Death of a Tree

We call it a shelf tree because we don't know its real name. It's a shelf tree because its branches stick out like shelves! Anyway, we bought a nice shelf tree and planted it. We cared for it. The cat learned to climb up it. Then the insects moved in. The tree lost a lot of leaves over a few days we we found the cause: insects. We bought insect spray and the tree revived. Then we noticed a top branch was looking a bit sick but we couldn't get at it. Today I was watering the garden and noticed a lower branch had weakened in the middle and was hanging loose. I told Mrs W and by the time it was time for a break she'd dug around the root and the tree had to go. We huffed and puffed a little bit and got the tree out. Dead branches allright. Sticky blobs on the bark. Holes in the trunk. I investigated one piece and found a lot of 2 mm sized ants inside. two MILLIMETRE ants had killed our 4 - 5 metre tree. When humans have been wiped out, I am sure that ants will rule the world. Here's what's left of our big shelf tree ... there are two smaller ones in the garden and I hope they grow and survive. DW