Ask any beekeeper what his biggest problem is, and you’ll hear about the red ants that eat larvae in the beehive and will even frighten off a swarm if they aren’t stopped in their tracks.

Mr. Quintis Bezuidenhout put a lot of thought into how he could keep ants away. He and his neighbour, Mr. Willie van Rensburg, had put up a few beehives to make some money out of this profitable hobby.

“I had the idea to make a stand to put the beehives in and place a round PVC pipe with a diameter of 90 mm and a length of 500 mm around the base. The pipe is smooth and slippery, causing ants to slide off on their way up. In the opening between the iron pole stand and the PVC pipe I sprinkled a bit of ant poison to catch the ants that do make it to the top of the PVC pipe and want to cross over. I’ve never had a problem with ants in any of my 160 hives again, and it’s a much greener way to go about things than the tins of oil that are usually put out to fight the ants.”

Contact: Mr. Quintis Bezuidenhout, email: bokloof@baviaans.co.za.