Do Ants eat Varroa mites?

[BernardBlack]

Been monitoring varroa drop this last few weeks. My hive is doing really well, lots of eggs, larvae and sealed brood, numbers building up.

Normally I’m maybe only seeing 1 varroa at most. Sometimes none. I thought that was surprisingly low

The thing is though, there is usually a number of ants on the board when pulled out. Maybe 25-30 in total. I just assumed they were after the dropped pollen or wax.

Now I’m thinking, would they be eating the varroa mites? Or taking them back to their colony to be eaten? Might that be the reason I rarely see any varroa on the inspection board?

 

[thedozzer]

Been monitoring varroa drop this last few weeks. My hive is doing really well, lots of eggs, larvae and sealed brood, numbers building up.

Normally I’m maybe only seeing 1 varroa at most. Sometimes none. I thought that was surprisingly low

The thing is though, there is usually a number of ants on the board when pulled out. Maybe 25-30 in total. I just assumed they were after the dropped pollen or wax.

Now I’m thinking, would they be eating the varroa mites? Or taking them back to their colony to be eaten? Might that be the reason I rarely see any varroa on the inspection board?

Yes they do, we had to grease the legs of the hive stand to stop them, if you are doing a mite count, using oil or Vaseline on the inspection board stops the mites running off to.

 

[BernardBlack]

Hmmm, so my varroa count may be worse than I thought.

So would Vaseline on the hive stand legs keep those ants away?

 

[thedozzer]

Hmmm, so my varroa count may be worse than I thought.

So would Vaseline on the hive stand legs keep those ants away?

Not sure, we used vics vapour rub first as someone had suggested it helped stop the ants as they could use the sent trail left by others, but they just ran over it!! the general purpose axle grease is what we used as it is meant to help stop mice as well, its lasted since last September.

 

[mjt68]

Hmmm, so my varroa count may be worse than I thought.

So would Vaseline on the hive stand legs keep those ants away?

I stopped believing what my boards told me a while ago. You could look into other methods of coutning Varroa.

 

[blackcloud]

A symbiotic relationship twixt ant and Apis would be great if we could adjust the T&Cs of the deal.

 

[BernardBlack]

Not sure, we used vics vapour rub first as someone had suggested it helped stop the ants as they could use the sent trail left by others, but they just ran over it!! the general purpose axle grease is what we used as it is meant to help stop mice as well, its lasted since last September.

Would duct tape do the trick?

 

[BernardBlack]

Would baking soda harm bees?

Just read that speinkling baking soda gets rid of ants. Just wondered if it’s harmless to bees?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Ants do no harm to bees, so leave them alone, we need to stop this obsession with killing anything that isn't Apis mellifera.
Varroa drop counts are worth SFA, if you grease the boards you will be getting live varroa as well as dead ones so already your counting results are skewed.
If you feel the need to do a count - do an alcohol wash or sugar roll (not dusting the hive with icing sugar BTW)

 

[BernardBlack]

Ants do no harm to bees, so leave them alone, we need to stop this obsession with killing anything that isn't Apis mellifera.
Varroa drop counts are worth SFA, if you grease the boards you will be getting live varroa as well as dead ones so already your counting results are skewed.
If you feel the need to do a count - do an alcohol wash or sugar roll (not dusting the hive with icing sugar BTW)

Well, the plan was only to deter them away from the hive not to kill them I thought the less ants near the hive, the better.

 

[Adam Bee]

Well, I’ve discovered that the local ant population does a great job in taking over where the undertakers leave off. Why not have them keep your apiary clean?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I thought the less ants near the hive, the better.

As I said - they do no harm, in fact a few hives on two of my apiaries have their own permanent ant colonies. In the season the ants use the crown boards as incubator nurseries for their eggs - moving them up there from their nest, sometimes over multiple supers to get there - if I forget and inadvertently dump the eggs on the floor when inspectiong, by the time I've done my rounds they've moved them back up.