Getting Rid of Pests

I’ve been searching for a good way to get rid of pests (ants).

I’ve heard good things about pest repellents.

A review of one I found: http://lastminutegarden.com/2017/08/15/neatmaster-ultrasonic-pest-repellent-review/

Is this the way to go?

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Try sticking the legs of your stand in an oil bath. There are plenty of threads on this in the forum. Have a look at this one for starters Ant Moat version #2, because #1 was TERRIBLE

Cheers
Rob.

Choice consumer magazine (Australia) did a trial with a similar product and gave it “shonky of the year” ie it did not work.:frowning_face:

We have a lot of spiders in our house & I got one that was supposed to work for spiders etc. I woke up the morning after installing it to find one of these sitting on top & covering the whole thing…useless


huntman

I am using these which appear to be essentially the same thing as Rob mentioned - just 3d printed. They so far have worked very well. The only time I’ve found ants in the hive since installing was the result of grass coming in contact with the side of the hive. Am now more diligent about keeping grass or anything from providing a bridge.

Some clever person has been reading “ant problems” in here and made a commercial version.
Ideal for all those not keen on the PVC and glue version. Certainly will have a market.

I think the Huntsman spiders are just wonderful. We have many and occasionally we have to remove one which has come in and put it outside. There are lot of other species of spiders around but the Huntsman is favourite.
Freaks Wife out with spiders though and I can recognize the “huntsman shreak” and distinct from a lot of other shreaks in the spider repertoire.

Don’t read this if your worried about spiders. http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/home/interiors/the-creepy-crawly-reason-why-you-should-start-sleeping-with-one-eye-open/news-story/50a6b4eaa7d3721679d03474780a1715
Fancy that.:face_with_raised_eyebrow:

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There was a fantastic program from BBC a couple of years ago about just how many spiders we coexist with in our homes. I don’t mind Huntsman spiders, except that they like to jump at/on you occasionally. I’m used to them turning up most days, I don’t bother moving them anymore, they travel around the house & are quite welcome. My sister-in-law was having a shower here very early one morning & found one walking up her thigh. That was the loudest I’ve ever heard anyone scream! My nieces & nephew weren’t allowed to stay with me for a very long time. The spiders I don’t like are White Tails & they were the reason for the ‘device’, we had a particularly bad run of them a few years ago.

Me neither. The only dangerous spider we have. They have caused hand and leg amputations in the West.
Redbacks have a reputation which is not justified.

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I’ve read you should wear gloves while working the bees…on account of the spiders and snakes. :grin:

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Aaah the old spider urban myths. The white tail venom does not cause the amputations it’s infection. Although Redbacks havnt killed anyone since the anti venom became available they still pack a wallop. They are on my squish list.
I posted this pic a while ago and since it’s now on topic I’ll repost because it was a close call when I moved the hive.

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One of the few good things about our extremely cold winters in Ontario, Canada is it seems to keep all the nasty poisonous little creatures from migrating up here. There are no poisonous spiders, and the nearest poisonous snake is isolated to a small region along the shores of the great lakes nearly 5 hours from where I live.

I certainly wouldn’t appreciate that sort of surprise at the bottom of my hive!

Ah yeh but balance that with big bad bears, skunks, raccoons, squirrels. I think the snakes and spiders on the whole are a lot less problem. :slightly_smiling_face:

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The thing is White Tails turn up in your clothes, shoes & lots of other unexpected places, between my pillows once. I put my head down & heard a sound like scratching on the fabric, lifted my pillow up & large WT spider was rearing up at me. One under my kettle last week. They don’t have a web as they hunt other spiders, so there’s no sign to look out for them! Constant vigilance! :slightly_smiling_face:

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They can really move quickly too…

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LOL, you ae correct, but Skunks, Raccoons and Squirrels are easily dealt with. The black bears can certainly be a nuisance as I found out 8 days after installing Nucs this spring, but the chance of being killed by any of them is almost nil.

I’ve run into lots of black bears on canoe trips, and out of probably 50+ I’ve only seen one stand its ground until I started getting loud, the rest turned and ran before my brain had even processed what was happening.

Interestingly, only about 1 fatality a year by Black bears are reported in North America, yet 50 deaths per year are attributed to our beloved Bees!

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Now as advocate for the bees as they are too busy to reply themselves, I have to point out that there are only 380,000 black bears in Canada (https://www.pc.gc.ca/en/pn-np/mtn/ours-bears/generaux-basics/ours-noir-black-bear) yet there are around 8,000 bee colonies in Canada Error 404 page not found - Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) and with a conservative 50,000 bees per colony there are
400,000,000 bees in Canada not counting the wild ones.
So with there being one (1) black bear per every 1052 bees stands to reason you would bet more deaths from bees.
QED :wink:

Edit: just Canada not Nth America

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Found a Blue Tongue lizard Blue Tongue lizard making his/her way to my hives at home. I’ve already lost a nuc to one of these Blue Tongues. Just sat outside the entrance and ate till it couldn’t eat any more. Relocated down in the scrub about 100mtrs away. Will probably make it’s way back

G’day Alan, we never talked about elevating hives off the ground so that cane toads can’t eat the bees. It’s best to keep the entrance at least 2 besser blocks off the ground, mainly for cane toads. It looks like the same remedy for blue tongue lizards. I keep my strawberries well off the ground on account of those. We have a few in our yard.

Hi @JeffH, yes I originally elevated the nuc at my bosses place not far from you but unbeknownst to me he moved it and all the lizard had to do was step up and feast. So then within 10 days the grubs took over. What a mess.
Lots of swarms around my place atm.
Have some great laying queens.

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