I’ve always had ant problem with my hives and I still blame ants for loosing all 3 of my hives in 2016. When I built the table for hives, I’ve made a new design and placed all new hives on a single base table which had a total of 5 legs for 3 hives. The reason for this was to minimize the number of places where ants can climb up the hives to steal honey.

Under the legs, I’ve placed empty containers and periodically filled them with water. The lids are used to prevent debris (dead bees, leaves etc.) from falling into the water and acting like a bridge for the ants to crawl over. This worked fine so far and did not have much ant issue, maybe because I’ve sprayed the garden before my bees arrived.

Water in the container is acting like a moat and preventing ants to climb up the hives. However, some ants still walk on water :(

This week, though, I’ve seen lots of ants walking on the hives which scared me. The ants were walking over the water and most of them were going to the hive which is the weakest one of all three. The picture above shows ants crawling over the water after I’ve applied tanglefoot. They were much more crowded when I’ve first saw them.

Since I’ve already had water containers under the legs of the table. I’ve added two other measures to the ant issue

Tanglefoot

Tanglefoot is a sticky substance which is used as insect barrier to keep bugs climbing up the trees. It works great for preventing ants climbing up the hives as well. I’ve used it in the past and am very satisfied. Keep in mind that you might need to apply more layers as the previous layers dries out or get dirty from dust, leaves, dead bees/ants etc. Sometimes, bees also get trapped on it but it is better than having an army of ants stealing from hive.

The picture below shows the tanglefoot applied to the leg, just above the water container.

Ant Bait

We had ant infestation inside our house and used different baits and traps in the past. I’ve found that AdvionAnt gel bait is the best. It is very easy to apply and ants love it. I’ve applied this gel around the hive, mostly under the water containers under the legs. Ants gathered around the bait and started eating it before I was done by inspection.

Ant-bait: make sure that bees can not access the applied material.

Result:

It has been two days since I’ve taken these additional measures and ants have disappeared from hive. I’ll keep a close eye on them and will update this post if I find that they come back.