Ants in swarm trap

[Wandering Man]

I found out why bees have left 2 of my swarm traps alone. They both had full grown ant colonies in them. I thought I’d try ant bait to kill off the colonies, and the clean everything out before hanging them back in their respective trees.

Does anyone have suggestions for keeping the ants out in the future?

[tedh]

A small amount of ground cinnamon works to keep ants off of our inner covers.  Not sure if that's a good idea in a swarm trap.  Maybe others can give better suggestions as we haven't hung swarm traps before but hope to this season.  Ted

[riverbee]

wm, i went digging around on the forum, this has been discussed before. mix equal parts of borax and sugar, put it in a covered container where the ants can get to it, and not the bees.  just use the search box and type in 'borax', you will find these posts.

[Jen]

That's a good one River. And Ted's cinnamon suggestion works as well. I've used cinnamon before on the table where my hives sit. But I found that the wind blew the cinnamon away. So I got Vaseline and smeared a moat of it around the perimeter of the hive, about an inch wide. Then, sprinkled cinnamon on the Vaseline. The ants didn't want to cross the cinnamon barrier. It worked real well... but then you have those occasional warrior ants that make it across alligator waters anyway 

Maybe, use this method around the base of the swarm box? 

[Mikey N.C.]

WM,
How are you hanging them ?

[Wandering Man]

Mikey,

I set the trap in the groin between a limb and the trunk, then screw a bolt into the tree so the hanger can help hold it in place, then finish with a bit of cord to hold it in place.

[Mikey N.C.]

Ok, so ants are climbing up tree. You could use bait feeder at base of tree, like river said borax, sugar water and jelly. Lee showed some last year. I used some under my hives last year with good results. I used (rachel ray nutrish) plastic dog food containers with lids, drilled 1/8 holes around top just under lid. 1/2 in of water mix a little jelly smeared above water and stir water with stick to get on jelly and alittle jelly on the out side just to get them started.  Alot drowned,  the one that didn't,  didn't come back. Oh and used some with peppermint sticks inside with water mix. Make sure holes are big enough for ants to get in and bees can't.  I know everything is big in Texas 

[Wandering Man]

The ants pretty much live in the tree.  The had moved their colony into my swarm trap.

I put Surrender ant bait out on the tree itself, and they were gone in two days.  I still need to get my ladder out, pull it down, clean it out, and reset it.

I think I will keep some kind of bait on or around the tree going forward.

Thanks for your suggestions.

[Mikey N.C.]

WM,
Didn't thank about carpenter ant's,  here in the sandhills most are ground ants. I have 4 field ant mounds in the yard.  And talk to them like i do the bees.
They're prolific year after year.

[Wandering Man]

We have a nice variety of ants here.

In addition to regular ants, we’ve got the acrobat ants in our trees, fire ants, and are now being hit by an invasion of “crazy ants”, which are supposed to be worse than the fire ants.

We’ve got big, Texas sized ants an itty-bitty Rhode Island sized ants.

[Mikey N.C.]