Keeping Ants Out of Your Beehive: A Beekeeper's Guide

Ants can be a persistent problem for beekeepers. These tiny insects are attracted to the delicious resources found in beehives, like honey and pollen. Even spilled syrup can attract them.

Strong bee colonies with a good population of worker bees can effectively defend their hive against ant invasions. However, weaker colonies may struggle to do so. This is why it's important for beekeepers to consider colony population and food resources during inspections. If a hive has a small population and a lot of resources, the bees can not protect everything within the hive. In these cases, you might find ants inside the hive.

Here are some key points to remember:

• Ants need to climb to reach the hive.
• Limiting the entry points into the hive will allow weaker colonies to set up better defenses against attackers.

There are several steps beekeepers can take to prevent ant infestations:

• Maintain a Strong Colony: Achieve this by transferring capped brood frames into weaker hives.
• Elevated Hive Stands: Placing hives on a stand makes it harder for ants to reach.
• Moats: Isolate either the hive or the hive stand within a container filled with water or vegetable oil to effectively create a water barrier that ants cannot cross.
• Limit Syrup Feeding: While helpful during low nectar flow, prolonged syrup feeding can attract more ants than bees. Observing colonies and using the forage flow map (link below) helps in understanding their natural food sources: https://honeybeenet.gsfc.nasa.gov/Honeybees/Forage.htm

Ant Barrier Options:

• DIY Moats: As mentioned above, create simple moats with water or vegetable oil-filled containers under the hive legs.
• Commercial Ant Barriers: While Apimaye doesn't offer them directly, various ant barriers are available online at popular retailers like Amazon and eBay.
• Cinnamon: Sprinkle cinnamon around each leg of the hive stand. This low-cost option has varying degrees of success.

By implementing these strategies, you can help your bee colony thrive and keep those pesky ants at bay!