Native Plants

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Thursday - September 05, 2013

From: sunfield, MI
Region: Midwest
Topic: Diseases and Disorders, Trees
Title: Tree Lost Leaves
Answered by: Anne Van Nest

QUESTION:

Are leaf cutter ants found in Michigan too? My leaves are being completely stripped off the tree. It went from growing very well when we planted it, to having completely no leaves at all. I know the leaves are not falling off and we do have a fence around it.

ANSWER:

Leafcutter ants are not as far north as Michigan and you would see them at work on your trees if they were present. Wikipedia.com says that leafcutter ants, a non-generic name, are any of 47 species of leaf-chewing ants belonging to the two genera Atta and Acromyrmex. These species of tropical, fungus-growing ants are all endemic to South and Central America, Mexico and parts of the southern United States. Leafcutter ants "cut and process fresh vegetation (leaves, flowers, and grasses) to serve as the nutritional substrate for their fungal cultivars." There is a map of the present range of leaf cutter ants from Ant Genera of the World.

Other possible reasons for your leaves being stripped from the tree include: strong jets of water (forceful sprinklers), squirrels in the fall taking leaves and branches for their fall nests (they love oaks), hail, a major insect invasion (gypsy moths, grasshoppers, Japanese beetles, deer, etc.), leafcutter bees (perfect circles cut out of the leaf) or an environmental issue (water, drought, heat, frost) that caused the leaves to all fall rapidly – even overnight.