formica ants killing our trees

We have many large trees on the property that have been there since before we bought it, 11 years ago. We had a lot of trees die this year. I assumed it was due to the hard, dry winter we had but while I was out chainsawing the dead I discovered they were all coated with formica ants. I also found the remaining trees to be covered in the ants and the trees had gaping wounds. I do believe the ants are killing the trees. What should I do about this??

From what I've seen with similar ants on my property, they don't damage the tree, they just move into the dead or damaged portions of the tree.

Hope your trees recover soon!

Steve Thorn wrote:From what I've seen with similar ants on my property, they don't damage the tree, they just move into the dead or damaged portions of the tree.

Hope your trees recover soon!

They are definitely on the alive trees. The completely dead ones were empty of all life. However, chopping off dead branches on the trees still alive brought mass amounts of these ants down to defend the tree. So I'm just not sure what is going on.