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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?
 
#2 · (Edited by Moderator)
Some of the ways i've read is to put the bee's on a stand and the legs in coffee cans, and fill the cans with some type of oil to keep ants from climbing up legs. Making a moat.

Another one is to just use a lubricant on the legs of stand so ants get stuck trying to climb up. Both these require to re apply it after a heavy rain though.

I've heard certain plants/smells deter them as well, but have not researched that much.
 
#8 ·
Hey! I'm not too far from you and had the same problem. After looking at all the possible ways to fend them off I found a cheap solution.
I bought some grease at Wally World in the auto section...get the cheapest tube they have for grease guns. I think it was under $3.
Smear the grease on your hive stand legs about 3 or 4 inches off the ground and make the swipe about 3 or 4 inches wide. Put it on liberally.
Try to get the grease that is waterproof or highly water resistant.
I have had it on for a couple of weeks now through the bad storms and it is working great so far! I still have half the tube to reapply when needed.
No ants so far!! They won't try to cross it and if they do they are stuck!
Good luck!
 
#9 ·
Got the same problem here and I'm not far from Davel. Before I even read this today I took some Vasoline out side and rubbed it all over the paving stones that my hive is sitting on.

I have 6 paving stones in a 2X3 arrangement with the hive sitting length-wise. On top of the paving stones I have 2 cinder blocks on which the hive sits. We ran out of Vasoline and thought about using a paint brush to coat the paving stones with some used motor oil (read that in another thread). It seems to me that Davel has a good idea.

In the other thread it was suggested digging a moat and pouring in used motor oil. This obviously has some environmental effects. What if the motor oil was just "painted" onto the stones? Does anyone think that would work?
 
#10 ·
I have a bad problem with the small "sugar ants". They are devastating the hives I made up from cutouts, presumably due to all the honey dripping in there and the fact that the colonies are weakened.

I tried vaseline. Works for about 10 minutes then melts and forms a crust that the ants just cross over on. That is in the 100 degree Alabama sun. I will try the grease idea.

I tried the motor oil moat. That did stop the ants. However, it became a killer for the bees. For some reason, the bees are attracted to it and the results ain't pretty.

I will try the cinnamon idea next. Hope that works.

-james (currently in AL)
 
#11 ·
I got Tanglefoot at our local ACE Hardware store. I also use cinnamon around the hive stand.
It works pretty well so far. Of course I find here and there an ant because some plants have grown
and now start touching the hive stand and the ants get around the Tanglefoot. Keeping the plants
low solves that problem.
 
#12 ·
The problem I've had with the grease/vasoline on the stand legs is that after enough ants get stuck and die, the others use their bodies as a bridge and walk on in. Cinnamon on the inner cover has worked for me here in Ohio on the black ants, but I dont lknow about fire ants, because we dont have them.

Which is one reason I live in Ohio.
 
#15 ·
Love the image and design idea. Really simple, and cheap too. I printed out the image and will be making those. I have tons of pipe glue hanging around for the inground sprinkler system, which seems to have the need for repair jobs on a regular basis. The occasional pipe crack on a 15 year old system is the norm for us. CDs are pilling up too with either free software bundles coming with computers or simply outdated stuff on them. Right now I have pressure treated beam on concrete blocks. Perfect for those to go underneath the beams. Thanks for posting the image and your description of how to make them.
 
#18 ·
Guard Star also contains 40% Permethrin which is considered one of the best pesticides if you want to kill honeybees. Pollen and nectar laden bees returning that miss the landing board and end up in the grass. I wouldn't be willing to take a chance. Whipping #1... 29 lashes left to go! :)
 
#17 ·
OK, I don't know if I am in trouble. I had ants. I used cinnamon to confuse them, that seemed to work for awhile, and I dumped compost tea all around the hive, it kills fire ants fairly well, doesn't hurt the bees. Hasn't totally eliminated the ants, I saw a couple of individual sugar ants, 2 species, on the outside of the hive box.

I have mega - heat, the bees opened up a vent between my supers right around the time of the ant incursion. I can tell when the bees are upset, they don't seem to be at the moment.

I love the design on the bee moat, may add it very soon.

But right now I am afraid to open my hive, no bees guarding the front porch this afternoon at midday. Granted I see them all over the garden and at the ponds. A few ants on the outside of the hive.
But on the front porch, it's not very clean, maybe the bees are inside pushing debris there right now? I see about 1/8 to 1/4 inch gold hard globs, and smaller black bits that are probably insect waste. Only one dead bee on the porch. I'll go back out this evening when they are due to return to the hive.
 
#20 ·
Since I am a hobby beek I use a single pipe stand with a angle iron frame built on it to hold my hives. Keeps them high enough not to have to bend over. I also have/had five different kinds of ant assualting my hives so I put a grease band about four inches wide on each post. It shut down the ants. I had sugar ants, red ants, fire ants, black ants and carpenter ants especially at night. No problems now and the hive shields the pipe from the weather.

psisk
 
#22 ·
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.
 
#24 · (Edited)
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.
 
#25 ·
*facepalm*

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

Wikipedia said:
"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.
 
#26 ·
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.
 
#27 ·
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.
 
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