Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => EQUIPMENT USAGE, EXPERIMENTATION, HIVE PLANS, CONSTRUCTION TIPS AND TOOLS => Topic started by: jimmyo on March 25, 2007, 09:29:24 pm
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Does any one have plans or photos for a ant proof hive stand?
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I know a lot of people put the legs( if your stand has them) in cans with used oil in them. Others also sprinkle cinnamon around to deter the ants. I guess it works! :)
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thanks for the tip, I think I'll try the oil
Jim
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With all the talk about pollution I know you don't mean motor oil. It does pollute the ground water you know.
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I spray mine with poison, my hives sit on two 4x4's sitting on cinder blocks, I spray the blocks with ant poison I mix in a 2 gallon sprayer, been working for 3 years now......... but that's just me ;)
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what if I used cooking oil? would that attract other critters? or oill on water? can ants swim? Maybe I can use water in my cans. I would think any kind of can would eventually catch enough rainwater to overflow. My oil would eventually run out.
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In antebellum Natchez, Mississippi where I grew up, they put the legs of the beds in bowls of water to keep the ants from joining the humans in bed!
Linda T
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In antebellum Natchez, Mississippi where I grew up, they put the legs of the beds in bowls of water to keep the ants from joining the humans in bed!
Linda T
Would that work at keeping the toddlers out too? I remember many nights with little heels digging into my ribs when my daughters decided they wanted to come to bed with mom and dad. . .
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Since my hives are all on cinder blocks I use FGMO and my finger to smear it around the inner and outer sides of the 2x4 framed stands. Works pretty good until I get a moderate to heavy rain, then I have to reapply the outside.
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I wonder if grease would do the same as FGMO. The rain wouldn't wash it off and contaminate the ground.
Jim
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my husband made a flat wood cut out that fits just right under the bottom board, and attached a 2" bird feeder mount to the bottom. We then drove a 2 inch pipe a couple feet in the ground and put a small oil trough made from a 4 inch pvc pipe (with a hole cut out in the middle) and put a 2 inch pipe nipple inside of the 4 inch PVC...it made it a wheel to fill up with oil. We slipped that on to the base of the pipe, then mounted the wood with mount to the top of the pipe.
oil dried up eventually and weeds grew up under the hive...now discovered Murphys oil soap to spray under the hive and on the sides. I think it destroys the ants chemical trail...then I keep a spray bottle of castile soap handy (its oil soap as well and has pepermint oil in it) I spray the sides and the bottom of the hive as well if ants start to climb in...
then I put ANT stakes all around the place to kill the ant colony once a year...
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Dadant has one.
https://www.dadant.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=846
Of course they don't give them away....but a tolerable price for a hobbyist like me.