Bees triumph over Green Ants

Last week, our sole remaining beehive was attacked by a green ant nest. It was a massive onslaught, enabled by the grease drying out on the legs of the stand which holds the hive. Normally the grease is sticky and gooey, and the green ants can't get past it. But the grease had dried out and formed a skin, so the green ant colony moved into battle with the bees. When I found it, the situation was gruesome - there were dead bees being carried away from the hive by the ants, and as bees arrived at the entrance to the hive, thousands of green ants were waiting to attack them and drag them off.

I rushed back to the house to get a brush to try and sweep the ants away, and a grease gun to redo the gooey defence on the four legs of the stand. I swept away all the ants on the outside of the hive and off the stand. Standing there in shorts and t-shirt without my bee suit, I realised that this might not be such a good idea, especially as all the ants on the ground were biting and attacking my feet which only had sandals. I bent over and listened to the hive - no sound. Normally there should be a hum. I crouched down and looked through the crack at the back of the hive on the base - all I could see were bees on the backs struggling with the green ants which had overwhelmed in far greater numbers. The hive was completely riddled with green ants, and dead bees.

When Digby arrived home an hour later, he kitted up with beesuit and smoker and took the lid off the hive. NO BEES! The hive was dead.

We were quite depressed as we had already lost another hive which had deserted while we were away for May bushwalking. Now we realise that the same thing probably happened to them.

The next afternoon on the orchard tour, a few of the people noticed a swarm of bees on the Sapodilla tree, about 50 metres from the hive - the swarm had settled on a branch. We got terrible excited - the bees had survived the attack by leaving the hive. The Queen would have made the move, and all the colony would have followed her.

Now the problem was to get the bees back into the hive. We went over all the frames in the hive and brushed off the green ants which had moved into the honeycomb. In the brood frames, there were larvae hatching as we brushed. This was amazing to see bee legs, then a bee head emerge from a bee cell. Once the hive was green ant free, and greased thoroughly on the legs of the stand, Digby took a large plastic bag and a pair of secateurs to the swarm. Wearing his bee suit, he nonchalantly trimmed the leaves, around the swarm and scooped the open plastic bag up and around the swarm and sealed the neck. It was an amazing catch of the swarm. He cut off the branch and then carefully carried the bag of bees back to the hive, lifted the lid, turned the bag inside out into the hive and slammed the lid back on the hive. It was just getting dark, and hopefully the bees would settle down overnight.

Sure enough, the next morning the bees were at the entrance coming and going, the hive was humming, and a plastic bag peeped out from the entrance. Once again donning the beesuit, Digby removed the lid, and gently took out the plastic bag - all the bees had moved from the bag back on to the beeframes.

A week later and the hive is still going well. We live in hope