can ants and SHB larva cross a Vasoline line?

It may slow down the ants, but cinnamon sprinkled on the top bars and inside the hive will stop them much better and it leaves the ants alive to kill the SHB larvae when they hit the ground. It will do nothing to help with SHB which fly to the hive, and the larvae most likely will just drop to the ground.

JustinH said:

I have ants that climb up the 2x4 legs of my Top Bar Hive and I've seen small hive beetle larva inside the hive on the bottom board. If I smear Vasoline around the 2x4 legs, can ants and SHB larva crawl through Vasoline? Has anyone tried this? I wonder if the SHB larva can't cross a vasoline barrier, would they just "jump" off and let gravity get them down? I want to stop them from reaching soil.

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make a mote with coffee cans ----put your 2/4 in the coffee cans fill with water ---SHB fly

Some species of ants can, some can't. SHB larvae on your bottom board are coming from the hive, not crawling up hive legs from the ground. Bees are throwing them out of cells they find them in. If you are talking about wax moth larvae, the bees usually dispatch them before tossing them to the bottom board. Not sure about SHB larvae.

I'll do the experiment and let you guys know what I find out. I can't put coffee can moats around the legs because that would take 2 people to lift the hive (TBH's are heavy and need to be parallel to the ground at all times) plus it's screwed into my porch railing. And I don't want to put cinnamon inside the hive just to keep ants away. Something about that doesn't sit right with me. I could sprinkle cinnamon around the legs where they meet the ground (the ground being a concrete porch) but I feel the wind and rain will wash it away too quickly. Vasoline smeared around the wood 2x4's sounds like the way to go. I know adult SHB fly but the larva just kind of inch-worm crawl I think. I'm hoping they get stuck in the vasoline and can't reach soil to pupate in.

I live here in the South and the sugar ants were covering my feeders. I'm on cinderblocks so I can't do the oil stand. However, I tried Dichotomous earth, borax baits, regular baits, cinnamon, hot pepper, homemade traps, you name it. The only thing that stopped them was the Vaseline layer. I put it about an inch wide and very thick around the bottom board and bottom deep and it was the only thing that stopped them.
No luck with the SHB. Still working on that problem. Tried the cd cases, bait traps, oil traps, beetle blaster, you name it. About all I was able to do was fight them back to numbers that didn't annoy the bees too much. The year I broke down and bought the ventilated Freeman traps and am comboing them with the beetle baffles. Way too early to tell if it's going to work or not. Only doing it on my 4 main production hives due to cost. Way too expensive otherwise.

If you know you have SHB larva, what's wrong w/ implementing the hive tool treatment? Oh sorry. I get it.

stan.vick said:

It may slow down the ants, but cinnamon sprinkled on the top bars and inside the hive will stop them much better and it leaves the ants alive to kill the SHB larvae when they hit the ground. It will do nothing to help with SHB which fly to the hive, and the larvae most likely will just drop to the ground.

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Stan,

I had ants getting in my feeder (top bunt cake style) and I opened up the top box (just a medium acting as a spacer) and sprinkled cinnamon liberally up there and they just pretty much ignored it and doubled their efforts at robbing my feeder. Luckily the bees had pretty much started ignoring the syrup and I just pulled it out. Ants are still investigating the hive but I don't think they are inside it.

Gilligan said:

Stan,

I had ants getting in my feeder (top bunt cake style) and I opened up the top box (just a medium acting as a spacer) and sprinkled cinnamon liberally up there and they just pretty much ignored it and doubled their efforts at robbing my feeder. Luckily the bees had pretty much started ignoring the syrup and I just pulled it out. Ants are still investigating the hive but I don't think they are inside it.

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It works for me but we are all accustom to beekeeping being local, who knows why it will work for me and not you. Are the ants a different type, is placement a key, I don't have a clue.

stan.vick said:

It works for me but we are all accustom to beekeeping being local, who knows why it will work for me and not you. Are the ants a different type, is placement a key, I don't have a clue.

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Yeah, must be the type, we have had them in the house. With the baby and the cats, traditional methods weren't an option. We tried almost everything and nothing seems to phase them much. I think corn meal MAY have worked but they say it takes a week or so for that to be effective. By then I think we had moved on to something heavier but "in the cracks".

Ortho fire ant powder stuff is amazing, smells awful but works almost instantly! I usually walk around and try to find the pile outside and get them.