Ants

[cbarton]

I just completed my first inspection of a package of healthy Italians in the hive for about 10 days.  My inspection went well, found 3 frames of drawn comb, nectar, pollen, and a healthy active queen. In short  everyone seems happy, healthy and busy.  I use a hive top feeder and noticed some mold on the underside of the telescoping cover, so I added some thin shims beneath the cover to aid in ventilation.  This appears to have been a big mistake.  When I looked at the hive the next day I had dense columns of ants crawling up each face of the hive into the syrup resevoir. I used an aquarium net to fish out the ants in the syrup and removed the shims.  But now a couple of days later I still have lots of ants (though not as many) on the face of the hive.  

I brush ants  off the hive every chance I get, but while their numbers are somewhat diminished, and they no longer have an unobstructed path to the sugar syrup, at least some of them seem to be sticking around.  It has also turned a bit cold and damp and my bees seemed to have hunkered down, so there are few bees around the entrance.  It appears that there are ants going into the hive through the opening in the reducer.

Do I need to worry about ants that got (and perhaps are continuing to get) inside the hive? Is there a chance that they will eat the stored nectar or honey?   Is there anything to do about them?

Thanks in advance for your help

[Apis629]

Ants can be a BIG problem but, given you're farther north, you don't have to worry about fire ants or "Bull ants".  Both of those can completely kill a colony in less than a day.  

An easy controll measure against ants that has worked wonders for me is...cinnamon. (in liberal amounts).  Just sprinkle it on the hive, around the hive, and even in the hive.  The bees don't seem to mind but, the ants won't go near the stuff.  Just reapply after rainstorms and the ants will be kept at bay.

P.S.  Once you take the feeder off, the ants will usually stay away.

[Hi-Tech]

Does the cinnamon work well on fire ants?

[Apis629]

Fire ants, bull ants, sugar ants, every ant I've ever had to deal with runs from the stuff!