money spiders on there which have been catching the odd aphid, not masses of those either.

I have smeared vaseline around the bark of the tree at the bottom, about 2" above soil level and squashed as many of the ants as I could see that were on the tree.

Is there anything else I can try to prevent them crawling up the tree again or should the vaseline prevent this?

I am going to pour some boiling water down the cracks in between the patio flags tomorrow to try and get rid of anymore ants.

[bramble]

I have a container of ant powder and whenever I see ants I just spray a puff or two and that seems to sort the problem out.

[21again]

I have a container of ant powder and whenever I see ants I just spray a puff or two and that seems to sort the problem out.

Well I do have ant powder but wasn't sure if it would be ok to put onto the soil, thanks, shall give that a go tomorrow.

[FB.]

I have a frog that sits in the shade at the base of my Bramley and Victoria trees and eats the ants as they go up and down the tree.

As much as possible, I let nature take its own course. Only when a tree is overwhelmed do I intervene. Newly-planted trees, fed with high nitrogen (which causes lots of leafy shoots that aphids love) are most prone to being overwhelmed. Established trees/bushes will tolerate the attack. I actually use my Bramley as an aphid-magnet, from which I can harvest hoverfly larvae to transfer onto other plants.

[21again]

ThanKs for the advice FB.

I have taken another look today and can't see any ants on the tree or in the pot so I will leave well alone for now.