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Ants and my hives

22K views 40 replies 32 participants last post by  cdb 1212 
#1 ·
I have three new hives and ants keep trying to invade. I've had problems with carpenter ants, fire ants, and big black ants.

How do you keep these out of the hive?
 
#29 ·
I use cinnamon to get rid of ants in my hives and it has been pretty effective. You can put some instant grits down and the ants will eat them and it sucks what little bit of moisture that they have in their bodies and then expands and kills them.I shake a liberal amount of cinnamon under my lids and shake it around in the bottom of my lids and then sprinkle it on the sides of the hives.Works really well for me.
 
#31 ·
I used cinnamon on the ground to get rid of ants near my hives but found it washes away with the rain.
So went to plan "B" Screw 4 (2 1/2 inch long ) lag screws into the bottem of your bottem board to at as legs. Leave the rear set of 2 exposed an extra 1/2 " for forward drainage and then place them in a 1/2 " plastic pipe cap. Fill the pipe cap with olive oil. Presto mini moats and nontoxic. The oil tends to wick over the sides of the pipe cap and saturates the 4x4 stand I have them sitting on repling ant's and perserving the wood.

Works great and is cheap.:thumbsup:
 
#33 · (Edited by Moderator)
The oil tends to wick over the sides of the pipe cap and saturates the 4x4 stand I have them sitting on repling ant's and perserving the wood.

Works great and is cheap.:thumbsup:
I have a hard time visualizing your description especially the part of wicking over the sides, can you put up some photos?
 
#34 ·
I now have a type of stand with a moat type, I put it to use yesterday, this morning I looked no ants on the outside of the hive but there are about a dozen or so bees that drowned. Is it because I used canola oil? Or it could be my moat pan is mounted on the ground, the pan is smaller than the hive for the reason of an umbrella effect to keep the rain out of the pan.
Any ideas on if bees are attracted to canola oil and I should use another type, I chose this oil as being friendly to the earth and easier to clean up in case motor oil over spilled if we had a huge rain
 
#35 ·
Bees frequently miss their landings and, without a protective cover, will end up in whatever oil you use. I use CDs on top of the moats as you can see in this picture. https://picasaweb.google.com/MichaelJShantz/BeeHive4302010#5601072462012353570 No more bees in the oil. Also, the only reason to use oil instead of water is evaporation. Oil floats on water so if you put some water in the moat, it takes very little motor oil on top to keep the water from evaporating.
 
#36 ·
I got a cheap throw away plastic putty knife and spread Tangelfoot on all of my hive stand 4x4 post. Works great. Ant free for a month now where as before, they were in ant heaven with all the honey.

Several things I've discovered however is that you have to smear it about 3 to 4 inch up from the ground on your post or the ants will build a vertical bridge over the Tanglefoot with sticks and leaves to bypass it. You also should re-apply once a month in hot temperatures. Make sure you wear throw away surgical type gloves when applying because like soft tree sap, it's impossible to get off your hands. :eek:

Here's a good link:

http://www.google.com/products/cata...a=X&ei=Gcs-TpWXCs3WiAKE0rTDBg&ved=0CGAQ8wIwAg
 
#38 · (Edited)
I like the hive stand legs w cd's :)
I have 3 hives on an old bed frame, angle iron, and keep the legs of the bed frame in, I wish coffee cans, but 2 liter bottles cut down, with water and orange oil in them.
The water does evaporate, sometimes in a day in the phoenix heat, but I will mix the orange oil with mineral oil.
An old timer told me to use the mineral oil on top of water for keeping water in old batteries on a solar system from evaporating too fast.

I think the DE idea would be good if I had no other critters that would be harmed by it, by I will have earthworms here soon and don't want them to suffer or the other beneficials in the garden.

I was told by the fella I bought my nucs from to use Amdro, and it worked after 5 or 6 days, but they're back, just not gettting up into the hives. I spray the wall they climb on with orange oil. Many years ago I read that orange peel has something that repels ants, thus the orange oil, so if you have orange trees maybe scraping rind on the area around the hive... but it may draw other bugs, so maybe not. just an idea or food for thought

There are reported to be other herb s that you can grow around the hive that are supposed to repel ants, and if they flower for the bees that's a double shot :) I'd go to a gardening site, maybe a few, that have this info. Googgle natural herb insect repellant or something.

My issue is that grass grows under my hive stand set up quickly due to the auto dog waterer I use to water my bees with, I stretch screen over the water bowl and the bees dip through the screen. What I intend to do to cut down on the grass growing there is get paving stones under the hive area and seed between stones with thyme. It should smother out the grass and when it flowers feed the bees. It's short enough that it won't breach my defenses :) Could use a ground cover that repels the ants but I'd have to research for that...
 
#39 ·
Grease/oil/tanglefoot: hot/dry/blowing dust, quickly cause this solution to be ineffective.

Cinnamon or other herbal solution, especially any that involve actually growing a living plant in proximity to hives: this may be effective during Winter, if that particular Winter were a wet one, they usually aren't - but the ants aren't usually very active in the Winter time.

I have also tried every ant poison or bait I could find. The only one that has actually been consistently effective, and seemingly causing no direct harm to the bees, has been Amdro® Ant Block.
 
#40 ·
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