Ant Moat version #2, because #1 was TERRIBLE

Modifications & Building Bee Hives
21

Hi,

I’m replying to this so we can keep a track of your design & copy it one day :slight_smile: our legs in buckets design is starting to fail as the weight of the hives is cracking the buckets. We have big soldier ants here which are an inch long so we will upscale it a bit.

Our only question is - how do you fill it with oil/ water?

Cheers heaps do giving such a clear guide,

Julia

22

@Drone,

Here is the 4" cap I bought…

Here is the 3" cap I bought…

And the 1 1/4" cap…

These are low pressure PVC caps used for sewer plumbing. The high pressure schedule 40 PVC caps are much more expensive and have curved bottoms. Lowes and Home Depot carry these parts too.

I hope that helps.
Lorne

23

Two things…

  1. In case you overlooked this part of the design, the inner PVC pipe is not glued to the two caps that it fits into (i.e. they are dry fitted). This allows you to pull the top and bottom apart with ease using your hands. Once apart, you can refill the moat.
  2. I have a block of wood that is the same height as the PVC moats. I gently lift the hive leg and swap out the PVC moat for the wood block. Then, I inspect and refill the moat and redo the swap when I am done.

Lorne

24

WOW, seriously way too much time on your hands, L.O.L.
I used empty ice cream containers with the lid ON, which had a hole cut in the lid being 3mls bigger than the leg of the stand, to prevent the ants from accessing the gap, but the gap too small for the bees to fall into.
The lid helps with the reduction of evaporation as well. Cost = NIL.