# little black ants eat varroa off sticky boards



## Sara Alms (Jul 10, 2014)

I caught the little black ants in the act this morning, carrying the varroa away. They were not eating them, but marching them away under the sticky board like little leaf cutters. They were very quick. I will get images/video of this if anyone is interested. Sara


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## JRG13 (May 11, 2012)

I've noticed the same thing, if I see any ants on the sticky board, there's typically no mites either. We have Argentinian ants mostly. If I keep the ants off via spray around the hives, then I can sometimes get a count but even then I will find a few ants on the board a lot of times and can't get a count anyway.


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## johng (Nov 24, 2009)

They absolutely will carry off Varroa and mess up your counts. When I first started keeping bees I had a hive with DWV everyone said I probably had a high mite count. Well the only way I really knew how to do a mite count was with sticky boards. But, my sticky boards kept coming up pretty clean with only a few mites. I was perplexed. So after some more reading and observations I came to the conclusion that the ants were indeed carrying off the mites. So I figured out how to do an alcohol wash and sure enough my mite counts were sky high. So ever since then I do sugar shakes or alcohol washes to do counts. Besides once you start using those methods they really are easier, more accurate, and faster. 

As a side note I was able to save the hive. I treated with Apigaurd and started treating regularly after that. The hive made it through the rest of the summer and winter. I split them the next spring and the original queen built up the split into a production hive in time for the flow. I split her off again after the flow and she made it through another winter and spring. She was superceded that summer. I only remember that one queen, now they just get lost in the crowd most of the time.


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## beemandan (Dec 5, 2005)

The ants don't stick to the sticky board?


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## Sara Alms (Jul 10, 2014)

beemandan said:


> The ants don't stick to the sticky board?


Thanks for the confirmation, and I know now my sticky board counts are not accurate when ants are present. The boards are not sticky when new, but just being in the hive they get wax and honey residue along with moisture and they get sticky. Sticky enough to usually hold varroa, but not ants. Sara


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## beemandan (Dec 5, 2005)

Sara Alms said:


> I know now my sticky board counts are not accurate when ants are present.


And even without ants present. They might hold the dead varroa just fine but the live ones that fall will walk...or even run..... away. If you've never seen the little monsters move...you're in for a shock.
Many people coat their insert with some sticky substance or cover it with contact paper to improve the 'accuracy'. At that point, in my opinion, they actually become 'sticky boards'.


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## Saltybee (Feb 9, 2012)

Earwigs appreciate a fine meal as well.


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## Sara Alms (Jul 10, 2014)

Oh yes, they do move very fast. I coat the sticky board with a thin film of cooking oil, they cannot move once they fall onto it. The oil also makes wiping off the other crud that gunks up the board much easier. BTW, all my hives that had some sort of brood break have much lower mite counts than the ones that did not.


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## beemandan (Dec 5, 2005)

Sara Alms said:


> BTW, all my hives that had some sort of brood break have much lower mite counts than the ones that did not.


How long were the brood breaks and how much lower were the mite counts? In my experience the brood breaks must be extended for me to see any noticeable difference in infestation.


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## Oldtimer (Jul 4, 2010)

Yes ants can walk across stickyboards, I do some bee inspecting here and one of the programs we put stickyboards under the hives for 24 hours, everyone thinks we're looking for varroa but what we are actually looking for is to see if any exotic pests such as tropilaelolaps have showed up. While I'm collecting the boards it is not uncommon to see an ant walking across carrying a varroa mite. Just love to have a very high quality camera that could take a good pic, I'd put it on the net and have everyone thinking that ants are the next biological varroa control fad LOL. Seriously though, ants i think could do the job if the bees would let them in, but the bees will not let them in because the ants would eat a lot more than varroa mites. They will not turn down a nice varroa mite for dinner if it's away from the bees and they can get it.


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## Sara Alms (Jul 10, 2014)

beemandan said:


> How long were the brood breaks and how much lower were the mite counts? In my experience the brood breaks must be extended for me to see any noticeable difference in infestation.


The brood breaks were quite long. 3 were hives that swarmed and I let them raise their own queen, around 3 to 4 weeks before I saw signs of brood. 3 hives I split and let the queen-less part of the split raise their own queen took much longer, over 6 weeks. Down side is less foragers during the flow. The remaining 3 hives over wintered and still have their original 2 year old queen. They have horrible mite loads and are weak. I hate mites.


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## beesquad15 (Nov 5, 2014)

I have seen something like this in one of my hives. I had sugar ant nest under the cinder blocks on top of one of my hives so I naturally cleaned them off. the next time i inspected them the ants were right back! This whent on for about five inspections and on the 5th one i discovered piles of verroa mites where the ants had been! now what makes it even weirder was that all the other hives in this yard ( which was about three others ) died of verroa mites a few weeks later! I didn't watch the verroa in that yard and i paid for it! So maybe the ants picked up the verroa mites for some reason or another in this hive thus making it able to survive! I don't know but I think its worth looking into.

PS: I use solid bottom boards on my hives.


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## Sara Alms (Jul 10, 2014)

sorry, I forgot to answer the 2nd question. The mite loads on all the hives with a brood break had around 20 to 30 mites per 24 hour drop, still high. But the mite loads on the hives with no brood break had 5 times that at least. there is no question that a combo of brood breaks along with other management practices gives the hive a better chance than just one soft treatment method.


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## pinkpantherbeekeeper (Feb 10, 2016)

I wonder if they will eat SHB larvae? Or any other beneficial insect that might?


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## beemandan (Dec 5, 2005)

I kept queens in a queenless bank for about 45 days a couple of years ago. That is to say...there were no new eggs laid for that period. That was the only time I've ever seen a significant reduction in mite load that I could associate with a brood break. I have hives swarm or supercede queens every year and the difference in mite loads between them and the neighboring hives is not consistently different.
For me, I don't see brood breaks as an effective mite management strategy. 
Different places...different results.


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## Sara Alms (Jul 10, 2014)

beemandan said:


> I kept queens in a queenless bank for about 45 days a couple of years ago. That is to say...there were no new eggs laid for that period. That was the only time I've ever seen a significant reduction in mite load that I could associate with a brood break. I have hives swarm or supercede queens every year and the difference in mite loads between them and the neighboring hives is not consistently different.
> For me, I don't see brood breaks as an effective mite management strategy.
> Different places...different results.


I go after the hive with the brood break in progress with powdersugar dusting once a week for 4 to 6 weeks to at least get the mites on the adult bees down quite a bit. A one,two punch so to speak but labor intense. It does make a difference if you remain consistent and on schedule.


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## Sara Alms (Jul 10, 2014)

I dont know about SHB larvae, I have not ever seen that beetle in my hives.


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