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Lost 2 hives today

3K views 11 replies 9 participants last post by  beepro 
#1 ·
Checked hives and found hivebodys with a little brood, no honey and very little pollen.Took them apart and found the large red ants in the box with a lot of dead bees on the screened bb. Are the ants the problem?If so I need to get rid of the ants HOW? Any help please. I have 3 more hives I need to check.:scratch:
 
#2 ·
The normal method is to make a hive stand supported by PVC pipe legs setting in cat food cans filled with vegetable oil. The ants can't cross the oil, problem solved.

Its possible that in your case the ants where just taking advantage of a weak hive, they don't usually take over hives by themselves.
 
#5 ·
I don't know how it is in FL but here a healthy, vigorous colony of bees will keep the ants out. It might be that the bees died then the ants, doing what ants do, moved in to scavenge whatever they can. I think 'no honey' might be an answer to why the hive failed.
 
#6 ·
There are some bees that might be able to defend against the ants. But there are some that have not learn yet.
Mine 2 hives, extra vigorous and aggressive bees have no defense from the ants. They snug in at night time too and
totally destroyed my 2 hives. By the time I checked it was too late. :( I put them on an ant hill, my fault.
So cinnamon, DE, hot peppers, whatever you sprinkle around the hive--ALL DO NOT WORK!!!!!!!
Why? The rains that is why. So a more ants proof method is needed to prevent them from the attack.
High grease temp to fill inside the cups under the stand now.
 
#8 ·
I tried cin, DE, cin extract too. The ants just walked over it in less than a day. Ortho home defense max worked the best, but only for about a week. Trying grease this year, it's a coin toss as well. Ants start walking over it after a few days too. Borax feeder stations going out this week.
 
#10 ·
I had a nest of fireants build their nest up against the concrete block that one hive sat on. The top of the mound was as high as the bottom board and a couple of inches away….and those ants never caused a problem.
I’m not sure what kind of ants you guys have….but the only time I’ve seen any significant number of ants in a hive is when there was sugar syrup present ….and everyone seemed to share and get along….or when a hive was in a full state of collapse or after it had failed.
 
#12 ·
There is this black type of ants that collect the sweet nectar from plants, aphids, scales, etc. Their body swells up to
store these nectar. So imagine a black ant with big belly almost like a tank for storage that they carry these nectar home
to feed to the young larvae. They will take up syrup too. Many use the borax syrup to kill them, their entire colony here.
I only put the DE around the hive stand but that did not deter them after a rain. So they end up inside my 2 hives robbing
out the honey and killing off the bees to eat too. These bees don't have a defense against these ants. It is like we facing a
new disease now what to do to find a cure. So they just allow these ants to destroy the bee colony. Too many ants.
I have pics for that as well after the destruction of the hives.
A very sad scene to watch again. I felt guilty until now just thinking about it. All my fault. This year will be different though.
I have hive stand with hi-temp grease in a cup to block these ants. Hopefully it will work on a test with some sugar syrup and
honey before putting the bee hives on top.
 

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