Protection against ants

[omnimirage]

I have an ant problem where I'm placing my hives. The ants are very strong and healthy where I am, I can't effectively poison them or whatever.

I first noticed the issue when ants where surrounding my hives and snatching at honeybees, truly was gruesome to see. Since then, I've been building stands with legs, and putting the leg into some container, like an empty icecream box/dog food can, filled with engine sump oil. This prevents the ants from accessing my hive, but alot of bees wind up drowning in there somehow, and it's quite a burden having to build stands for every hive I place.

Is there any viable alternatives?

[Wandering Man]

I've had luck with diatomaceous earth, spread around and under the hives.  When an ant bed gets too close, I add Amdro, which seemed to work on non-fire ant ants.

I have to replace the DE after it rains.

[omnimirage]

I wouldn't always be able to replace it after it rains. I suspect the bees drown in the sump oil when it rains, as the container must rise with water, I suspect they might be trying to drink it.

Interesting idea.

[Knucs]

Give diatomaceous earth a try , I did one application 💣, been good since 👍, or here is a recipe some people use, no personal experience,
Homemade Natural Ant Repellent Ingredients
30 drops clove essential oil
30 drops peppermint essential oil
4 oz water
Directions
Mix essential oils and water in a spray bottle.
Shake well.
Spray anywhere you see ants.
Repeat if necessary

[Perry]

Cinnamon works well sprinkled around a hive, but it washes away with rain as well.

[neillsayers]

Omnimirage,
Thanks for reminding me. I need to reapply DE tomorrow.

[Bakersdozen]

An elderly beekeeper once told me that coffee grounds around the base of the hive works.  I haven't tried this.  It might be an old wives tale...or an old beekeepers tale! 

[lazy shooter]

I have no concept of what kind of ants they have in Australia, but the first year I kept bees from packages, some six years ago, I had quite a bout with ants.  I used cinnamon and vasoline and even built hive stands with the feet in bowls filled with motor oil and still had a difficult time with the ants.  The second year I began to wonder who fought the ants for the feral hives.  Since then I have not worried with ants.  I had one hive that drew some ants for a few weeks this summer, but all in all, I see precious few ants around my bee hives. 

lazy

[Lburou]

I have posted this before, but here it goes again...

Use of a bait station will kill most ants. Click Here for a link with easy to follow instructions to make your own bait station. It's easy. I've been able to forego the usual grease and oil barriers by using a combination of broadcast granular insecticide and ant baits.

You will need a bait apparatus that will attract the ants but block access by honey bees (that means smaller holes bored in the bait container). I mix one cup sugar with three cups water and one rounded tablespoon of boric acid. This will let the ants take the boric acid back to the nest and kill ants there. Research revealed that poison from ant baits has been found in ant nests more than a hundred feet from the bait itself. Boric acid is officially accepted by organic gardeners.

One important issue is that you need to bore holes in the bait station that allow ants to enter,but not bees. You don't want bees to have access to the poisoned sugar water. I also reuse the same mixing and storage containers for the poisoned sugar water.

As long as the ant is in a carbohydrate phase of its diet, they will take this mix. Some recommend adding an oil (vegetable) to attract ants during their protein phase, but I haven't tried that yet. HTH

[efmesch]

Though not quite perfect,  I have found that, if repeated a few times over a few days, boiling water poured down the entrance to the ant's nest puts a big crimp on the ant population.  The really nice part about this treatment is that it is totally non-poisonous and can't in any way affect the bees.

[Nugget Shooter]

We have several species in all sizes here in the Desert and the ground is alive with them year round... They will attack anything that hits the ground and is likely part of the reason SHB can't make it here I guess. I do not use poison simply because so many of our Desert animals depend on them for food and along with the ants we have several species of birds and lizards that eat them. The lizards have learned that bees throw out dead bees and other treats so they are always around patrolling under the hives. We use 16 inch high stands with legs in coffee cans with mineral oil which I punch 4 nail size holes in at 1 inch high to drain rainwater out. oil is replaced as needed and only takes a 1/8 inch on bottom of the can. Just have to worry about not noticing a tree branch from touching a super or the ants mob the hive, found out the hard way though lucky enough to catch it early.

Following is a photo of one of the stands as well as one of the reasons we do not poison, a baby Horned Toad likely hatched within last day or so since there were 6 of them in one small area gobbling up sugar ants under a hivestand. They are endangered and eat almost nothing but ants...

[omnimirage]

How interesting Nugget Shooter. Your stands/setup looks quite similar to mine. Do you use a particular type of mineral oil? Never knew that it would do the same job as sump-oil.

[Nugget Shooter]

Just the regular stuff sold at Tractor Supply and I get it there as it is way cheaper that the small bottles sold as human laxative  Horses need more I guess... It is safer all around and less messy if spilled, works great for us anyway.

[omnimirage]

Sounds a lot better than sump-oil, I particularly like how you've screwed in holes into your cans. I'll look into it, cheers.

[rober]

when doing whatever it is we do when working hives our gloves can get pretty gooey from honey. after washing the honey off the gloves can get stiff so I use mineral oil to condition the leather. keeps the gloves supple & is harmless to bees.