Some of my figs are having problems with ants. The little buggers are getting into the figs before I do and that isn't good. I thought about these two solutions.

http://www.planetnatural.com/site/tree-bands.html

Tanglefoot has been discussed before and these bands seem like they would be easier to deal with than the usual stuff.

http://www.planetnatural.com/site/boric-acid-bait.html

Boric acid, supposed to be safe. Can I just use the boric acid traps I get locally? If not can you apply this stuff on the top of the potting soil?

I use the tanglefoot that comes in tube for about 6-7 dollars and do all my trees.
Now im unconventional and just smear it with plastic type scraper around bark of tree. Just leaves dark ring following year and does not seem to hurt the trunk, been doing it for some years.
No Ants .

My wife buys boraxo powder in the supermarket and mixes it with sugar and a little water to make a thick paste.  She fills soda bottle caps or yogurt cup tops with it and leaves them around where the ants are.  They eat it and die.  It's not poisonous to cats or dogs, or humans for that matter.

Edit:  She just told me it is poisonous to animals too, so forget what I said above.  Sorry for the confusion.

Dieseler, if you say it doesn't hurt the tree I think I'll give that stuff a go.

Udaman, thanks for the correction to your post. My dogs would LOVE to get into ANYTHING with sugar. So far they have not learned of the figs but they do get to my blackberries. :-)

Here is what it looks like on tree ,  its the black rings toward bottom of trunk
I dont mind the looks of black rings, some may not like.
I used to use tape but its comes off after a while so i just have been smearing it on .
I saw the link you posted and thats a good idea also but for me it would be expensive doing all the trees so i use the tube which does them all and still have much left over and do the regular yard trees.

On my Martin`s unknown fig trunk saw some long grey hair and few days later saw this animal in my backyard (that was early in July before figs started turning color) this guy didn`t do any damage so I left him alive :) I also have snakes coming to my backyard all the time first i was freking out now I`m OK with them.
I laso use tanglefoot for ants. Got some stuff for birds ,but they haven`t touched my figs yet .

Do NOT put Borax in your containers or around your trees.  Boron is one of the essential nutrients for your trees.  It is, however, applied in very small amounts.  The amount of Boron your tree needs is about 0.03% (0.0003) of Nitrogen.  Too much and it is poisonous.  Excess causes a yellowing of leaf tip followed by a "scorched" look and defoliation.

~james

Tanglefoot works if the tree does not touch the ground or anything else, except at the trunk. DO NOT apply directly to the bark, Put something else on first (Plastic or ??) and put the tanglefoot on the plastic or whatever.

Boric acid has never worked for me. No ant bait has ever done anything as far as I can tell.

I had great results with tanglefoot several years ago, protecting a few young stone fruit trees from leafcutter ants. However, I killed one tree before learning not to apply it directly to the bark. I haven't ever tried it on fig trees, but I'd definitely do as Jon suggests and protect the bark just to be on the safe side.

I have read somewhere that diatomacious earth works great for ants they will not craw through it. It is like shards of glass and it cuts them and they dehydrate and die.. Just not sure if it will damage trees so more research is needed.

This is ingrdeients of tanglefoot and i put directly on trunk and on small bearing trees as well, now i dont paint the whole trunk with it but smear a small band around it and that it no ants.
Have not seen it harm the trees as of yet. I also put on yard tree trees my
American elm and others .

Im just unconventional i suppose but its probably best to use some wrap and apply .

Good ole Castor oil
Vegtable Wax
Natural Gum Resins

Oh, I hate those night-rat possums!

I just chased one away tonight while feasting on my grapes.
Had a piece of wood in my hand, but he did not play the possum part.
I rather touch a real rat than a greasy/stinky possum.

In other posts, it was mentioned that a 50/50 mix of
peanut-butter/plaster-of-Paris mix, may do them in...

Thanks for the info on the Boric acid. I'll stick to the tanglefoot and maybe experiment with the diatomacious earth. Dieseler , thanks for the pics, I can live with the black ring. I don't see how anything listed in that tanglefoot product could hurt a tree but I'm very new to this so there is a good possibility I'm wrong.

Oh BTW I have never seen a Possum in daylight. That looks scary. I have seen them play dead when being attacked by dogs.

so, i guess i just got attacked by everything this year.  for whatever reason, up until now, i never had problems with birds until this year - it's like they are talking to each other or something, because they are now all attacking my trees.  but the ants are beating them for the first time this year - ants arrive two days prior to the birds ALWAYS and start boring a little bit.

What I found is, if you sacrifice one fig and cut a hunk off, they seem to capitalize on that one and totally ignore the others.  This could be possibly a solutuion for anyone that doesn't want to use any kinds of chemicals.

Jason, sorry to hear about your bird issues. :-( I reckon putting up net is the only thing you can do about that. Is that right?

It sounds like in a pinch you can use vaseline--you might give that a try while you're waiting for your tanglefoot.

i think the ants are the bigger problem for me, they're attacking everything.  the vaseline option is one - double-sided tape is another that i've heard of, as well as metallic tape.