ants...

[DRJCKB]

Hi, today I took a mob of people to see our new hives http://www.beesource.com/ubb/smile.gif It was kind of funny, a bee flew up my shorts and I dropped my drawers in front of several strangers http://www.beesource.com/ubb/frown.gif LOL Luckily- for both of us- my friend flew back to the hive without further incident http://www.beesource.com/ubb/smile.gif While looking at the hive, I noticed some ants crawling on the outside of the hive. Is this ok? should I be concerned? Should I try to dig aound and put oil or other methods I have seen discussed? I am going to do hive inspections tomorrow, so I am interested to see if they are in the inside. Any ideas/suggestions?

Thanks,
D

[Michael Bush]

>While looking at the hive, I noticed some ants crawling on the outside of the hive. Is this ok? should I be concerned?

I think it depends on where you live, and what kind of ants. I don't have any around here that are a big problem. Once in a while some carpenter ants try to eat my hives (the wood that is) and I use boric acid on them. Otherwise I figure ants and bees coexist all the time in nature so unless I see fire ants carrying off brood, I don't get excited.

>Should I try to dig aound and put oil or other methods I have seen discussed? I am going to do hive inspections tomorrow, so I am interested to see if they are in the inside. Any ideas/suggestions?

If the ants don't seem to be doing any harm their presence is not, in itself, a problem.

[Scot Mc Pherson]

It is intresting, but the bees don't really seem to take too much notice of the ants that I have seen inside my hives on occasion. Though when a fly attempts to enter the hive, any bee within an inch or two charges rather dramatically. Its not the same as when a guard bee challenges a landing bee, its a purposeful charge.

[Scot Mc Pherson]

Oh and on one of my hives, I have this guard bee that seems to think that a nail that I have on the landing board is something to scare off, constantly attacking it tryign to scare it off. Then the be remembers there are other "intruders" to challange and runs around all over the place trying to get them all. The other guard bees just sit there waiting for something to come close enough to challenge, which means mostly getting landed on touched in some way.