# Ants in the hive (fire ants)



## DavidUnderwood (Jul 5, 2007)

Can mineral salt be used to keep the
ants out? Howzit work?


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## mare (Aug 31, 2006)

cinnamon works


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## Narshalla (Sep 11, 2008)

Cinnamon and cayenne, and also paprika.

I wouldn't recommend DE in this case, because if they bees got into it, it'd hurt them just as much as the ants.


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## AverageJo (Sep 24, 2010)

An old-timer told me he uses spearmint and peppermint plant sprigs. He puts the spearmint on the top and peppermint on the bottom. Doesn't bother the bees in the least yet keeps out a number of the critters. Anybody else hear about this or use it?


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## TxGypsy (Nov 23, 2006)

Put your hives up on a stand and use tractor grease(comes in a tube and you lube grease fittings with it) to go around the legs to form a barrier. The ants can't go over the slippery/gooey grease. Just make sure that no weeds touch the legs above the grease or they'll use it as a ladder. I laid down old carpet under my hives to keep the grass down. Now I would spray the grass with white vinegar to keep it killed down.


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## DavidUnderwood (Jul 5, 2007)

I wouldn't recommend DE in this case, because if they bees got into it, it'd hurt them just as much as the ants. 
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I'm dumb, but, what is "DE"?


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## Narshalla (Sep 11, 2008)

Diotamatious Earth.

Basically it's tiny little fossilized remains of some type of marine animal that looks like dust by is, for its size, very sharp. It works by making tine, almost microscopic cuts on the joints between insects' exoskeletons; these cuts let out vital moisture and eventually they bleed/dehydrate to death.

It's not harmful to humans -- our skin is too thick -- but it is very bad to get this in your lungs.

It's a mechanical, not a chemical death, so they can't develop an immunity to it.

I wouldn't recommend it in this case because the bees would be just as vulnerable to it as the ants or anything else.


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