Ants on Fig Trees: How to Keep Ants Off Your Figs (the 5-Minute Fix)
If you’re gonna grow figs, you’re gonna eat ants. In fact, if you’re gonna grow your own food, you’re probably gonna eat more bugs than you realize. And it’s not always fun. I’ve eaten my fair share of ants, because I’ve eaten a lot of figs. If you’ve found ants on your fig tree, you’re not alone. Ants really love figs.
I’m Ross, the “Fig Boss,” and I’ve dedicated my life to this amazing fruit since 2014. In this guide, I’ll cover why there are ants on your fig tree, whether a closed-eye variety will save you, and the simple 5-minute fix I use to keep ants off fig trees: Tanglefoot on a strip of tin foil wrapped around the trunk. (In the video above, skip to 6:35 for the ant section.)
The easiest ant protection starts with how you prune. A fig trained to a single trunk has one way up for ants. Learn how every cut shapes your tree in my guide to fig tree pruning and the hormones behind it.
Why Are There Ants on My Fig Tree?
Ants are after sugar: ripe figs, and the honeydew that other insects leave behind.
A fully ripened fig is basically a sugar bomb, and it’s going to be pretty susceptible to ants no matter what you do. It doesn’t seem to matter what variety you have. Once a fig is soft and swelling, ants find it, along with wasps, birds, squirrels, and fruit flies.
There’s a second reason, and it’s worth checking if you see ants on a tree with no ripe fruit yet. According to UC Statewide IPM, ants feed on the sugary honeydew made by sap-sucking insects like aphids, mealybugs, and soft scales. The ants actually tend these insects and chase off or kill the parasites and predators that would otherwise control them. So ants marching up and down your trunk can be a sign of scale on your fig tree.
UC IPM also notes that ants don’t directly damage plants except when they feed on sweet fruit. The bigger problem is the honeydew insects they protect. If you see ants and sticky leaves or small hard bumps on the branches, look for scale.
Ants in Figs: Does a Closed Eye Keep Them Out?
A closed eye can slow ants down. With a bad ant problem, the variety you grow won’t really matter.
The “eye,” or ostiole, is the small opening at the bottom of the fig. It’s how the fig wasp gets inside in places where figs are pollinated, and it’s how ants get in too. Some people think you can choose a certain variety to avoid ants. Some varieties have closed eyes, and others have open eyes.
Some varieties have an open eye, but it’s sealed with fig nectar that solidifies. It almost looks like honey. Texas A&M AgriLife describes this on Alma: its eye is sealed with a drop of honey-like resin that helps keep out the dried fruit beetle. They also list Celeste as having a tightly closed eye, and Penn State Extension recommends looking for cultivars with a closed eye.
The truth is, ants can eat their way through the fig and get inside. So an open eye is not ideal, and a closed eye can definitely slow them down. But truthfully, if you have a pretty bad ant infestation, the variety you have is not really going to matter. A closed eye helps more with rain and souring than with a trail of hungry ants.
If you’re picking a variety for a humid climate, the eye still matters for splitting and spoilage. I break that down in what to look for in a fig variety for humid climates.
How to Keep Ants Off Fig Trees: the 5-Minute Tanglefoot Fix
Wrap the trunk in tin foil, coat the foil with Tanglefoot, and it pretty much stops ants in their tracks. Problem solved.
Instead of worrying about varieties, it’s a really simple fix, and it only takes about five minutes. Ants usually crawl up from ground level, up the trunk of your fig tree, and higher up the branches to get to the ripe figs. So you block the trunk.
What Is Tanglefoot?
Tanglefoot is a very sticky substance that’s used in many applications for fruit trees. When ants or other insects come in contact with it, they get stuck, and eventually they die. I always thought of it as basically a rubber product, but according to the product label, Tree Tanglefoot Insect Barrier is actually a non-drying paste made of natural gum resins, castor oil, and carnauba wax. It’s a physical barrier, not a poison spray.
There are other names and versions out there, like Tanglefoot’s brush-on Tangle-Trap. The one I’d point you to for tree trunks is the Tree Tanglefoot Insect Barrier tub. The alternative to Tanglefoot is Catchmaster Insect Barrier Adhesive. Same rule for both: apply them to foil (or another wrap), not to the bark.
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How I Apply Tanglefoot to a Fig Tree
Wrap the trunk in tin foil. A band of regular household tin foil around the trunk, low enough that ants have to cross it on their way up. Snug it to the bark so there are no gaps underneath.
Spread Tanglefoot on the foil, not the tree. Coat a band all the way around. Tanglefoot’s directions call for a band at least 3 inches wide and 1/16 inch thick.
Do every trunk that has fruit on it. If ants can climb a trunk you skipped, they’ll find it.
Check for bridges. Branches, weeds, stakes, or a fence touching the tree above the band give ants a way around it (more on that below).
