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 
Hi all,
On the weekend I inspected my hive for evidence of the queen due to the fact I missed a swarm a few weeks ago. Lucky for me there is a queen as I have new larvae and brood that has been capped. However, I noticed that ants have decided to start to make a nest in the upper part of the Flow super where you put the levers to open the frames.
My question is - is there an easy way to get rid of them? The super is getting very full of uncapped honey and I really don’t want to have to empty the super to get rid of the ants. Any thoughts and suggestions would be welcomed.
Thanks,
Peter (Albearhoney)
Hi Peter,
I also get ants setting up shop where the caps go on the key holes. So long as they haven’t got inside the flow frame which they shouldn’t as they seem to go in quite tightly, then you should be ok. I use a dust pan brush to get rid of them. After a few clean outs with the brush over a couple of days they seem to get the idea for a while. If they have actually got inside the flow frames I am not sure what you can do. Maybe a long bottle cleaning brush could do the trick.
Cheers
Paul
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Not really. I prevent the most annoying ones with ant moats - just use the Forum search tool at the upper right to see what I mean. I have lost a hive to ants, hopefully yours are not as problematic as mine were. 
Thanks for the advice, will look into the ant moats as I’m about to set up another hive so hopefully we can keep the ant at bay.
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AI had the same thing happen, the ants set up a home in the top after I regreased the stand legs. I finished up having to remove the frame to remove them. It was a pain. Fortunately the bees hadn’t started filling with honey.
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I have had excellent results with thick layers of ground cinnamon on effected surfaces. I had a bad nest inside the lid not yet in the frames and have not had any ants since then.
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Tiny ants are always around my hive boxes too, but borax traps work a treat - I’ll look for the recipe & repost it…can’t recall it offhand…the good news is, if some end up in your honey, ants are edible & some even say delicious 
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You can make a borax trap for them:
borax ant traps
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!
Put the jar right up next to the hive where you see them crawling around. 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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I’ve used the borax to great effect definitely my go to trap. As I mentioned earlier greasing the legs work a treat also but over time the grease wasn’t as much of a barrier until I reapplied and by then the ants had moved in, not in great numbers but had obviously begun a small colony above the greased legs. I would only see a couple when checking on the bees.
Prevention is definitely the best cure.
I find it interesting however, that the ants appear to find the same spot to set up camp in others Flow hives or rather Flow frames also. Upon inspection I’m not even sure how they even got in there!
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I’m feeding sugar water to my new bee’s, so of course the Ant’s have arrived.
I mixed Vaseline and cinnamon together to make a paste and smeared on my hive legs.
So far it seems to be working.
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I find that diatomacious earth is only good till the first rain.
I use DE on my chickens not in my bee yard.
I mix cinnamon and Vaseline and make a paste. I smear it on my hive legs. Seems to do the job.
Borax traps as described above work brilliantly!
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This works wonderfully!
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Great for in the house too 
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Glad to hear that…I have some pesky ants in my cutlery draw that have over-stayed the welcome.