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  Discussion on BEES- NOW WHAT...
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Member:
Jojo15

Posted on Saturday, Apr 22, 2006 - 9:17 am:

I am totally amazed. In the last few days, probably since sunday. A bee hive has emerged It on the underside of the "H" of the corner fencing on the property. It sits underneath the horizontal of the "H" and its huge. Soccer ball huge. So what do i do to remove it? and its right where my horse likes to lounge in the afternoons.

Any way to determine by look or beehive if they are those africanized ones?

Anybody have info or experience with them?

thanks,
jojo
Member:
Dres

Posted on Saturday, Apr 22, 2006 - 10:18 am:

Jojo, do you have any bee keepers in the area? If so i would call them first...

On the first day God created horses on the second day he painted them with spots..
Member:
Erika

Posted on Saturday, Apr 22, 2006 - 12:11 pm:

Is it a swarm of bees?(large ball of bees crawling all over each other) Or a wasp nest (papery ball)? If it is bees, they will be gone in a day or two, but a beekeeper would be grateful to get them. Look in the yellow pages or call your agricultural extension agent to find one.
If it's a wasp nest, spray it will bug killer made for hornets. You don't have to get close, they knock them down instantly, too. But PLEASE DON'T spray them if they are bees!!!
Member:
Jojo15

Posted on Saturday, Apr 22, 2006 - 12:26 pm:

OH WOWWWW... they disappeared. by the time i called a bee farm and now at 12noon. i went back out there and there are only a few left. And some wax starting on the underside of the fencepost. how weird is that? Erika do you think they'll be coming back?

the bee guy said to give it a day or two and see if they leave. he also said the charge could be anywhere from $145/$400 to remove them. I found that odd. Why charge when he could utilize them?

I wonder if they'll be back.
Member:
Erika

Posted on Saturday, Apr 22, 2006 - 12:49 pm:

Well, that took care of that!
Bees swarm when they are looking for a new place to live. Something about the old hive was unsuitable. They probably left because they found a new place to build the hive. I don't think they will be back,
That is odd, when I called a beekeeper years ago, he was eager to get them. But like yours, mine were gone by the time he came.
Member:
Liliana5

Posted on Saturday, Apr 22, 2006 - 5:02 pm:

JOJ
If they were the African bees you would have known!

Some time ago where my sister lives near Acapulco the news in the radio warned people to lock themselves indoors as African bees were passing through, and by the time her neighbour came our to get the baby from it's cot it was too late, from there they went upwards to Ensenada where my other sister lives, same thing on the radio, she ran out to bring the kids in the house in panic she locked the door leaving the family dog outside and by the time she tried to open the door to let him in, the bees were already on top of it and killed it too!

Can you imagine how horrible that must have been.

Liliana
Member:
Corinne

Posted on Saturday, Apr 22, 2006 - 7:25 pm:

Scarey. Joj I hope they are gone and if they come back that the bee keeper will get rid of them for you as the money seems worth not pissing off those suckers.

Liliana....when you say the lady couldn't get to the baby until it was too late...did the baby die?
Oh my goodness....

I am not a bug lady!
Member:
Jojo15

Posted on Saturday, Apr 22, 2006 - 9:08 pm:

LILIana, that sounds like a bad movie... I talked to a few who kept apiaries in the past, and said there are no africanized bees in the area, this far south... i went back a little while ago i wanted to touch the wax they left, but alas, a few bees were still there.

I know they are beneficial to our environment, and they can stay as long as they behave... LOL.

One landed on the goat, and nothing happened so i figure they are just honeybees displaced. and the swarm moved on and few stayed behind....

It's all so interesting.
Member:
Liliana5

Posted on Monday, Apr 24, 2006 - 12:21 pm:

Yes Corinne the baby died, my sister said that it all happened so quickly, almost like a cloud; I cannot remember exactly how long ago this happened. But I think they've managed to get rid of the africanized bees

It's was such a silly experiment, trying to get a bigger harder working bee and the only thing they got was a bloody aggressive species! Once again nature let us know that we mustn’t mess with her
Member:
Imogen

Posted on Monday, Apr 24, 2006 - 12:36 pm:

Honey bees are fine. We get them most years behind the garden room. Just because they are in a wall does NOT mean they are necessarily mortar bees.

Sometimes they are a pain and get into the chimney and make a hive there and then I'm afraid we have to get rid of them which is of course illegal as they are a protected species but... like we have to use the chimney... if you ever have to do this I'll tell you how, it seems to be pretty painless and works well.

Unfortunately since the varoa mite parasite struck bees, beekeepers are not at all keen on collecting ones from unknown places unless you are really backwoods where the mite might not have got yet. They could be bringing the mite home with them...

Imogen
Member:
Quatro

Posted on Monday, Apr 24, 2006 - 11:07 pm:

Hi, we had the same weird thing happen. This HUGE Ball of bees appeared under a branch on a pine tree. I too, was freaking out. I called a bee keeper and he was so excited to come out. He was going to bring a hive or something out and take them to his house. At noon they were there, went back at 12:30 the whole ball of bees were gone. They told me that the swarm sends out scout bees to look for a new place to live. The coolest bee, finds the greatest place and gets the queen to think he is the greatest, who knows what his prize is. But they were gone in 2 days. Hope you have the same luck. Just check your barn, and make sure that they do not pick there to make their new home
suz
Member:
Bethyg2

Posted on Friday, Oct 13, 2006 - 11:16 am:

