Controlling ants in your apiary

[OzBuzz]

Hi Everybody,

I was wondering what techniques people use to control ants in their apiaries? I have a few hives where the ants are making their way in to the hive - they're the small black ants so not a risk to the colony - it's just annoying. One method i used was to sit my hive up on upturned pots in a saucer of water but when the water evaporates in run the ants! are there any ant powders that can be used that are safe for the bees? I've also heard of ones using upturned tins with sump oil in them - not keen on that if it can be avoided

[Atomic]

Try putting linseed oil, or maybe a vegetable oil in the pot instead of water.  You will have to change it eventually but it should last a lot longer than the water.  My sister used this technique effectively in her kitchen when they had a problem with ants.

[AliciaH]

Vaseline (petrolium jelly) would work good on your pots, too.  You can get it goopy enough that the ants just get stuck.  Those little guys are can be really irritating!

[iddee]

Be sure there is a 3/8 inch "9mm" space above the inner lid, below the outer lid, and the center hole in the inner lid is open. The bees will then take care of the ants.

[OzBuzz]

Be sure there is a 3/8 inch "9mm" space above the inner lid, below the outer lid, and the center hole in the inner lid is open. The bees will then take care of the ants.

Why does their taking care of the ants depend on those parameters? What do the bees do?

[cow pollinater]

I've kind of found that the ants just clean up stuff that isn't so good to have around, especially fallen mites, so I leave them alone.

[iddee]

Bee space. It gives them enough room to get in there and take care of them, but not enough room to build comb there.

[Culley]

Do these dimensions between the lid, inner lid, and hive, help the bees take care of SHB as well? I'm using homemade inner covers that sit directly on top of the frames. They have a bee-space gap in the middle and all around the sides.

Does anybody know if vaseline catches SHB? Looks like I've got more experimenting to do.  :)

[AllenF]

SHB will not crawl through vaseline on their own, I don't believe.    Use oil traps.  I believe that no chemicals have been approved down under to kill them beetles. 

[Culley]

Pretty sure Diatomaceous earth and agricultural lime are in use here, but there's issues with humidity solidifying them.
I made some inner covers recently from some scrap floor vinyl stuff, and noticed beetles were getting stuck in the plastic fiber on the underside. Got me to thinking of a mechanical trap that uses something to get the beetles stuck. Might be all that's necessary.
Apologies for hijacking the thread.

[OzBuzz]

Pretty sure Diatomaceous earth and agricultural lime are in use here, but there's issues with humidity solidifying them.
I made some inner covers recently from some scrap floor vinyl stuff, and noticed beetles were getting stuck in the plastic fiber on the underside. Got me to thinking of a mechanical trap that uses something to get the beetles stuck. Might be all that's necessary.
Apologies for hijacking the thread.

That's ok Cullz! any ideas should be discussed!

I have about 100kg of diatamaceous earth here if anybody wants it hahha

[Meadlover]

I had a hive right in the middle of my suburban backyard on some trestles and just stapled some rags around each leg of the hive stand and soaked some sump oil into the rags - seemed to work pretty well.

ML

[Meadlover]

Oh and I'm using a tray with cooking oil under some mesh in my hives for the SHB - works great.

I know at least 1 guy from the DPI is recommending Fipronil paste used by pest controllers for cockroaches. No way I'm ever going to put that stuff anywhere near my bees!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fipronil

ML

[AllenF]

Checkmite is approved for use on SHB up here where Fipronil is not approved.  And checkmite will kill them dead also.