Never Put Tanglefoot Directly on Your Fig Tree
You do have to be careful. Do not apply the Tanglefoot to your fig tree itself. It could damage the bark layer and the cambium underneath, and potentially your fig tree will have to regrow from a lower point. Nobody wants that. So just apply it to some tin foil.
The experts agree. Tanglefoot’s directions say to always use a tree wrap or barrier under it, and UC IPM warns against putting sticky material directly on thin-barked or young trees, green stems, bark in direct sun, or wood pruned in the current or last season. They suggest duct tape or fabric tree wrap underneath. In the video at the top of this post, I also mention you can wrap duct tape around the trunk with the sticky side out.
How Long Does It Last?
The tin foil stays on the tree. I applied some this spring, in 2026, to a lot of my fruit trees, and the tin foil is still there now, six months later.
To keep it working, the label says Tanglefoot stays sticky until it gets covered with insects, dust, or debris, which can form a bridge ants walk right across. UC IPM suggests checking the band every 1 to 2 weeks and stirring it with a stick, and replacing the wrap periodically so it doesn’t girdle the trunk. Tanglefoot’s own directions say to remove the bands at the end of the season.
My Plum Curculio Experiment (Kind of a Failure)
I originally put the foil and Tanglefoot up to see if I could catch plum curculio. That didn’t happen.
Originally, I did this as an experiment to see if I could stop plum curculio from crawling up my other fruit trees that plum curculio affects. Plum curculio can fly, whereas ants are always crawling. But plum curculio does indeed crawl up trees, so I figured I might catch some.
That didn’t happen. So it was kind of a failure, but it was worth a shot. University of Wisconsin Extension notes that overwintered adults usually walk in and climb trunks when it’s below 70°F, but often fly into the trees when it’s warmer, so a trunk band will only ever catch some of them. For ants, though, a sticky band works great.
One Trunk or Many? Why Tree Form Makes This Easier
A fig trained as a single-trunk tree has one trunk to protect. A multi-trunk bush means wrapping every trunk.
Fig trees are naturally a bush. They sucker from the base and form multiple trunks, which I explain in are fig trees a tree or a bush. If your fig tree has many trunks with fruit on them, you want to protect all of them.
With a fig you’ve trained into a typical single-trunk tree form, you only have to protect the one trunk. It’s a lot easier. If you have a lot of trunks, or a lot of fig trees, it can get very time consuming. If you want that single trunk, my guide to training fig trees and summer pruning for form walk you through it, and my fig tree pruning guide explains how each cut changes the way your tree grows.
Prune Away the Ant Bridges
A sticky band only works if the trunk is the only way up. UC IPM recommends trimming branches so they don’t touch structures or other plants, which forces ants to climb the trunk through the Tanglefoot. On a fig, that usually means low branches that sag to the ground under fruit, limbs resting on a fence or house, and tall weeds or grass leaning on the trunk. See how much to prune a fig tree for keeping it in check.
Other Ways to Cut Down on Ants
These are the extension recommendations that pair well with a sticky band.
Pick ripe figs promptly. UC IPM says if ripening fruit is what’s attracting ants, pick it, and dispose of what you don’t want. Beating the bugs to the punch is the same advice I give in my guide to harvesting figs.
Clean up fallen and rotten fruit. Don’t give them a food source. That’s one of my Fig Commandments.
Manage scale and aphids. Get rid of the honeydew makers and you take away the ants’ other reason to climb. See common fig tree pests and diseases.
Organza bags? Not for ants. I use organza bags, basically party favor bags, to protect my figs from squirrels and birds. The problem with using them for ants is they don’t really work. The bags aren’t skin tight, and small ants can very easily get in underneath them. So if you’ve seen my videos where I’m using the bags, like the one below, those are for birds and squirrels, not ants.
Ant baits. UC IPM notes that slow-acting enclosed baits placed near nests or ant trails can reach the whole colony, while sprays only kill the foragers. Follow the label.
Other Insects That Plague Fig Trees
Ants are just one of many. For the full rundown, read my guide to common fig tree pests and diseases.
Scale. This is a really big one. Scale insects suck sap from the branches, and soft scales make the honeydew that ants farm, so lots of ants with no ripe figs is often a scale problem. See my scale video above and my pests and diseases guide.
Ambrosia beetles and borers. These bore into the trunk and branches, usually going after trees that are already stressed or damaged. Look for tiny holes and sawdust or toothpick-like strands of frass sticking out of the bark.
Black fig fly. A newer pest in California. The larvae feed inside young, unripe figs, which then drop or spoil, so it’s one to watch if you grow figs out West.
Fig mites (eriophyid mite, Aceria ficus). A microscopic mite that’s commonly blamed for spreading fig mosaic virus. I’m skeptical it explains as much as people think, and I break down what we actually know in my fig mosaic virus article.
