This link provides "natural" solutions to prevent ants from getting in your hive. I also have ants in some of my hives. I usually take two approaches. 1) Do nothing (how much honey can an ant eat anyways, 2) Use ant poison external to the hive. Note: Most ant poisons have sugar in them to attract the ants. You must make sure the bees can NOT get to the ant poison.
http://www.keepingbackyardbees.com/ants-in-the-hive/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=KBBees%20eNews&utm_campaign=06.11.15%20-%20KBB%20eNews
I had ants on top of inner covers of 3 hives. Little colonies of red ants carrying eggs around and pretty well settled in. I put diatomaceous earth around the cinder blocks that support the hives, but that didn't seem to do anything. Might have been too late since they were already in the hives.
ReplyDeleteSo I used powdered cinnamon. I sprinkled it on the covers and then spread it around everywhere the ants were. The next week the hives were ant free.
The bees didn't seem bothered by the cinnamon at all. They calmly walked right over it.