# Sugar ants are not a honey bee pest



## The Honey Girl's Boy (Jul 26, 2009)

I tried looking to see if this topic has already been posted, if it has already been discussed help me find the post. I am talking specifically about the tiny, usually black, ants that occupy areas in the hive that the bees don't have access to. I have had some pretty heated conversations about this subject. I stopped worrying about this specie of ant in my hives years ago. I researched and experimented with these guys over the years and I have not found any proof they are detrimental to the bees. In the past, a few times, when I found a colony of them on the inner cover, I dumped them in the hive. Based on the evidence on my sliding screen bottom boards and around the entrances the bees quickly destroyed these little guys. You should have heard the howls in my beekeeping circles when I told them that story. I have never witnessed these tiny black ants harassing a bee, quite the contrary, they appear to do everything they can to avoid the bees. The two species appear to cohabitate just fine by staying out of each other's way. The Sugar ants scavenge for scraps around the edges of the of the bee colony. I remember reading a study done of Feral bees in hollow tree cavities where they found a colony of little ants living in the debris at the bottom of the cavity. If anyone can help me run down that study I would be grateful. So in closing- I think these Sugar ants bother the keepers far more then they bother the bees. If you have verifiable evidence that this specific specie of ant has caused harm to your bees, let me know. I think I am right, but I have no problem admitting when I'm wrong.


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## odfrank (May 13, 2002)

In my experience, they will overwhelm failing hives and weak divides with sugar in a queen cage and being fed sugar syrup. They do not bother my full strength hives. I agree with your statement: "I think these Sugar ants bother the keepers far more then they bother the bees." However, there are many different species of ants. So different areas might have different ant problems. So it would be a good idea to determine exactly what kind of ant you are dealing with. Probably the Argentine ant.


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## AR Beekeeper (Sep 25, 2008)

I find ant nests above the inner cover when the feed hole is closed, but I have not found the ants inside of the hive. I don't think ants are a bother to my bees, but as odfrank says, there are many species of ants.


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## The Honey Girl's Boy (Jul 26, 2009)

Because of the terrible havoc ants can and do create in our hives- I totally agree it is important to identify the exact species of ant involved in any honeybee/ant conversation. Especially if I am saying a particular species of ant doesn’t seem to be a problem in the hive. We do have ant species in our area that will create chaos in the hives. However, this is the ant I am talking about, straight out of the text book. 
_The Sugar Ant is the slang name for the *The Odorous House Ant *which are small ants about 1/16 to 1/8th inch long and dark brown in color. They are found throughout the U.S. and in spite of their name, are only an occasional pest in the house. _
I guess I'm putting way too much into this. I have had keepers I mentor call me in a near panic about these little guys in their hive and think I've lost my mind when I tell them not to worry about it- I haven't worried about it for years. Maybe I should say, "When in doubt, kill it." It just seems we have enough problems with our bees without inventing more.


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## JWChesnut (Jul 31, 2013)

The invasive Argentine Ant,_ Linepithema humile_, is a devastating pest of California nucs, mating nucs, and colonies being fed syrup. Extreme measures must be taken to physically isolate weak colonies from the invasion of the ants. Colonies overrun with the ants will abscond. Ants can carry off sufficient honey to cause starvation.

Unfed colonies are more resistant. Colonies with a lot of propolis and undisturbed boxes are more resistant (as cracks through which foraging ants enter are sealed). In the event of ant invasion, I replace SBB with solid bottoms to avoid the easy access the SBB provides. Colonies fed sub are very susceptible to ant invasion.

A pill bottle filled with cotton and a weak sweet boric acid (2%) mixture and a single tiny bore hole in the cap makes an effective ant poison.

Terminal colonies will see ants eat the little remaining larvae -- executing the coup-de-grâce on these losses.

I hang mating nucs from a cross arm on fenceposts, or place them on standards over water moats in five gallon buckets to avoid losses from these ants.

Google doesn't yield up any North American ant with the [common] name "Sugar Ant", so we are completely in the dark what species the OP refers to. 

I have a large ant that takes up residence in inner covers in the winter, and that ant does not appear to forage in the comb.


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