Ants attack !!!

[moadaa]

Hello,
I have a poor hive with about a hundred .
My problem is that ants enter the hive and pick up layed eggs.

Is any fast solution because it's almost a dead colony.

 

[Beewoman]

I have heard that Vaseline mixed with some old engine oil smeared around the legs of your hive stand will stop ants and other nasties from getting into the hive, but not tried it myself. Failing that , a good kettle full of boiling water will do the trick!!!! I once had ants get into my house until my son left a carton of Apple juice on the fireplace. That sorted them overnight where ant killing powders had failed

 

[Canary Honey]

cinnamon powder is said to repel them. I have tried it with some success but not complete.

 

[oliver90owner]

About a hundred what? Bees?

If so, not viable. Well, might be in your climate!

 

[johnnie1uk]

I was recommended to use old coffee grounds, i save them then put the coffee/water mixture in a 2 litre bottle, shake it, and pour round the base of the stand, and it works and costs you nothing, if you do it each time you have a couple of litres it keeps them ants away.

 

[alldigging]

Is the hive on a slab? They like living under slabs but don't like getting their nest wet. They will evacuate if you poor cold water on. Any cold water will do.

 

[MartinL]

Think we are all missing out on one point here, Just how big are Algerian Ants?

My guess is they are a similar size to the bees???

 

[alldigging]

http://www.antwiki.org/wiki/Algeria

Millions of them!

 

[Graham Sharman]

I have heard that Vaseline mixed with some old engine oil smeared around the legs of your hive stand will stop ants and other nasties from getting into the hive, but not tried it myself. Failing that , a good kettle full of boiling water will do the trick!!!! I once had ants get into my house until my son left a carton of Apple juice on the fireplace. That sorted them overnight where ant killing powders had failed

Just to say - dont use ant powder! It's not instant, it's designed to get on the worker ants who then take it back to the queen thus killing the nest. If the ants take it into the hive, it'll do the same to the bees.

 

[Margaret Elisabeth]

Hello,
I have a poor hive with about a hundred .
My problem is that ants enter the hive and pick up layed eggs.

Is any fast solution because it's almost a dead colony.

Make a trap near the place where the ants go up to the hive. you can use an empty match box and make a hole at the end the ants approach from big enough for the ants to get in but not big enough for a bee to enter. Use a little honey as the bait if you have some and mix with borax (some wax from the hive may fool them into thinking they found a quicker route) , as has already been said the ants take it back to the nest and share it killing the nest. but it takes time.
Flooding will kill some of them but not all and may spread their eggs making new colonies to come back and be a further bother.

 

[moadaa]

Well !!!

all of you.
In fact, it took my hive a week to die ...
They have been attacked by all creature ants, wasps, worms, other bees (robber), ....
After their death I discovered that there was a hole at bottom of the box that lets anything enter

Just to mention

Think we are all missing out on one point here, Just how big are Algerian Ants?

My guess is they are a similar size to the bees???

They have all sizes, but two major types are present, there is one with a max size of 3 mm (egg robber) and the other as big as a bee .

 

[Torq]

Pity you lost your colony, as with everything in beekeeping you will have learned something new from this experience.. Any chance you could post some pics of your hives, are they on the ground and not on stands? A couple of pics of bees would be great so we can compare them to what we have in western Europe.
Thanks!

 

[moadaa]

I apologize

sorry i couldn't have pics because i didn't see your post,
well what i can do for the moment is describe what i've seen,
there a was a pile of dead bees on bottom surrounded by a lots of giant ants

After I cleaned the deeper, i took a look at the frames i was shocked with a lot of tiny to giant larvae (I think moth ones),
known that there steel some capped brood and pollen,
i took my measure so i let the frames outside so robber bees can use what is recyclable,
Finally i think that i ll burn the wax to kill moth's egg (what do you think about this procedure ?)