Ants in buckets... should I pull my taps?
This is my second year tapping my black walnut trees. Yesterday when checked the buckets there were a few ants on 4 of my 15 buckets. There was very little sap in the buckets so I planned on rinsing the buckets today and collect more sap this week since it looks like we'll have a few days with colder evening temps. When I went to rinse the buckets today I found that most have a lot of ants in them as well as on the spiles so I'm thinking I should maybe call it a year and pull the taps. Black walnuts produce much less sap compared to maples but I was happy last year getting 20 gallons of sap from 10 trees. This year I added another 5 buckets but have only collected 15 gallons so far and was hoping to get a bit more. The trees have not started budding yet and the sap is still dripping slowly but I'm not sure what to do because of the ants. I filter the sap before boiling but am wondering if anyone has any other recommendations for me. Thanks for your help!
