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> From: Chris van Zyl <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Keeping ants away
> Date: Tuesday, February 18, 1997 4:09 AM
>
> I have recently discovered small ants in the wood of my hives.  Is
> there any relatively easy way to remedy the situation?
>
> The do not seem to be a problem to the bees, but maybe I have not
> seen the damage they are causing!!
>
> I am in South Africa with a hot climate - the honey flow lasts about
> 6 months in our area.
>
> Regards
>
> Chris
> Chris van Zyl
> Progro Consultancy - Port Elizabeth - South Africa
 
ever reag the book "the ANTS" by Bert Holldobler and Edword O. Wilson
 
NO
 
well I cannot understand why anyone on the earth would put down a book about ants that is about 1000 12' by 10' pages long and
filled with scientifc names and big words and most of all ant scetchings illistrations charts and graphs.
 
I am shure that it will say something about them. lets see
it says alot, but it is very hard to find a specifice thing. My knowlage of ants was
obtained when I was a child. I would frequently get ants and put them in my numorus ant
farms, but with the absence of a queen in the colonies they were gone in weeks. The once thriving farm
would become a fungus garden filled with the dead bodies of my beloved ants.
 
Of corse whith the addition of the internet to my life I was able to access beekeeping materials and
swich to another social insect.
 
Back to your problem. It sounds like you have carpenter ants. Some spiecies of carpenter ants will have
speicial ants with a big head used to block up an entrance. I do not know how to get rid of these ants and keep the bees.
 
one gess is to paint the outside of the hive with a type of paint that will seal them in. I do not know how this will help except
to force them to go out through the inside. You could try to use a paint with fumes on the outside allowing you to kill the ants
with minimal damage to the bees.
 
a exen easer Idea is to cote the hive with a thick oil or greese wich ants do not like to walk in (would you).
 
There is even a way to identify the ants listed in the book. To do this you must preserve about one hundred workers in an alcohol
salution and do the same with as many queens and drones (the ones with wings) as you can. This can be very hard,  and if the ants
are not marching around outside it can be impossible.
 
one more tip. call the local exterminator. If these ants are common in that area you can bet that he has some experience with them.
 
well back to me.
I'm 14 with one hive of bees and six more empty. I will be more than willing to provide you with advice on how to controle ants at
any time. just mail the list or me.
 
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Why don't you join me in dyslexia land.
A lend weair evey thimg is spelled ront.
 
I think that I know everything because I know every thing
that I learned and what I havent learned I don't know about
:^)
 
Bently Durant
[log in to unmask]
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