Getting rid of ants

You could always do both. I don’t know if you have argentine ants in Hawaii, but those caps do not stop that type of ant. They are pretty good for some kinds of termite, but I have not had much luck with them against the kind of ants we have. However, that cap on top of some ply with moats on top of that would solve rodents and ants. :smile:

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I am going to. Might even modify to keep hive from twisting on the blocks when I open it. Thanks again

Hi

You are correct…in Australia we use these ant caps on top of brick piers
before we place timber bearers on top and start building our houses. It
keeps out ants and other pests from destroying the timbers.

What you stated is correct, simple sheet of tin that is bend on the edges.
If your home hardware don’t stock it, it is simple to find a sheet metal
place and show them the picture and have it made up.
It work great for me …my brother who has 28 hives uses the same principle
and we don’t have any ant problems.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Hendo1944

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Hmmm i thought ant caps were used for termites(whiteant) Not to stop them but to force them out into the open. The mud tunnel is then visible so you know you have a whiteant problem.

This is my understanding also. Having lived many years in wood stumped houses with ant caps,
the ant caps do have a deterrent affect in that white ants don’t like building mud tunnels on tin but caps do not stop white ants altogether. You can see the mud trails on caps though , where as on a wooden stump the trails are very hard to see.

Hiya @NeuManaHui - Borax traps work a treat too. When I saw ants crawling up the one side of my hive in early summer, I made up one of the traps I’ve often used in my house & placed it right up to the side of the box where the trail was.

Mix one part borax to three parts sugar & dissolve in water, put some into a small glass jar with a cotton ball or bit of paper towel for ants to climb on, cover jar opening with aluminum foil & secure with rubber band or the ring for the jar if it’s the type for preserves. Poke a few holes in the foil with a fork or something - large enough for ants but too small for bees!

Eventually they’ll all start going in there instead of the hive, because it’s easier. Keep an eye on the trap to make sure the foil barrier is intact & replenish your mixture when the body count gets high inside the jar.

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Good deal thats an easy quick fix. I am off today so can get to store. I can place it in block will try that and the vaseline to stop immediately. Then, I may do the platform with the moats and the metal as I dont think rodents can crawl into hive on the metal. Thank you so much for the ideas. Really like to try easy ideas like these. Plus sun is out light breeze hope to peak in to see if they did damage.

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Used motor oil in a setup similar to dabailey1 (see above) - became a bee grave. Hundreds of bees wound up filling the traps and dieing. Had to replace with water. Bees covered in oil are not a pretty sight. I think they were pretty angry as I am disappointed in the effect this had, both on bees and myself. :disappointed:

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Even now, plenty of bees drowning in the water. Is my ant barrier just too close to the entrance?? What to do?

Bees are still quite agitated from moving the boxes to get the new legs in. I hope once they’ve settled down, drownings will be much less.

I put a cover over the top of mine - a sort of umbrella if you like. This stops leaves and rain from falling into the moat, but it also seems to stop the bees too. This is my first model and it worked fine, the latest model has a 4 inch PVC end cap instead of the DVD:

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It’s a beautiful solution. Thanks. I’ll try something similar!

Thanks for sharing this.

Sorry to hear your bees were drowning :confused:
Just a thought - do they have access to water for drinking? If not, I wonder if that’s why they were attracted to your traps…

Howdy, I love gardening and I have a beautiful chrysanthemum garden. Recently, I saw some black and red spots on the leaves. Some of the leaves turned yellow too. I guess the soil drainage could be one reason behind it. I couldn’t identify the real reason of the colored dots. My friend who visited my garden said that the dots might be due to ants. While searching for a solution, I saw a blog in which they have mentioned some ways to avoid pests but that doesn’t work, Any Suggestions?

Just wanted to pitch in my solution to this problem. I use tanglewood ($10 for a tub - search on Amazon) its a sticky substance. I smear a thin layer on the inside of a plastic container. E.g. the 2 1/4 paint bucket from Home Depot is the right size that fits over a 4x4. The plastic containers goes over the top of the 4x4, another 4x4 rests on top. The weight of the hives (2 hives per stand) keeps everything in place). The only time I saw ants was when a strand of grass created a bridge they could cross.

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Hi all, I’ve been getting small black ants nesting on the upper side of the top board (i.e. under the roof / above the supers), 200-300 ants with eggs in there at times. I’ve been scraping them off into the bin during hive inspections but recently noticed honey stocks in the super were declining even though spring is kicking in with flowers/pollen awash in the local area. To rid the ants I put double-sided poster tape on the top board where the ants were and covered the tape with cinnamon. I also bought 3-4 small ant traps from the local hardware and stuck them onto the base of the hive (apparently the ants will eat the bait, take it back to their nest & kill the colony). Time will tell if the ants will settle back on the top board. Better still, the honey supers might start to show some capping and then the honey can flow!
p.s. the hole in my top board is screened of with flymesh to stop bees building comb in the roof, but I suspect ants were climbing through the mesh into the supers robbing honey, hopefully not anymore.

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Quick follow up, the Home Depot paint containers deteriorate in the sun, the plastic is not UV resistant. I am now using the metal paint cans from Home Depot and 4 monks vinegar containers (cut off the top). Live and learn…

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Thanks for letting us know :slight_smile: