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ants in the hives!!

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justgojumpit:
I have three hives ready for bees to move in on the 8th of may. problem is keeping the carpenter ants from moving in. i sprayed a ring on the cinder blocks that the hives sit on with ant and roach killer, but they didnt care. they still set up shop in one of my hives. (two are used, the third hive is new, so has no honey or sugar residues on it) i smoked the heck out of this hive and killed the ants, and then torched the cracks where eggs were by pumping the smoker till flames came out the end and used this as a blow torch. then i closed up the hive, except for the outer cover, and puffed mad amounts of smoke in there, to hide the smell of the sugar and honey inside. this deterred the bees, but they then set up shop next door. i repeated the whole ensemble for this hive, and then smoked the heck out of the third hive as well, before the ants would take a liking to this one as well. what do you all do to keep ants out of your hives? we'll see if the smoke works to mask the smells of food from the ants. i plan to air out the hives well before the bees come. is this all that would be needed, or will the bees now no longer want to live in these hives? should have thought of this sooner
oh, by the way, the frames with comb were not smoked with the hives, but were brought inside into a cold cellar, where they are stacked so the air can get at them. i have not seen a bug in this cellar for years, so i think the combs will be fine for a few weeks till the bees come, but i will check on them just to make sure.

sorry the post is so long. those of you who got this far, thank you! and those who reply, i thank you all the more!!

justgojumpit

justgojumpit:
the ants are back!

any ideas anyone?

thanks,

justgojumpit

Anonymous:
build a hive stand, and make the legs out of 4x4's.  Place each of the 4 4x4 legs into a large coffee can, or something like it and fill it up with oil.  This will keep the ants from being able to climb into the hive, and it won't bother the bees.

Chris

beemaster:
Justgojumpit

Sounds like you've done everything except Tacticle Nucs or hand granades on this hive. The tin cans under the four legs (as seen in Beekeeping for dummies) is something I have never tried and the only issue I have is that if you get hard rains, the cans can fill with water and the oil over-flow.

A modified version where the leggs are recessed under the hive body many inches may do a better job of protecting the cans from rain, but make the hive unstable.

Ants are indeed a problem, especially if they have gotten to the egg laying stage in your hive boxes - I can't believe how large the eggs are from these ants.

I would definitely stay away from any insect spray though, carry-over into the hive isn't good for the bees or humans.

I'm lucky, we have a small bluish green bird that loves picking off ants and workers walking away from my hives - there are a few of these birds and they know when to come and they feed all day when the ants are around.

I suggest though, getting ANT CONTROL TRAPS that sterilize the males and they bring the chemicals home with them and it sterilizes their too - you could stick these hormone attractant traps under the hives where the ants will get a whiff of them as they climb the hive boxes. Raid puts out one for sure - 2 or three of these under each hive box NEAR THE ENTRANCE but under the bottom board MAY just handle your problems in the long term.

Otherwise, I don't know what you can do - they are pests and drive us all nuts.

John

SeanChan:
To prevent overflow due to rain just make a one cm hole near the top of the coffee tins, insert a similar diameter L shaped stiff plastic tube into the hole with the L end inside and facing down. Make sure your oil can contains water with oil floating on top and the L reach below the oil to water. Now when it rains, water will sink and flow out till the level of the inner end of the L plastic tubing. The longer the down facing limb of the L the more oil can remain on top of the water. :D

SeanChan From Malaysia, Where ants are everywhere through the year.

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