If your red ants are "fire ants" as they could be since it appears you are
in Louisiana, then they easily could become a problem.  What I have done that
has usually worked in fire ants is to sprinkle some Amdro fire ant bait so
the ants will pick it up and take it back to their nest.  Fire ants eat
"protein" and are insectivorous, not paying much attention to sweets.  If bees
are throwing injured or deformed larvae or pupae out of the hive, these are
very attractive to fire ants.  Since Amdro is a bait and the ants pick it up
and carry it away, and there is nothing in it to attract bees, I have sprinkled
it around the outside of the hive where I have seen the ants crawling and it
does not seem to have bothered the bees.  I don't think it would be a good idea
to put any inside the hive (say, on the bottom board) because it's possible
there might be some contamination caused by bees walking through it, and the
bees might also pick it up to throw it out of the hive, and thereby obtain
some of the poison as a contaminant.  A possible suggestion to help avoid
allowing the ants into the hive in the first place might be to place the hive
on a stand and place the legs of the stand in cans with sand impregnated with
motor oil.  One person I know said that they just wiped some motor oil on the
lower portion of the legs of the stand and that worked.  Those are some of my
thoughts about things that might help, especially if your ants are fire ants.
If they are Pharoah ants or another variety that likes sweets, then the Amdro
would not work and you would need to figure out another strategy.  Good luck.
 
Layne Westover
College Station, Texas