Ants

The tiny black Argentine ants are a real problem. In Southern California many consider them a threat on the same level as Varroa. Try to find the colony(ies) and control them otherwise they will establish themselves under the hive or pallet and ruin the bees. Gets worse starting in July. I dug out a bunch of old bee pallets with the U clips to use this Spring, down in a river bottom, and sure enough within 3 weeks the little so and sos had moved in to the crack between two hives. You won't have that with W clips.

Here in south Texas we have fire ants. DH built lovely stands with legs 2 years ago. Having tried setting the legs in oil, water, kerosene, etc., and having NOT deterred the ants, we finally settled on an alternative that seems to work well.

We buy stacks of those clear plastic trays that sit under flowerpots to catch water. We fill those with granulated fire ant poison and set the legs on those. Even after a rain they are still effective. We collect a few SHB in the trays, too.

Good luck!
Summer

I started 2 packages and my first package alittle over a week ago had an ant problem, alot of times i heard its from the front feeder. I was told to use ground cinnamin around the hive, alot of it. (about 3 ozs) So i went and got a bottle of ground cinnamin, sprinkled 3 ounces all around the hive and 3 days later i just seen a hand full and they was being taking care of by the guard bees! So as wierd as it sounded to me it actually made a difference. I usually try something once and in this case it actually worked, made a big difference and there was no chemicals needed! Good Luck!!!

P.S.- If nothing else works check this site out! Its called Gardstar!!

https://products.kelleybees.com/wtkprod/detail.aspx?item=727

Cinnamon works great inside the house, too, against the little black sugar ants. Kinda messy, but effective. I have had poor results with gardstar against fireants AND SHB, so I had to move on.

I am now looking for something easy that will deterr scorpions from coming inside. And, I am convinced that Napalm is not out of the question where fireants are concerned.

Now if someone would make hog deterrent . . .

summer1052 said:

Now if someone would make hog deterrent . . .

Click to expand...

The hog deterant you are looking for is made by Remington, .30-06 I believe

sorry i know that was t:

Try some ants baits not too far from your hive. See if you can find one where the active ingredient is hydramethylnon, which is a chemical that is toxic to ants but not to bees.

Thank you .I will go get some tonight.
Terry