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<pre>Dear All,

I have a couple of questions that somebody may be able to help me with:

1. Ants are a constant problem for me as they swarm all over the trees and
are implicated in the spreading of black scale and sooty mould. I have tried
using the approved Chlorpyraphos based insecticides but with little results.
I have tried erecting sticky any trap barriers, but the ants soon find a way
past these. I have tried baiting the ant nests with a mixture of polenta and
Fipronil to try to get the worker ants to take the poison down to the queen,
but none of these techniques seems to be very effective.
Other than pouring diesel down the ants nests and dropping a match on it
(not all that sensible in the heat of an Australian summer!), does anybody
have any suggestions of how to discourage ants?

2. I seem to have an infestation of root knot nematodes in one grove.
Samples of leaf, branch, soil and root were sent off to the NSW DPI and they
have confirmed the presence of these nematodes on the roots. They are fairly
common in the area and tend to infect the local vineyards. I spoke to the
viticulturalists and their simple solution was to pull all the vines out and
replace them with resistant rootstock. This is obviously not a viable
solution in an established olive grove, so we have settled on a technique
known as bio-fumigation whereby a Brassica crop is grown in the interrow
area, and when this crop is harvested it will give off a natural chemical
that will kill the nematodes (or at least severely restrict the damage).
Has anybody come across damage caused by root knot nematodes, and if so what
did you do?
Has anybody tried this form of organic control system (bio-fumigation) and
what sort of Brassica crop is best?

Regards, and best wishes for the New Year,

Mike Wilson
Hunter Valley, NSW.
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