I Found a Bee Friendly Fix for Ants

Tiny black sugar ants have been preying on my flow hive for a couple of months.
They even snuck in behind the back wooden cover and were starting to dig through the Propolis the girls has put between the plastic flow frames to try and get to the honey.
I really did not want to use pesticides and because i have my hive on a large workbench I did not want to mess around making oil traps.
So I discovered sprinkling some cinnamon around the feet of the workbench and even on the metal rail that the back wooden panel sits behind the flow frames worked amazingly.
No more ants and the bees don’t mind the cinnamon at all.

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Nice trick!
I use a mechanical barrier, my own designed ant proof stand (ball bearing grease in upside down metal stand retroffited with exhaust pipe parts)
Been ants free for almost a year now

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I’ve also had a slight issue with ants constantly milling about the back of the frames since I last harvested. I also put cinnamon all over this area- and it did seem to bother the ants but after a few days they were all back- walking right through the cinnamon. I’m not sure- it seems it works better on some ants than others. Mine are little black ones around 3mm long…

i have noticed the ants carrying eggs near my caps behind the rear observation window and the key access slots. after brushing them away i tried sprinkling cayenne pepper around the hive but still no luck getting rid of them yet :confused:

They are probably inside the hive in that case. You may want to take the hive apart and clean them out. Bees really don’t do well with an ant nest inside the hive. I can tell you that from experience - I lost a hive to ants last year. If you use the magnifying glass at the upper right of the page to search for ant moats, you will find the solution that works best for me. I made my own simple moats, and my hives are currently ant-free.

Wishing you luck. I hate ants with a passion. :flushed:

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Hi @Brett_Low I hate ants too!! Dawn may be right & you’ll have to clean out the hive as best you can. Meanwhile here’s another way to control them without bothering your bees:

Nice body count, eh? :skull_and_crossbones::sunglasses:The jar contains a deadly syrup of borax-laced sugar, soaked into a wad of paper towel or a couple cotton balls for ants to climb on. The lid is made of aluminum foil punched with a fork to make ant-sized but NOT bee sized holes. I put it right up to the side of the hive wherever I see ants trailing. They divert into the jar because it’s easier & faster :smirk:

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