Tiny ants in Canary Palm?

[Blackbull1]

I recently moved to Fla and have inherited a canary palm that's on my property. As I didn't like the tons of ferns surrounding the upper half of the tree, I shaved it to the bark. (Tree guy wanted $450 to shave it). I probably messed it up by doing what I did but at this point, it is what it is. While I was scraping loose pieces on the lower part of the tree, I hit a very small hole and out came a bunch of very tiny ants. At that point I wanted to see just how far burrowed in the tree they were so took a nail like object and noticed that the hole that the ants came out wasn't very deep. Can anyone give me any sort of direction on how I can treat that issue?

[awkonradi]

Hi Blackbull1,

Welcome to PalmTalk.  Would you like to post more photos of the whole palm, the hole in which you found ants, and any of the ants?  That would help others here, who are wiser than me, help diagnose this palm's "problems", if it has any.

Looks to me like this palm might benefit from a little fertilizer, but not any other attention.  I'm not sure the ants are an issue at all.  I will let others comment about the closeness of that palm's shave.

Edited January 24, 2023 by awkonradi

[NickJames]

10 hours ago, Blackbull1 said:

I recently moved to Fla and have inherited a canary palm that's on my property. As I didn't like the tons of ferns surrounding the upper half of the tree, I shaved it to the bark. (Tree guy wanted $450 to shave it). I probably messed it up by doing what I did but at this point, it is what it is. While I was scraping loose pieces on the lower part of the tree, I hit a very small hole and out came a bunch of very tiny ants. At that point I wanted to see just how far burrowed in the tree they were so took a nail like object and noticed that the hole that the ants came out wasn't very deep. Can anyone give me any sort of direction on how I can treat that issue?

I don’t LOVE doing it, because it’s so toxic, but this works wonders.

It contains a systemic pesticide in it. 

I don’t use it on palms or anything else that is flowering or will flower soon as this will kill pollinators. 

[Looking Glass]

Ferns tend to find their way on these and others, and don’t seem to cause them any harm, and a lot of people like the look of them like that.  I don’t like ants in my young palms, because the are often farming mealy bugs and scale which weaken young palms.  I’ll systemically treat the livestock with that stuff above, which kills the sapsuckers, I’ll also bait the ant colonies with gel, and/or spray the crevices with bifenthrin to kill the ants.  

When I trim the larger mature palms though, they are all full of ants in the leaf bases.  They don’t seem to cause much harm up there when the tree is mature.  

That tree could use some extra langbeinite (potassium and magnesium) for a year or two in addition to palm fertilizer and TLC.  

[Blackbull1]

This is before and after.

[awkonradi]

Trust others more than me about the health of any Canary Island Date Palm (CIDP) in Florida.  But, to my eye, your palm is doing well, but it might benefit from a little fertilizer.  I think the ants are not a threat to your palm, and therefore I recommend that you not use any insecticide, unless the ants are stinging you.

Edited January 25, 2023 by awkonradi

[PalmsandLiszt]

How tiny are these ants? The ants the farm sap-sucking pests tend to be what I'd consider to be normal ant size (e.g. Lasius spp.). If your ants are a lot smaller than this (the size of Pharaoh ants, for example), then they're probably not doing any harm and might be beneficial, hunting small invertebrates. But without seeing a photo of the ants to scale, it is difficult to be sure.
Also, ants don't tend to burrow into wood; termites will do this, Ants use pre-existing spaces to make their galleries. Chances are they are doing no harm if they are very tiny, and even if they were doing harm, it would be negligible for a palm that size.

[ChrisBroward]

I would confirm those "ants" are not termites before you do anything else with the palm. Termites are common in Florida.