I hate ants... Any suggestions on how to kill them without bothering my bees? Here is the story, I had a nuc on 2 6X6 timbers on the ground. I had seen ants around it but I didn't realize how bad it was. I did an inspection yesterday and realized it was a lot worse than I thought. The timbers have serious damage as well as the bottom board of my nuc. and I ended up throwing the timbers in the bucket of my tractor and dumping them in the pond. (The bass loved it the ants.) On a positive note my inspection timing was really good. I had several swarm cells and turned it into 3 hives. I used the bucket of the tractor to dig a hole under where the nuc was and moved the dirt to the other side of my creek. The hole I dug was is filled with water. We have had a lot of rain lately and it runs off the hill through where my bees are. A few feet away where I put the 3 hives now already has ants again. A temporary solution is to move them a few miles away to my parents and do some more digging to see about drowning the ants before bring the bees back. If I could figure out a way to get a moat around the bees that would probably work but I am not sure of a good way to do that without doing a lot of work creating some fancy hive stand. That might be the only solution. I should take pictures of the timbers so you can see what I am dealing with.
Make a stand 12 to18 inches high and put grease around the legs of the stand ants will not cross the grease.
Any particular type of grease or just the stuff I use use in my grease gun?
I drilled a hole in an upside down 4 or 5" pvc cap and put hi temperature brake grease in them. My stand was made of 1 inch galvanized steel cemented in the hole with wood cross beams. Keeps the dust and dirt out. If not pvc cap maybe a tight fighting can upside down. Never had problem with ants again. If you want exact directions you can pm me.
Eric,
I put my stands 8-12" long pipes. The bottom end, I drilled a hole in a 4x4, cut 4" long as a base for each pipe and drilled half way through the stand boards for the pipes to sit in and glues the top and bottom holes with gorilla glue. I drilled and glues cups upside down under the stand where the pipes are and wiped the inside with hi temp grease. I works real well until a stick falls on the stand and makes a ramp. I lost a hive due to a stick last week.
On the other side, I have a swarm trap that the carpenter ants moved into and yesterday a bunch of scouts were running the ants out of it. If the swarm has not moved in by this afternoon, I will be cleaning it out this evening and resetting it.
My hive stand(s) legs are placed in a container with burnt motor oil. Nothing else works around here. I lost 4 or 5 nucs last year due to sugar ants invading their hive.
equal parts borax:water:jelly
Cheap grape jelly is what I usually use. The cheaper the better...
I think.......the answer is going to be, on the legs of hive stand, if they can't get up, they can't get back down.
Another good way to stop Ants.......INSTANTLY, DEAD IN THEIR TRACKS........Windex, kills on contact.
Surely, you are not going to spray this IN your hive, but you can spray it on the legs, or if there is an Ant mound nearby where the Ants are coming from, dump straight Windex down the hole.
If you find then on your floor or kitchen counter, or anywhere around the house, spray Windex on them, kills instantly........at least you are not spraying pesticide/poison........Windex also kills Termites on contact.
I would put the mixture under something, like a board on grass, so the bees can't get to it.
>And put it where???
Where the ants will find it. On the path the ants are following. If you have the patience, track the trail back to the ant hill and put it there. If not, put it under the hive or anywhere on the ant trail.
I think at least temporarily I have the ants in check. The galvanized pipe for the hive stand is a little pricey for my taste but I think the hole I dug with the tractor killed them for now. Maybe next year I will build the hive stand.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk
I use Amdro ant bait in a plastic container with holes small enough the ants can enter but bees can't. The bees aren't attracted to the bait since it is basically bread crumbs soaked with poison and cooking oil but the ants are. I place these under my stands. Seems to work well for me.