# What can be done about ants?



## JackandPam'sPlace (Jan 16, 2015)

I am new and just installed my first of three nucs. The first (waiting on the other two) I am feeding with a frame feeder and they seem to be working well. I checked them yesterday and there had to be 2000 ants on the top of the inner frame. I see some on the outside but what a surprise when I saw inside. Don't see any where it matters but concerned about the bee's health. I have stood and watched them take out and knock some ants off the outside so good on them but......should I be concerned and is there something I can do. My boxes are each on a stand I have made and 24" off the ground. I am wondering about ant products that they take back with them and kill the ones in the ground but would it affect the nuc? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance, Jack


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## jay.landry (Mar 9, 2015)

If you do a search on here you will find many answers given on this topic. Cinnamon works for some. Cans of oil works for others. Some don't worry about it as it only bothers the beekeeper and not the bees. 

Good luck with whatever you do or don't do :ws:


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## phyber (Apr 14, 2015)

they're not really a problem unless they are inside the hive robbing materials. I usually spill some syrup or drop some comb on the ground and the ants do a good job cleaning it up. They'll also take away the dead bees, so they're a hygenic thing to have. 

Cinnamon on the inner cover works. I put some Terro ant traps on the ground under my hives...that helped a lot.


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## frustrateddrone (Jan 31, 2015)

Gas Pipe 3/4" (700PSI) Sunk in concrete.








Adding on to this you can just dig a hole under any of the ends of the pipe and sink concrete. The pipe legs all have to be greased. If your tight on money you can use 1 pipe going up and a "T" fitting set 90 degrees to what I have with 12" pieces of pipe screwed into the "T" fittings and run a few pieces of treated lumber and set your bee hives on them. I prefer not to put wood down due to the extreme weather we have. I put 3/4" pipe clamps to secure my bottom board. 4 clamps per bottom board is what I used. Unfortunately I have to strap my bee hive down with ratchet straps as the wind here is too much for bee hives. 

Wondering why my stand is 30inches off the ground? Because I am not stooping over to work the bees. 

Grease the legs. You can put PVC caps on the legs and fill them with grease. I did mine upside down apparently. Oh well. If you put grease on something normally the ants will not cross it.


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## Norcalkyle (Apr 23, 2015)

I made a frame out of old 2" x 12" wood with 4" x 4" reinforcing the corners. I then purchased (6) 3/4" galvanized nipples and (6) pipe bases that I screwed in to the underside of the frame. I then put (6) empty quart cans on the ground and centered the nipples in the cans. I then filled the cans with old fryer oil. No bees can make it to the hives as long as you keep the grass down. I have tons of ants (red and black) and have not seen 1 on or in the hive.

My thought is that they can't help the hive, so even if they don't hurt the bees I don't want them in there.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Are they just there? Or are they doing harm?


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## soarwitheagles (May 23, 2015)

Jack,

Great questions and lots of great answers here. But I disagree with the statement that bees only bother the bee keeper and not the bees.:no: Llast year, in my ignorance, I watched as large black ants battled day and night against my one and only beehive. I was hoping that the bees would win the battle. Long story short, after several months, the ants won, killed every bee, and robbed the hive of everything. It was so discouraging. I even tried the "place the four legs of the beehive stand in water, oil, etc." My experience: the water and oil buckets attracted and killed more bees than ants! After some time, the ants even used the dead bodies to climb over the liquid to kill the bees in the hive...using oil in buckets for me turned into an absolute mess.

Fast forward to this year. I purchased a new package with a new queen. Within two days of placing the beehive on a stand, there were over 50 fire ants each night battling the bees... and I mean, battle to the death. The ant numbers began to increase dramatically. There was no way I was gonna let those ants win this time.

Here is what worked for me: 

1. Spread cinnamon powder around the legs.
2. Grease the poles with axle grease.

Result: for the first two days, I saw fire ants completely covered in cinnamon powder, wallowing around in the cinnamon dust. Not one of them were able to climb the pole past the grease. And now, here is the super good news: Not even one ant has been able to climb above the grease for two weeks now. In fact, they have given up in the sense that I never see even one ant near the hive at night any more. *Best of all, I haven't lost even one bee to these killer ants since changing the battle plan.*

*Special note:* _I realize different approaches work for different people due to different variables._ Example: I have 5+ different types of ants at our ranch and three of the varieties are incredible vicious, strong, and have no stopping sense. Now I am so thankful that the cinnamon powder/greased pole solved the problem for me.

I really like how one of the members here recommends using high temp. grease in a PVC cap pointed downward. I hope to improve upon my set up by using his plan.

I have included a post of my hive. _I do not recommend the inverted funnel design that I dreamed up._ Why? I thought no ant could climb up an inverted funnel. What a mistake, because before I applied the grease, they appeared to enjoy the challenge and climbed right up the funnel from inside to outside no problem at all. Sure has been a heck of a learning experience!

Good luck to you Jack!

Soar














PS Please check out Charlie B's post. I really believe his ideas on stopping the ant invasions are some of the best ideas I have ever read.

Here's his post: http://www.beesource.com/forums/sho...oof-Hive-Stand-Actually-Works!&highlight=ants


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

The first step in dealing with a potential problem is to determine whether one has a problem. Thus my questions in the previous Post. Are they just there? Or are they doing harm?


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## JackandPam'sPlace (Jan 16, 2015)

Wow! Thanks everyone. Soarwitheagles Great ideas and sqkcrk I need to pay attention to see if they are causing any damage here. I have seen, before we started with the bees, an army of red ants and I mean army, marching through our lawn last year and sprayed them before our dog walked through them. Not the case with the ones I see now but will try some modifications to my three nucs we started with. I have built 3' x 3' stands with 24" legs as like soarwitheagles I don't have to bend over. Thanks to all once again, Jack


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

JackandPam'sPlace said:


> sqkcrk I need to pay attention to see if they are causing any damage here. I have seen, before we started with the bees, an army of red ants and I mean army, marching through our lawn last year and sprayed them before our dog walked through them. Thanks to all once again, Jack


Not to be too critical of you and your situation since I don't really know you or your situation, but I hope you aren't simply being over reactive. But spraying red ants marching through your yard because your dog might walk through them seems rather over reactive to me and quite quick on the draw.

I had no idea that red ants were a problem in Canada. I know they can be in FL. And that CA works hard to keep them from being transported there by beekeepers going to almonds. But, Napanee, Ont., Canada? Okay.


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