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Fire Ants - Resistance is Futile

3K views 14 replies 8 participants last post by  FordGuy 
#1 ·
We went down to Fredriksburg over the weekend and I didn't pay much attention to the hives. I have had a few ant attacks but I've been able to fend them off. While I was gone an ant colony attacked one of my cut out hives with renewed vigor. In two days the bees are gone, the brood is gone and most of the honey is gone. They had a line going where it was hard to see them. They might have been at it longer than I realized. I traced the line of ants to their colony and gave them a new priority. I spread axle grease on the legs of the hive stands left in the area to keep them out of the hives.

We're in a dearth and I guess it's a dearth for the ants too. Desperate times call for desperate measures. The ants wars have started... Hopefully we'll get a rain to drive them above ground so I can kill me some ant mounds.
 
#10 ·
It was a split that I didn’t put in a nuc. I had them in 10 frame. To much room for a split to defend. I believe they did abscond, but only after the ants invaded. They were there 2 days and when I went back to check on them the ants were all over them. A really strong hive 10’ from them has no ant problems.
 
#11 ·
The clue for me is the nice neat little holes in the capped brood with long trails of ants marching home carrying bits of dead bee brood to their mound.

Mine was a cutout, not very big and couldn't defend itself from the unwavering onslaught of marching ants.
 
#12 ·
I had a weak hive that I was babying to get them up to strength. I had to move them because of robbers in my bee yard. I placed them on a stand with oil in cans supporting all 4 legs. I thought they were secure. I went every day to check on and fed them. I went down last week one afternoon and all the bees were gone and fireants were all over the hive, and inside it. I had made the mistake of letting the strap I had around the hive touch the ground under the hive stand. I didn't notice the strap being on the ground because it was under the hive. It took one day for the fireant to find this and destroy the weak hive. :cry::cry:
 
#13 ·
Good luck with the axle grease on the legs of table. I did that at least a ft. high . They just crawl ed over the ones that got stuck. The best control I had is the oil in a bucket, but rain keeps on and keeps on ,washes out the oil. Over a month with these new nucs and I'm still fighting ants. Don't loose you cool. :)
 
#15 ·
I claim a measure of expertise in this.

if you see a line of ants going into your hive, the clock is ticking. chances are that the guy who said he lost one in two days, it was longer than that but you just saw them the last two days of your hive's life

put all your hives on 2x4 rails. Got to get them off the ground. the 2/4 rails should be either 6 or 10 feet long. 6 feet can handle two hives, 10 feet can generally handle 3. Part of a apiary inspection is checking the rails for ant columns. The rails rest on 2 cinderblocks. I treat an area treatment around the base of the cinderblock, and put some bait in the holes in the block. You can let a lot go in the bee yard, but ants forming a column is not one of them.

Now the "love" part - not a beetle or beetle larvae hits the ground that the ants aren't ON IT. this interrupts the life cycle of the SHB. Wax moths pupate in the hive so this doesn'thelp with moths.

so the key with ants is visual inspection: setting up your hives in a way that supports a visual inspection: minimizing the "footprints" of the rail supports, and treating the area around the block footprints.
 
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