A couple of my hives are in the 'hills' 35 miles east of Seattle.
These were started from packages in April.  I was there over the holiday
weekend and was very surprised to find one of the empty deeps over a
feeder pail filled with little brownish black ants.  They were as
surprised as I was and rapidly began lugging their larvae out and down the
tall grass at the back and sides of the hive. Only one hive had the ant
neighbors - the ants weren't able to get to the syrup but they sure liked
the knotholes in the budget box I was using.  As a city-beekeeper, I've
had minor problems with ants before but I never had them move right in
before.  I told myself I would bring something to knockdown the grass -
and decided to try weed-killer.  I bought some and left it in the car till
this morning when I returned to find VERY tall grass all around the hive -
no problem, I keep hedge clippers in the car for two other hives which are
surrounded by blackberry hedges.  I started clipping away at the front of
the hives when I noticed the snakes.  As a baby-boomer I no longer feel
any need to be macho - so I'll just say it right out - snakes make me ...
uhn..nervous.  One of these two black w/yellow striped guys was sizeable
but they are probably harmless - in fact after I got my courage back it
took a lot of shaking the grass to get them to move off down the mountain -
 probably still cold (just like those desert rattlers on the Learning
Channel?!).  After they left I went back to hacking away at the scrub
grasses and right next to the hives I took to pulling the grass out by
hand.  Then, I opened the sprinkler top on my "Liquid Edger" bottle and
doused the area thoroughly.  The hives are on open mesh bottoms on top of
thick 8-inch cedar logs.  The bees by now were happily rushing in and out
unimpeded by flora.  Except, I noticed a few of the returning foragers
were dropping to the grass clippings in front - for a break?  That's the
first time it dawned on me that mayhaps this is not the brightest idea I
ever had - ANY TIPS ON BEES AND WEED-KILLERS? It's been wet the last
couple days I hope they weren't foraging.  I am going to go back with my
power-trimmer but I don't want to do that all the time.  What about
something like astro-turf at least in front - sound reasonable?
   Any Northwesterners out there have any tips on snakes - dangerous or
otherwise - I assume they are attracted to the cover or the hives and hive-
stands - I know they eat crickets and such - are bees on the menu too?
   BTW - When I searched the archives I came up with a couple hits from
ANDY NACHBAUR - What a character!  If you too are fairly new here he's
worth looking up.
   Thanks for listening!