dang it!
Was heading out to the shed to grab my bike and saw something black dotting the back of the hive. Ants!!! I looked all over the bottom boards of the Lang Stand and didn't see them anywhere. I was concerned we'd have to move the hive back to check out what was compromisng in the front, then I realized the ants weren't going up. They were coming down.
The potato bush that sits next to it had a branch just touching the side of the hive. The ants were all to happy to climb over to the hive. I saw them mostly circling the hive, looks like the supers & propolis may be preventing them from entering.
I had to run to catch the train, left the beeman to start pruning the potato bush back.
le sigh. :-/ The more we prune the potato bush, the faster it grows. We tried to dig it up once and ended up breaking the shovel. We may need to figure out a permanat removal strategey here quickly. I do think it's a pretty enough plant, anything green & purple is preferable to plain boring fence. dang, dang, dang.
oh no! Ants! So sorry to hear the culprit was the potato bush. I agree, that thing is really pretty, had no idea it was such an 'ant attractor'.
ReplyDeleteIt's the hive that's attracting the ants, the potato bush is just a highway to it.
ReplyDeleteI'm impressed with the lang stand! It really is keeping the ants away.
Once I got home in the afternoon I saw a few ants still circling. I don't think they got in - think the hive has been propylized enough. Plus, a few of the ants were even stuck to the hive with propylis!! go bees!
It's a pretty enough bush, Omar loves it, but may be time to remove it. Maybe replace it with something native. ;)