Ant Problem & Bee Drowning

[bullybrink]

I was having a problem with little tiny ants all over the hive so I told my husband about how I was going to put the legs of the hive stand in cans and fill with oil. He insisted that I use a vegetable type oil instead of old used motor oil (like I have read that people use) so that is what I did. After one day I had about 2-3 dozen bees drown in it. Now, would this happen no matter what or are they for some reason attracted to the canola oil I used. This is my first hive and they were just put in the hive 8 days ago from a package. I may just be getting my panties in a knot but I hate seeing bees drown. :(

[dgc1961]

Maybe you can go buy some screen material and cut them to fit around the leg and over the cans.  I was having a big problem with black ants getting into my top feeder.  I ended up stapling screen material over the feeder and wraping the edges with duct tape.  That has kept the ants out of the feeder and now I don't see them hanging around the hive too much.

[annette]

I did this my first year beekeeping and I used motor oil. The bees are attracted to the oil because it looks like water. You need to remove those cans of motor oil, because I did not and they got totally filled up with dead bees. It was disgusting.

Or maybe the screen technique mentioned above will work

[Robo]

Where in the ants in the hive?  Or just on the outside.   A strong colony does a pretty good job keeping ants at bay.

[RyanB]

I used "Tanglefoot" on the bottom of my hive legs. I use a TBH though. So unless the lang's sit on a stand of some kind...  Anyhow,  I get a random bee stuck in it now and then but nothing too drastic. It keeps the ants away and all other ground crawlies too!