Ants and my hives

[TIMER]

AMDRO, it kills all ants and the bees won't touch it
Do a search here for Amdro and see what you find.

[Kazzandra]

Okay, first of all--- DE around your bees is a good way to kill all of your bees. All it takes is one of your bees walking through it and bringing it back in their fuzzy hairs.

Second of all: my solution. Vented inner covers. Cedar bedding under and around my hives. Cinnamon in the cedar bedding. It doesn't wash away that way.

[Virginia Bee]

Hey this may sound silly but it works....3M Spray adhesive in a can like spray paint. I spray about a 3-4" heavy band around the stand legs every few weeks from spring until fall. It makes a glue trap and nothing much gets through...and no toxins make it into the hive.

[bwhitecpa]

I agree with Timer on this one. Use AMDRO granules (active ingredient is fipronil (sp?))and it should take care of your ant problem. Wear gloves and spread it by hand in approx. 10 ft diameter, broadcast spreaders may sling the granules into your hive. If your hive is in a grassy area, rake the grass after spreading to help the granules reach the ground.

I'm not knocking the suggestions of others, I'm sure their solutions work great. This one was just the most practical for me since I already have AMDRO for fireants.

[Kazzandra]

*facepalm*

Fipronil... oh, where have I heard that before?

"In May 2003, the Direction Générale de l'Alimentation du ministère de l'Agriculture indicated a case of bee mortality observed in southern France was related to fipronil acute toxicity. Toxicity was linked to defective seed treatment, which generated dust. In February 2003, the French Ministry of Agriculture decided to temporarily suspend the sale of BASF crop protection products containing fipronil in France.[6] The seed treatment involved has since been forbidden.[citation needed] Fipronil was used in a broad spraying to control locusts in Madagascar in a program that began in 1997.[7]"

THIS is the chemical that is banned in France because of CCD suspicion! After Fipronil was banned, CCD began to disappear! It is a slow-acting, slow-decomposing, nervous-system destroying systemic pesticide.

Yeah boy-- I want that near my hives.

EDIT: IT appears Amdro is not fipronil, but it doesn't sound less toxic.

[Gypsi]

I guess I'm going to have to open the hive and look in it this evening. Still a grubby looking front porch, although they seem to have built a barrier to help keep the yellow jackets out. One happy healthy bee guarding the porch. The rest were already in the flowers and ponds at 8:15 this morning. My local beekeeper, who I bought the hive from, says I should wear my suit and open it. I'll carry the smoker out there, but as long as I don't have a lawnmower attached, the bees seem to know me. They just let me look around. I do hope they are ok.

[Gypsi]

But many species of ants will not pick up amdro, even though they may eat honey. I used it under the piece of pondliner that my cinderblock hive base rests on, and when I checked 3 weeks later it was still there, uneaten. It does not work if they walk through it, gather it and build it into the anthill either. Only if they eat it.
I watered and used compost tea. Much less nerve wracking. Then cinnamon dust to lose the ants already on the hive.

[SwedeBee1970]

Did anyone mention Queen Anne's Lace ? This natural wild carrot repels ants of all kinds. Sprinkle some seeds around your hives and let them do their work.

[hemichuck]

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.

[af_newbie]

Put salt around the hive.

[Bee_Rangler]

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.

[johnblagg]

I bought a can of white lithium grease in a spray can and sprayed the legs ...no ants

[Katharina]

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.

I have a hard time visualizing your description especially the part of wicking over the sides, can you put up some photos?

[herbcoop]

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

[MichaelShantz]

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.

[Charlie B]

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.

Here's a good link:

http://www.google.com/products/catal...ed=0CGAQ8wIwAg

[herbcoop]

Thats what I'm thinking I looked this evening more towards the front and I noticed my front part of the hive could stick out farther than it is, so I'm moving it forward to see if this helps any.
Thanks for the advice

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.

[beeherder]

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...

[Joseph Clemens]

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.

[Charlie B]

Joe,

I was using Amdro for a while but it kept washing away and wasn't killing the ants on a consistent basis.
I came up with a solution that requires little maintenance.

http://www.beesource.com/forums/show...ight=ant+proof

Once a month just use a putty knife and skim off the debris on the surface of the inverted grease cups. It works great! No more ants!