Jojo,
Just to update this post on BEES, yesterday (Oct.12 06)I had a company called Alpine Farms out to get rid of a persistent bunch that had set up shop 27 feet up in a cypress tree. You cannot tell if they are Africanized until you DNA test them so they say- The way I found out about them is that workers cutting a hedge heard them and were chased when they turned on hedge trimmers. So this ex-marine guy they sent out put on a bee suit and went up and sprayed them and sealed the hole- he said thousands and thousands were in there. plus despite his suit he got stung a bunch of times. He said he didn't know if they were the African bees, but to be sure, I am exactly one mile from the place in Wellington where 2 goats, and a sheep were killed by Killer Bees, and a worker was put in the hospital in shock for several days. So we do have Africanized bees in this area of Palm Beach County, and it is best to be safe rather than sorry. The company told me to take this bee situation very seriously. They are extremely dangerous to us and our livestock, not to mention our kids. If you disturb them by coming near or if they hear a vibration of a power tool, they will swarm you. And I can't even jump in the pond for relief- there's a gator in there! -Beth
Member:
Jojo15

Posted on Friday, Oct 13, 2006 - 12:32 pm:

ME TOO! with a gator. They did say NOT to jump in a pond you can't hold your breath forever. And they stick around. After that episode i have become more vigilant. The ALPINE farms is where i called too. And he mentioned that the africanized were more random. More apt to take up residence anywhere, and on the ground. I have never seen another batch of them though. BUT, i have a lovely patch of weeds i am remiss to mow, since i saw true bumblebees this morning. That was a first. And so cute...

When and where did the goats die? how sad. I missed it in the news if it was recent.
Member:
Bethyg2

Posted on Friday, Oct 13, 2006 - 1:10 pm:

Hi Jojo- I believe that the bee incident took place in the spring but it may have been earlier...Alpine Farms charged like $300 but was I going on a 25 foot ladder to deal with potentially killer bees? My husband ran the other way when he saw them... $300 was a value as far as I am concerned! The farm that had the true killer bees was either on 125th or 128th street, or so I recall, I do know it was east of Southshore and west of where I am, in that southernmost section of Wellington. So now we have hurricanes, high insurance prices, AND killer bees. What's next? Flesh eating locusts? -LOL -Beth
Member:
Sjeys

Posted on Saturday, Oct 14, 2006 - 6:47 pm:

Just FYI, to kill killer bees, you use soapy water. It smothers them. One of my neighbors had some (that also chased workmen across the field and into a pound) and she spent tons of money on burley men with gallons of poisons. Then she got some lady out named the "Bee Charmer" or some such nonsense and some soapy water and it killed them in a few minutes. Amazing!
Member:
Eoeo

Posted on Saturday, Oct 14, 2006 - 7:30 pm:

It works for the stinkin' wasps we were infested with this summer. Someone told me about the soapy water and I was skeptical. Bingo! Deader than a doornail. They really go through the death throes which, after being stung 3 times this year, I enjoyed watching. I can't begin to figure out how many hundreds of dollars I have spent on cans of wasp spray. EO
Member:
Paul303

Posted on Saturday, Oct 14, 2006 - 8:32 pm:

Do you spray with the water, pour it on the nest at night, or what? Dish soap or??? What is the mixture? HELP MEEEE!!!! Stung my dog up a couple weeks ago...$300 vet bill.....
Member:
Mrose

Posted on Monday, Oct 30, 2006 - 7:48 pm:

I, too, would love to know how you apply the soapy water. We are always inundated with wasps and yellow jackets each summer. I am allergic to them, so my husband goes around spraying Raid, but it doesn't seem to do that good.
Member:
Eoeo

Posted on Monday, Oct 30, 2006 - 9:19 pm:

I use a spray bottle, old windex spray bottle works fine. Put it on stream and spray it like heck on the nest and keep spraying them as they roll out of it. I would make sure I have a full bottle each time. I put it about 1/4 full of dawn dish soap and fill the rest with water. shake it abit to get it mixed and go for it. EO
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Tuesday, Oct 31, 2006 - 7:34 am:

It is good to remember that bees, wasps, and yellow jackets are beneficial insects so unless they represent a specific sting hazard I would leave them alone. In general I don't find paper wasps or hornets to be very aggressive so leave them alone unless they are in my path of doing chores. Unfortunately this is always true of several yellow jacket nests every year. Very effective for yellow jacket nests in the ground is a quart of gasoline poured in the hole at dusk, then covered with a rock. You do NOT light the gasoline. Recently extension said you could substitute a quart of Everclear alcohol which might be more environmentally friendly.

When paper wasps nest in a section of the loft I am using I use the 20 foot range foaming commercial killers and have never had them fail nor been stung. Frankly I would be afraid to get "Windex Sprayer" close armed with just some detergent water.

Though I have no experience with africanized honey bees from what I have heard about them it definitely sounds like a professional job to me.
DrO
Member:
Eoeo

Posted on Tuesday, Oct 31, 2006 - 8:23 am:

You use a windex bottle that has a trigger sprayer on it. It shoots about 3 or 4 feet and you do it in the very early morning or late evening when they are quiet. We have trouble with them getting into the nooks and crannies of our farm tractors and any vehicle that has been sitting for a while. They also get in the big posts where they have cracks. EO
Member:
Mrose

Posted on Tuesday, Oct 31, 2006 - 10:54 am:

Unfortunatly, the yellow jackets always build a nest right above my office door, above the steps going to the house porch, and in the pipe gate into the arena. The latter nesting spot we covered with duct tape, and the chewed through it! Paper wasps don't bother me as I've never had them be aggressive, as you say, and the bees just fly around the flowers; but the yellow jackets try to share our meals when we eat outside and have stung the horses.
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