Posted: 5/20/2005 3:10:21 PM EDT
| Here is a question for the hive mind. Wednesday evening I observed a large swarm of honey bees outside my trailer window. It seems they have taken up residence under my front step in the lower travel trailer body. Fortunately, they are not able to get into the residential portion. I have been spraying with wasp killer at dusk but large numbers are still here. Since we have killer bees in the area I do not want to become a pin cushion. What else should I do? Thanks |
| Starting fluid spray. Just make damn sure there is NO sources of ignition anywhere around. You HAVE to get the Queen Bee. Or mix a little diazanon in some suger water, place it OFF the ground where they can find it and let em wax themselves off. Only need a few drops of the concentrate to make some potent stuff. |
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this is how beekeepers do it: Wear a beekeeping suit while doing this. If you don't have one, wear 3-4 pairs of jeans, a few long sleeve shirts, leather gloves and a misquito net. Basic idea: no skin showing, with clothing thick enough so if you get stung, it won't penetrate your clothing. Beekeeping suits work by not letting the bees grab hold of the suit - its too slick for them. But since you probly don't have one, just wear something plenty thick, or leather. You want to smoke them out. Bees HATE smoke. Fix yourself something that will burn with maximum smoke and contained in something that you can "poof" out the smoke. I don't have any ideas for this, so you can use your own ingenuity. Once you have them smoked out, look for what they have been "building" under your steps and remove it to a safe place - away from people. Bees will usually leave when you take their home. OR you can kill the queen bee. Once she's gone, the rest will...buzz off. This should work for killer bees also, but I really don't know because I've never handled them. |
I always thought the smoke made them, well, high. One thing I did remember from a guy I know who keeps/kept bees: When the hive starts to get all like  , they release some kind of chemical alarm that smells like, IIRC, bananas. May be useful information.  |
| Get a thing of bee killer, spray the entire can directly into the hole. Throw a match in. There will be a huge fireball and it will burn like napalm. Have a hose at the ready, I almost burned my house down doing this but I took out a wasp nest the size of a basket ball. |
The swarm in question just may be honeybees. They are docile at this stage (swarming) with nothing to protect except the queen. They will move on in a day or two, so don't worry about getting stung. No need to kill them.  As for you guys with the fire and tannerite suggestions, it shows your maturity, GET SOME
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| Get the foaming bee and wasp killer. It shoots about 20 feet so you can stay nice and far away while you hose them down. The foam keeps the "suck" to the hive. And it kills them almost instantly. I have shot them out of the air with this stuff. Apply it liberally, because as soon as you start to hose them, they will try and empty the hive and attack you. Cover the hive in the foam and they can't get off/out of it. No matter what you do, be careful. Bee stings suck! |
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You list Texas as your location, so they could be Africanized honey bees ("killer bees"), so I'd suggest calling a beekeeper. In Illinois we have to be licensed, so my name and phone number is on file with the local PD, County Sheriff's office, Animal Control, Fire Dept., County Extension Office, Farm Bureau and anywhere else people may call when they are in a panic over the presence of anything Apis. If they are Africanized you may well be killed while trying to kill them and if they are common honey bees (Apis mellifera) then they SHOULD NOT be killed. Again, call a beekeeper. 
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A small amount of smoke will calm them. Large amounts of smoke will make them leave the hive. I work for a bee keeper. |
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For everyones info. The pro was here. Beekeepers in this neck of the woods charge to remove bees because of the diseased, africanized bees etc. Since mine were up under the trailer they did not want them. The exterminator pulled open the bottom of the trailer, dusted and sprayed. He removed the honeycombs also. If you don't remove the combs other bees will move in. There are bees flying all over the place here...at least a thousand. According to the pro they are dying. If any are left by Wednesday he will return. Expensive, but he had a bee suit and I did not. It is nice and cool inside the trailer, I am drinking a Shiner and watching the carnage. |