we have notices that we have very small ants on and what looks like they have a path in our hive. How do we deal with this? we are also unsure of what it means and how bad it is?
Hi
There is a lot on ants here. Just put “ants” into search box top right hand corner (it drops down when you click on the spy glass thingie)
It probably means that ants are robbing your hive. It can be very bad - I lost a hive last year to Argentine ants, which are a huge problem in coastal California. Your profile doesn’t say where in the world you are, so I can’t tell you whether you are likely to have Argentine ants. However, if you do, deal with them fast, they are deadly for robbing hives.
Depending on the type of ants, you may need one or several methods. With Argentine ants, you can’t poison the nest - it extends from southern California up to San Francisco. If you poison part of it, they just come back in less than a week. In that case, you need ant moats, and as @busso says, you can search for posts on those.
Please don’t be complacent. We fought hard against ants last year, and they still won. Make sure you check the slider under the screened bottom board - it only takes them a day or two to set up a nest there if you leave it in the lower slot. They will also climb straps etc if you use moats, so make sure there is no path up to the hive from below the moats.
Good luck! 