Cinnamon…it’s not just for toast!

File this tip under things that are useful to know…Ants hate cinnamon.  I don’t know any scientific reason that they dislike it, I don’t know if it’s in the oil, if it’s in the scent, I just know that they hate it and if you want a natural and great smelling way (unless you hate cinnamon) to get rid of ants cinnamon is your friend. 
Now here is how I KNOW it works, I have had an ant problem around my beehive since the honeybees moved in, carpenter ants, sweet ants both constantly marching up the legs and into the hive.  We moated the legs but I don’t like drowning innocent insects (honeybees included) and I don’t think leaving the legs even though they are cedar sitting in the water is a good idea.  I don’t use poisons and while I considered using DE (food grade diatomaceous earth) because it would take care of the ants as well as small hive beetle larva. I was concerned about it killing other insects as it’s indiscriminant.  So I did some reading and cinnamon was suggested and well I have that and some cinnamon essential oil as well so off I went.  I dusted the legs and a little inside the hive end where the colony isn’t first and then I sprinkled some on the ground around the legs.  I used a q-tip and oil to coat the places where the hive is joined together.  When I left there were sweet ants all over the place and they were scrambling in every direction..I thought hmm it might work.  When I checked a few hours later, there was not an ant to be seen, anywhere!  None on the hive, none near the hive, none anywhere on the ground.  Next time I go to Sam’s club I’m buying an economy size container! It’s natural and it smells good and neither I nor the honeybees mind it