Help Killing Bees

[SteveHGraham]

I have a problem with bees building hives in the soffit of my house. Pesticides don't bother them. I once paid a fool ("the Bee Man") to tear up the soffit and get rid of them, but I realized his business was a scam, because he makes big holes and leaves, and you have to pay someone else to fix them. Then the bees come back.

Last time this happened, I sealed them in, and they died. They have found a new way in, so now I have to kill them again. I am wondering if anyone has a better suggestion, preferably involving poison bait. Don't suggest I call a beekeeper. That doesn't work here. We have more bees than we know what to do with, and no one wants them.

Unbelievably, it is illegal to keep bees here without a permit and a bunch of aggravation. These guys are doomed.

It's hard to find baits to kill bees on the Internet, because people are working so hard NOT to kill them.

[warmstrong1955]

Depends on the type of bee I think. We had 'em all over around here, and I tried all kinds of traps, and caught nothing but flies....or nothing at all. Our problem is with European Paper Wasps. They look like hornets, until you get a closer look.

After wastin' money on store bought traps, I did some searchin' on the net, and found several recipes for traps & bait....all of 'em primarily soda or some kind of sugary drink, and dish soap. Since the beasties were always hangin' out at the hummingbird feeders, I used some of the hummingbird food. About a cup of hummingbird food, and a good squirt of dish soap...and mix it up. Take a pop bottle, cut the top off, and invert and wire it together so it looks like a funnel, and fill the bottle about a 1/4" short of where the funnel is. Hang it anywhere they hang out. They crawl in, get in the goop, and game over.

It severely reduced the population of the European Paper Wasps we had, but I get honey bees in there all the time too. When I had such great success with one trap, I made three more. Last few years, I set only one out....as it's all I need. Pretty well thinned the heard. I seldom find nests in the eves & trees anymore, and when I do, they are small, and usually abandoned.

Might work for ya.

FYI, if you try using soapy water on a nest of 'em.....be dressed for the occasion, or be ready to run. It works, but not fast enough...... (words of experience)

Bill

[SteveHGraham]

I have never gotten anywhere with traps. It would be good to be able to trap them, because then their dead bodies would be outside the house, instead of stinking up the patio. I'm going to give lemongrass oil a shot. They say bees go nuts over it. If I can lure a bunch out, then I can seal the rest in with concrete patch.

They chew right through silicone, caulk, and Great Stuff. Then can't do much with concrete patch.

[warmstrong1955]

If your bees look like this, I recommend an AR15.....

[SteveHGraham]

Tomorrow they meet their doom. I will seal them in...BURIED ALIVE...BURIED ALIIIIIIVE...

[SteveM]

The cut and inverted soda bottle thing works great. We had yellow jackets at scout camp a few years ago and we must have caught a few hundred in a day or two.

They don't have to get caught in the liquid - they go down thru the center and when try try to leave, they go up the side and can't figure that they need to go down to go up.

They check in, but they don't check out!

Just use your favorite attractant.

Of course, you could machine something fancy that gets the bee to enter thru a hole where he trips a switch that activates an air valve and then compressed air to blows him into a collecting vessel where the rotating knives would make mincemeat out of him. Now THAT would be more in character.

Steve

[ronm]

I've knocked those damn paper wasps right out of the air with brake cleaner...they almost leave a smoking trail as they spiral to the ground, like a WWI fighter plane...

[warmstrong1955]

Of course, you could machine something fancy that gets the bee to enter thru a hole where he trips a switch that activates an air valve and then compressed air to blows him into a collecting vessel where the rotating knives would make mincemeat out of him. Now THAT would be more in character.
Steve

Ahhhh.... a Rube Goldberg fan!!!!
Love it!

[hammermill]

If it is true bee,s I use tempo. Yellow jackets I use a spray of tempo and malathion applied at sunset so everyone is home


A yellow jackets. 2x on breakcleaner.

[warmstrong1955]

Most of those long range wasp/bee killer sprays work well too. Cheaper than brake clean or contact cleaner, they don't fry any paint off the house or curl up plastic things, and the wasps drop with the slightest hit. They don't seem to do well at preventing 'em from coming back though, which may be a good thing, as the pesticide doesn't have a half life of 40 years.......... unlike some pesticides, which are like strontium 90 or cesium 137....ungood.....


Bill

[SteveHGraham]

I am sitting in the garage with a beer watching Tubalcain videos to relax, after a hard day working on a simple job that should have taken 45 minutes. Just saw the bee comments.

I will tell you something about these stinking bees. They are impossible to kill with pesticide. People whine that imidacloprid--after DDT and chocolate, God's greatest gift to mankind--is killing bee colonies. Don't listen. I have hosed these little creeps liberally with it many times. I have blasted their hive entrances. I have squirted it into the masonry. They laugh it off. A few thousand may die, but they rest live on to reproduce and torment me.

There are only two ways to get rid of these vile creatures. Rip your house open and tear out the hive, or seal them in. So far, the sealing method has worked fine for me. You just have to repeat it a year or two later when they find a new way in.

I wish to God my city would let me keep bees. I'd give these little jerks a fine home and eat the honey. But the nanny state makes that impossible. So it's DEATH! DEATH! DEATH!

Can you tell the bees have gotten under my skin? I thought I was doing a good job of hiding it.

[warmstrong1955]

Some how.....I picture you sitting in a lawn chair.....going "mwaa-ha-ha"......

with a bunch of ants watching you.....nervously......