Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: yjk on September 09, 2009, 11:48:36 pm
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I have ants in my hive. their in the lid between the metal roof and wood cap. Also on top of the inner cover. How do you get rid of them without hurting the bees.
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I have had a similar experience. I was all worried about it. I got my smoker hot and burned em off the inner covers. they did not come back. I had this happen a couple of times. I did not have them under the metal though. You could freeze the cover in a bag.
Since I put my bees on a stand I have not had another episode. They were on pallets on the ground before.
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I have been doing 2 things that have worked. I sprinkle cinnamon around the legs of the hive stand and I also smear mineral oil on the supers with a brush so they cannot walk up the hive. I have to do this when I am feeding them. It has worked so far.
You don't have to smear it on all supers. I just brush it around the super under the feeder.
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In and on the hive - I use a brush. But to keep them away, I use an anti-ant garden chemical near the base. I look for the path from ground to hive, and sprinkle a bit in that area (but never near the hive entrance). They will take the bait back to their nest, and no more ants from that nest.
I have heard of using water - by creating a small dish under the legs to the hive. A strong wood screw will create a leg, and when it rests in a dish of water the ants will not cross over to the hive. Of course, you need to keep limbs and grass clear, as it can create a bypass. Rain should keep the dish filled. I will be adopting this method for my remote apiaries.
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In and on the hive - I use a brush. But to keep them away, I use an anti-ant garden chemical near the base. I look for the path from ground to hive, and sprinkle a bit in that area (but never near the hive entrance). They will take the bait back to their nest, and no more ants from that nest.
I have heard of using water - by creating a small dish under the legs to the hive. a strong wood screw will create a leg, and when it rests in a dish of water the ants will not cross over to the hive. Of course, you need to keep limbs and grass clear, as it can create a bypass. Rain should keep the dish filled. I will be adopting this method for my remote apiaries.
Just be careful, The bees tend to drown in the water. Had it happen to me.
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I've only had the problem in week hives. I assume the bees keep them out of the stronger ones. The little black ants don't seem to hurt anything but i still don't like them in the hives.
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I have ants in my hive. their in the lid between the metal roof and wood cap. Also on top of the inner cover. How do you get rid of them without hurting the bees.
Put bearing grease on your legs from the ground up about 3 inches.
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Put bearing grease on your legs from the ground up about 3 inches.
I like that - it sounds better than using water.
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I have "Crazy Ants"....But I dont have fire ants this year...I guess the Crazy Ants chased the fire ants away.
However, the bees are really trying to chase the ants away but theres even way more crazy ants than there used to be fire ants now! and they dont march...they just run around in all directions!....I sprinkled ant poison this morning before the sun came up...I'll let you know the results and if I get dead bees.
your friend,
john
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I keep my hives up on cinder blocks and bait the ants in the open cells of the blocks. Doesn't seem to harm the bees at all and I don't have ant problems either. I do try to encourage some ants though to take care of the stuff the bees eject from the hive.
Scott
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I had ants too. My hive is on 2 "stories" of cinder blocks. I smeared a two inch wide swath of vaseline petroleum jelly around the perimeter of the cinder blocks. That seems to have worked well for me. The vaseline holds up well in the rain but I did re-do the swath once or twice to keep the barrier thick, wide and strong. Good luck.
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I believe that prevention is the best control. I know that my stands are much more expensive than cinder blocks but nothing is in the hives but bees. I am making some new ones to use at remote locations that have a 1/2" steel plate, that I picked up at the scrap metal place at the base instead of planting in concrete. Like annette said some bees find their demise in the moat no mater what you fill it with. I used water in the past but in the heat of summer the water evaporates to fast and the bees never drink from it anyway. I now use my waste oil from my automobiles and it is in till some cleaning of pest is needed.
(http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/3008/hivestand002.th.jpg) (http://img7.imageshack.us/i/hivestand002.jpg/)
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Yjk,
Since we started, we have had metal hive stands with legs that will sit in tins of oil. The oil doesn't dry out like water does. We put flaps above the tins to prevent the bees falling in them at the front. I was concerned about the amount of bees in the tins at the back, but I have been told the old bees crawl in there to die. We did the same thing the other day when we extracted to stop the ants getting in the honey. There are some acrid smelling ants here that would ruin the whole batch. Of course we have to keep the grass down under the stand.
A long-time beek has about 20 hives at the back of our property. When he checked them a couple of days ago, he'd lost 3 hives to ants. He is used to coastal areas that don't have the same ant trouble. His stands don't support tins of oil. They put grease around the legs yesterday, but it is hot here and we think the grease will melt away pretty quickly. a while ago I saw ants in his hives, and the bees couldn't land properly. We only had coopex to put around the hives as an emergency measure, and the next day there was a pile of dead bees. Fortunately no hive loss then. We think before the ants died, they walked the coopex into the hive, so when the bees died another bee would cart them out and land in the coopex with the dead one and die also. Those powders and chemicals don't last long with the wind and rain.
I know some people tie an oily rag around the legs of the stands too.
All the best,
Lone
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i use cinnamon , and it works very well for me. no ant problems at all. just pour it around the outside of the hive on the ground. or in the inner cover area. not alot inside, just a sprinkle like your doing your toast. :)
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I have my hives mounted on cement blocks. But to keep ants and most pests away I have planted a variety of mint plants around my hives. They take off and grow everywhere after planted, taking over everything. I have spearmint, peppermint, lemongrassmint and even chocolatemint growing. I put some in my solar ventilators to keep ants out also.
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We keep it bare under the hives. The ants here would use mint plants as ladders. I'm glad it works in your part of the world, though, because you will also be able to do some nice cooking :)
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Have you seen ants climbing on mint plants?
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I just leave them...
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Actually, you are right, WeBee, I have not seen ants on mint plants. If I experiment, I won't risk the hives, but if I get a mint plant I could put honey at the top and see if the ants climb it.
Michael, ants here ruin hives. They are only small but fast.
(http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/2764/antstand.th.jpg) (http://img269.imageshack.us/i/antstand.jpg/)
Here are our type of stands if you are interested. We made another 2 last week. The other main threat is the cane toad, so they need some height too. Apparently the cane toad will knock on the door and bees will emerge to see who is there. That way they can gobble through a hive in a week. If anyone wants plans for the stand, let me know and I can work out measurements and take a better photo.
Lone
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Since I no longer use any chemicals, I sometimes spray soapy water on my veg garden to deter insects. 1 tsp per qt water.