hello .
iam a new at the beekeeping and i have a ants go around , on , and in my flow hive .
my question is do the ants hurt and kill the bees ?
by the way i tried the cinnamon method and it didn’t work
but the ants are very very small ants
hello .
iam a new at the beekeeping and i have a ants go around , on , and in my flow hive .
my question is do the ants hurt and kill the bees ?
by the way i tried the cinnamon method and it didn’t work
but the ants are very very small ants
Don’t know where in the world you are, but yes, ants hurt bees. They steal the food. There are lots of ways to deter them, please search this forum using the magnifying glass at the upper right of your browser.
Dawn
iam from saudi arabia
One way to prevent them from entering the hive is to put the hive stand legs in shallow tins (like a tuna can) of oil. I would suggest water, but in Saudi, it probably wouldn’t last long! You can also try thickly smearing petroleum jelly (Vaseline) around the hive legs - ants don’t like to cross that stuff.
thanks . iam going to try the Vaseline method
DE around the stand works good too.
what do you mean by DE ?
Diatomaceous earth.
Diatomaceous earth consists of the fossilized remains of diatoms.
The shells of those diatoms are sharp and can cut/pierce the exoskeleton of insects. They die as a result.
So far using DE with some ground Cinnamon has been keeping my ants at bay!
Yesterday I discovered that ants were using a ventilation hole on the cover to access the honey stores. I put a ‘gasket’ of vaseline around the vent hole and a board on top and created an ant proof barrier to clear them out. They were gone from the outside in a matter of an hour. The inside ones the bees will clean up and clear out.
I have a mental image of bees chasing and kicking ants!
Kickin antass and takin ant names ; -)
I use wheel bearing grease on the legs. Ants will not cross it.
is the grease exposed to the weather? Does it last a long time- or do you have to re-apply?
It is in the weather and doe not wash off. It needs to be where grit will not splatter on it when it rains.It last for months. My legs are 2 X 6 wood.
My hive has been inundated with the biggest blackest ants I have ever seen in my garden. Some are up to 12cm long and have wings. Others are smaller (possibly green ant) but all are larger than an ordinary house ant (dont have them invading as yet). I have tried the cinnamon but they didnt bat an eyelid. My problem is the hive is in a stump which I have on a garden seat off the ground. It weighs abt 40kg. Ants can get up wide u shaped legs of seat and I dont have any vessel large enough to sit the legs into. Should I see about getting a man made hive, I do love my natural look and they have been happy there for 25yrs. Not having had the problem before I dont want to lose my lovely little bees. All suggestions taken on board
sorry I forgot to mention I am in Australia and my stump has Aussie Native Bees… …
The small ants which attacked one of our hives do not like crossing a thick band of petroleum jelly (Vaseline), smeared on the legs of the hive stand. However, if the ants have wings, that won’t help. Hopefully somebody else will have a good idea - native bees are wonderful little things.
thank you Dawn. I have now seen other posts where people are also putting vaseline and car grease on legs so am going to give the axle grease a try. That will stop the crawlers but still not sure about the winged ants as I havnt actualy seen them flying only crawling. They seem too huge to even be able to take off.
Good luck. Would love to see some pics of your stump hive (inner & outer). They are incredibly large ants at 12cm, would be interesting to find out what sort they are, might give you some clues as to interactions will have with the bees?
this might help?
http://www.ozanimals.com/wildlife/Insect/Ants.html
http://www.brisbaneinsects.com/brisbane_ants/
There are quite a few ants that have symbiotic relationships with honeydew secreting insects/caterpilllars