How can I keep the ants off my stepover apple tree?

LG_

Hello all,

I'm looking for ideas on how to stop ants (and their aphid livestock) wrecking my little stepover apple tree.

In the past, on other trees, I have used those sticky bands around the trunk, which have effectively stopped the ants. But this is a stepover tree, planted last winter, and it has stepover support, ie a taut horizontal wire to train it along. The ants don't go up the trunk, they go up the supports and along the wire. At any given time there's a non-stop train of ants going to and fro fro. Both ends, and the tree is really suffering. 

I've tried wrapping sticky bands around the wires and supports - just can't get them tight enough to stop the ants circumventing them :-(.

Any ideas?

KT53

If you stop the ants, the aphids will have a great time doing an even better job of destroying everything around them.  I haven't tried it but read somewhere about spraying a mild soap solution to kill the aphids.

LG_

Really? That's not been my experience with other plants - generally if I've deterred the ants, the aphids haven't taken hold. The worst aphid infestations I've had have always been accompanied by ants busily farming. Or perhapd I have misinterpreted the situation?

DHR, I wasn't sure about ant powder near edible crops?

Dovefromabove

I find that by keeping the soil around the tree really moist, and using a jet from the hosepipe to wash off the aphids, they are kept under control and the ants head off for higher drier ground.

Dovefromabove

But presumably people grow apple trees in order to eat the apples