Ants steeling brood out of boxes

Rickybee · January 30, 2012, 07:16:18 AM

Hi any help? Bull ants are getting into my boxes and steeling the brood ( babies) any tips to stop them much appreciated :)

Tommyt · January 30, 2012, 08:16:53 AM

I was told to try this Talstar
http://www.domyownpestcontrol.com/talstar-talstar-one-p-97.html

You also may want to keep your hive up off the ground on a stand
use water or oil pans on the legs so they can't climb up

Welcome to BeeMaster,good folks* great Bee info

Tommyt

*excluding #1 :evil:

FRAMEshift · January 30, 2012, 09:42:25 AM

Mix equal parts water, jelly, and borax (like 20 muleteam borax detergent). Place in a container with small holes so the ants can get in and the bees can't. Put it on the ground along the ant trail.

Yes it's a good idea to get the hives off the ground with some kind of stand or support.

AliciaH · January 30, 2012, 12:28:08 PM

Take a piece of plywood (or something similar) that is bigger than the base of your hive, and paint one side with vaseline. Put that wood with the vaseline side down, under your hive. The ants don't like to crawl through the gel and since it's on the bottom, it won't interfere with the bees coming and going from the hive.

This assumes your hives aren't directly on the ground. If they are, put some bricks or something under the board, but in from the edges or the ants will find the new "ladder".

BeeMaster2 · January 30, 2012, 01:10:10 PM

Try used coffee grounds spread around the base of your hive. Hopefully it is raised off the ground. If so and you use posts, you can pour it around the posts. If you are a coffee drinker you will have a constant supply to keep it fresh. Ants also don't like cinnamon. Problem is the first time it rains, it washes away. Another thing that ants don't like is chalk. Yesterday I was helping my buddy build a shelter for a trailer and I thought the bottle of chalk refill for the chalk line I was refilling might work real well for stopping ants by squirting a thin line of chalk around the base of the stands. Hope this helps.
Jim

Rickybee · January 31, 2012, 08:04:07 AM

Thanks for all your help have put up in stands with water at each leg so ants can not get up to hive happy keeping and thanks for the info :)

BeeMaster2 · January 31, 2012, 12:16:13 PM

Keep in mind, ants will call in there engineers and build a bridge of ants to cross water especially if it a narrow crossing.
You might want to add something to the water to keep them from trying to cross it. Maybe 1 drop of diesel in each container.
Jim

annette · February 01, 2012, 12:01:57 AM

Quote from: Rickybee on January 31, 2012, 08:04:07 AM
Thanks for all your help have put up in stands with water at each leg so ants can not get up to hive happy keeping and thanks for the info :)

Don't mean to discourage you from doing this, but I did this the first year of beekeeping and the bees found the water and drowned.

Johnny253 · February 01, 2012, 09:17:41 AM

Welcome to the forum Rickybee!

Ants can be a real problem sometimes, especially in weak hives. Good work with the stands and water, some bees will drown as annette said but at least you won't lose the whole hive.

I have used this technique and found that after the water evaporated the bees were able to take care of themselves. I have also tried it with oil, lost less bees that way but the stand was also higher and the containers were smaller.

kingbee · February 02, 2012, 03:10:51 AM

Since the only bull ant I know anything about are in Australia and because bull ants also are known as the "inch long ant" or the "jumping jack ant" I doubt any of the management or control measures used in the States or mentioned here will work on bull ants.

CapnChkn · February 03, 2012, 01:48:30 PM

I agree with AliciaH, ants don't like to cross petroleum products. I put big gobs of Petroleum jelly on the legs of my TBH, but they seem to cross that barrier just fine. The heat caused the jelly to liquify and absorb into the wood of the legs, but they crossed freshly painted legs as well. I don't know, it worked with the cat dish and ants in FL.

Strings, cotton ropes, or rags soaked in oil might work here as well. The barrier would have to be protected from the rain somehow. I suppose once the smell of gasoline goes away, they may just cross that as well. Or I have ants with no sense of smell. This one is lowest on my list of beekeeping related problems, so is on the back burner.