ANSWERS for treatment of ANTS...amazing and safe!

[TheRatLover]

HI!

For those who suffer with ants, I have received some great advice from a couple of San Diego beekeepers!!!

One person uses cinder blocks to raise their hives, and covers the blocks with Vasaline/petroleum jelly. He says it works great and is inexpensive. He has not had any problems since he has been using the Vasaline. He even uses it around his dog/cat dishes!

Another is Tanglefoot which is suppose to be safe in use around organic gardens, etc. The directions they gave were quite interesting, and a bit hard to follow, but I will post them here for you to see if you can figure it out....

"I use to use the motor oil in container barriers but was still troubled with the ridiculous amounts of bees drowning in it even though the containers were mostly hidden underneath the hive stand. So far I'm really pleased with this new method that others have mentioned in this group. I made a simple hive stand and used really long thick bolts to join the corners so the bolts became the legs of the stand. Then drilled a hole in a plastic end cap(used for pipes) and screwed that up against the underside of the stand of all 4 corners and there still is about an inch of screw sticking out. Inside the cap all around I put a lot of Tanglefoot until it was running down the screw leg and so far I haven't had to refill or had any problems since doing this at the beginning of the year."

Hopefully this helps some of you out there dealing with ants!!!

-Lori

[BeeTech]

what is Tanglefoot?

[jip]

Tanglefoot is very expensive. I use Vaseline myself. Instead of cinder blocks I like building legs with say 2x4. Less area to apply vaseline. And add a moat on the bottom
because Vaseline is good on the legs when it's cooler but will melt. When it does melt, and you have the moat, it collects there and still prevent ants from moving in.

[CaBees]

I never would have thought to use vaseline. Thank you for sharing what you found out. Please let us know if it works for your hives.

[RayMarler]

I use High Temp Bearing grease, works great for the whole season. Won't melt like vaseline or crisco.

[RedDave]

I read recently that if you sprinkle Instant Cream of Wheat around, ants will eat it , then it swells and ruptures their little bellies. I was going to try it but decided that if they are not too much of a problem, I'd leave them under the hive and let them eat the dropped mites.

[camero7]

http://douglasfarm.webs.com/apps/blo...hout-chemicals

[Ben Franklin]

This reminded me of a problem my father in law had at his bank. Pigeons were giving the bank customers a deposit they didn't like. So dad had a worker put Vaseline where the birds would sit above the entrances. I just had to tell you all about this.

Now I will be putting Vaseline on my cinder blocks below my bee hives.

[Lburou]

Like the honeybee, the ant's diet consists of a carbohydrate phase and a protein phase. I had a good friend who was an entomologist, and he gave me this recipe to get rid of ants (inside or out).

Ants will eat jam and peanut butter. Enough boric acid in either the peanut butter or jam will kill the ant. Put too much boric acid with either attractant and they won't take it. A good ratio is about six to one. Mix six parts of jam, (use grape or berry jams because ants take those easily), with one part boric acid and they will eat it and it will kill them. Do the same with peanut butter. I put both the jam and peanut butter attractants in a plastic coke bottle, poked holes it and put it out by the apiary -it was full of dead ants in a few days.

If it doesn't work in your apiary, it will work in your house. Set a jar lid, (with both mixtures on it -but not mixed together), in an out of the way spot your ants use, and your in-house ants will be no more. Make new baits when they dry out.

The real reason I don't have ants yet is the perimeter of insecticide I lay down around my apiary.

[BeeCurious]

In the Spring of 2008 my first two hive stands were tricked-out with some alien looking anti-ant soda bottles and yogurt containers.
Mineral oil was placed in the plastic soda bottle, and the yogurt containers shielded the soda bottle from the rain...

1/2" pipe was used as legs.

It was a fun newbie project.

[Seymore]

I have found cinnamon effective. Ants don't like cinnamon. And with that, my hives smell dandy! Almost like apple pie . . . a pinch of honey, a huge jar of cinnamon...

[julysun]

I use a jar with 3/16" holes drilled in the lid (to small for bees, just right for ants). Inside is a mixture of 2 sugar one water with a teaspoon full of boric acid mixed in (total is 1/2 pint). I set it in the ant stream going to my hive. Presto, the ants find it quick and go crazy for it, abandoning the beehive sugar source. Give it a few days and the ant colony is dead.
I tried tanglefoot (works for one day), I tried oil pans under the hive legs (works but is messy and error prone). Boric acid works, just don't get it to strong. It will kill the nest.
Ants have only attacked my weak hive, I only have three. The stronger hives are left alone. I wonder how beekeepers with hundreds of hives handle ants.

[mmmooretx]

In the Spring of 2008 my first two hive stands were tricked-out with some alien looking anti-ant soda bottles and yogurt containers.
Mineral oil was placed in the plastic soda bottle, and the yogurt containers shielded the soda bottle from the rain...

1/2" pipe was used as legs.

It was a fun newbie project.

Very clever, I like it. I tried disposable "brownie" pans with veggie oil and lost a bunch of bees. Now I need to modify my stand. Fire ants are a big problem in Houston.

[minz]

Jelly can you help me out with the units or the ratios? Looks like a pint of 2:1 sugar with a tablespoon of borax? It was said earlier that too much borax they will not take it so I want to be certain before I start. Ants been really taking a toll on my strawberries, raspberries and now they are moving in for the hives. Time to react violently.