How To Keep Ants Away From Your Beehives?

The sound of bees flying and buzzing around in summer is a treasure! Unfortunately, summer is also very convenient for all the other pests. There is often some pests like ants, varroa mites, wax moths and mice around the beehives. Of course, no one wants to have ants in their beehives.

However, we can consider ants helpful if we see them as a sign that something is wrong with our beehives. This is due to the fact that strong and healthy colonies can keep the ants away from their beehives themselves. Be aware that chemicals should not be used or if you, however, decide to do it, let it be your last choice. The chemicals will make the hive weaker. So, always start “fighting” ants with the least drastic methods. All of us want to have healthy and strong hives because in this case, the colonies are able to keep the pests away on their own. Only a small amount of ants it’s not a problem. On the other hand, when having a lot of ants in the hive, bees might fill up with honey and leave the hive.

Which techniques prevent ants from invading beehives?

The best, and most used way, to do this is to put the hives in a moat of oil around the legs of the hive. This will bring additional benefits. Your hives will stand on a platform and will be more convenient as they are taller from the ground. In order to do this oil moat, you should put each of the beehive’s leg into a can or a bucket. This can or bucket doesn’t have to be too deep and its size depends on the size of the hive’s legs. After this, you just need to add a few inches of oil.

All beekeepers use a different kind of oil. However, vegetable oil is considered to be better than the old motor oil. Old motor oil can get into the ground if it overflows because of the rain. This will contribute to having flowers that are growing in the contaminated ground. Of course, we do not want our bees to collect their pollen from this kind of flowers. So, it is better that we use vegetable oil. The thing with the oil is that ants will climb the can and after that, they will fall into the oil, where they die.

Another way of preventing ants from getting to your hives is with the use of certain plants. A useful and helpful ant deterrent is the cinnamon. It can be used inside and outside to keep ants from the beehive. The bees do not mind it, but the ants definitely do not like it. For inside use, you should sprinkle it on the inner cover, and for outside use, sprinkle it on the ground around the hive.

These are two ways of keeping the ants away from your beehives. On the plus side, they are completely not invasive and drastic. If you see ants lurking around on your hives you should always go on a “hive inspection” and see the condition of the colonies.