7 replies to this topic

[Jamiesname]

Has anyone ever had their ants die off due to residual pesticides within the honey that they feed them?

My grandparents had 50 bee hives several years back, and they lost a lot of hives to colony collapse disorder, and it's suspected that pesticides play a role (among other things) with this issue. I just wondered how it affected ants.

Edit: I meant the pesticides that collect in the pollen from plants sprayed with them, just to clear up any potential confusion.

Edited by Jamiesname, October 20 2017 - 5:43 PM.

[FeedTheAnts]

I mean... no. That is all the input I can give, never heard of anyone having problems.

Edited by TennesseeAnts, October 20 2017 - 4:40 PM.

[gcsnelling]

I have lost several colonies that I fed honey

[FeedTheAnts]

I have lost several colonies that I fed honey

What!? Seriously!

As far as I've seen nearly everyone uses honey and I've never heard of any problems. 

[Connectimyrmex]

That actually happened with my old (and I mean way back old) hawaiian Brachymyrmex obscurior and Solenopsis geminata colonies. They drank a bit of grade b (unlike the usual grade a honey) honey and they just dropped dead. I'm pretty sure it had something to do with pesticides.

[lpst]

I did some food tests with an ant colony near my house because I would like to catch a queen from them this next year and I found that some of the store bought honey brands kill them but the organic stuff and the honey from our bees do not kill them. Now I'm a total noob an know absolutely nothing about ants so that's all the info I have on the subject.

[Jamiesname]

Thanks for the info. I've been feeding mine honey on occasion, but then remembered a documentary on colony collapse disorder and what happened with my grandparents' hives. Honey bee's are a little bigger than most ants, so it would stand to reason that even less (affected) honey would do a greater amount of damage to a colony of ants. If I remember correctly, it takes a while for the level of toxicity to build up in the stored honey, so that is a variable to consider as well.


As far as organic honey goes, I never understood how that is possible. Nearly every corn seed available to buy is a GMO. You can choose to buy organic corn if/when you can find it, but what about in your neighbors garden? Or the person a mile up the road? What about the large scale corn producers in the area? I don't imagine that organic honey exists anymore, unless you raise your bee's inside of some sort of enclosed biodome. Trust me, I'd be ecstatic to be proven wrong on that, so please feel free.

Back to ants here - I think I'm only going to use honey on occasion, and it'll be watered down. This issue has hit too close to home for me, and it's an unnecessary risk.

Edited by Jamiesname, October 21 2017 - 6:18 PM.

[lpst]

Thanks for the info. I've been feeding mine honey on occasion, but then remembered a documentary on colony collapse disorder and what happened with my grandparents' hives. Honey bee's are a little bigger than most ants, so it would stand to reason that even less (affected) honey would do a greater amount of damage to a colony of ants. If I remember correctly, it takes a while for the level of toxicity to build up in the stored honey, so that is a variable to consider as well.
As far as organic honey goes, I never understood how that is possible. Nearly every corn seed available to buy is a GMO. You can choose to buy organic corn if/when you can find it, but what about in your neighbors garden? Or the person a mile up the road? What about the large scale corn producers in the area? I don't imagine that organic honey exists anymore, unless you raise your bee's inside of some sort of enclosed biodome. Trust me, I'd be ecstatic to be proven wrong on that, so please feel free.
Back to ants here - I think I'm only going to use honey on occasion, and it'll be watered down. This issue has hit too close to home for me, and it's an unnecessary risk.

this true no matter how controlled your hives are, bees forage 2-3miles at times so there is no way to be truly 100% organic. Our next step is actually building large yurts to put our bees in so we can control they type of honey and be 100% organic

Edited by lpst, October 21 2017 - 6:35 PM.