Long story short . . . well as short as I can and still provide needed info.
I did two removals last weekend from a really old vacant home (the original ranch house) about 3.5 hours from me, in deep south Texas. The ranch has a couple of other old houses with elderly residents in the general area.
I put the two colonies in hives and located them about a mile away on the back side of the ranch. Meanwhile, one of the residents of another old house took a little honeycomb from the removal and (without me realizing it until much later) left it in a pale in his garage. When they told me about this, of course they mentioned there were bees gathering there, I instructed them to get it covered and/or in a place the bees could not get to it.
All went well with setting up the hives, so I left and returned home. The next day, they called to report that the bulk of the bees were gone, but a couple hand full remained and wanted to know what to do. I suggested they leave the garage doors open and the bees should go on their way.
Evidently that didn't happen and now I'm being told there are bees going into a crack in the wall on the inside of the garage.
My question is, is there something they can do without the risk of getting these elderly people stung, to get rid of these lingering bees. Something they can get over the counter at a Wal-Mart or similar store. . . . something like Sulfur smoke maybe but lest lethal and less toxic?
I have another removal for their neighbor ranch, but it's not scheduled for another week or two, so I was hoping for some advice to offer them until I can get back down there.
Thanks,
GD
3 to 4 days and they will be gone. Tell them you will do something about them when you return.
The problem will be gone before you go back, unless they have a colony in the wall that the robbers were coming from and they had never noticed them before. Then you have another removal to do.
That's kind of what I was thinking iddee, but since it has already been almost a week, I thought I'd run it by you guys.
The removals were done last Thursday and Friday, so if they were going to dissipate, I figured they would have done so by now.
My main concern is the elderly couple that live in the house they are now seeing bees. These bees in this area are pretty hot tempered in general, so I would like to err on the side of caution . . . if you know what I mean.
In fact, the second removal was full of as hot of bees as I've run into so far down here in south Texas. I'd say they dipped fairly deep into the AHB gene pool. The ranch is only about 60 miles from the Mexico border, to give you an idea on location.
When I took the first board of siding off the wall, it was like someone turned on the faucet, but instead of water, I was covered in very aggressive bees . . . and they just kept coming.
I finally got the bulk of them in the vacuum and seemingly under control, but geez they were hostile little rascals!
They had been there for a while and had a good deal to protect. (part of which is shown in the attached image) They mostly work the Guajillo (or Huajilla) and Mesquite in this area, and boy howdy was it some good honey!
(http://s30.postimg.org/ahpdqsg8d/Cantu_III_3536.jpg) (http://postimg.org/image/ahpdqsg8d/)
(http://s1.postimg.org/433eiyr17/Cantu_III_2060.jpg) (http://postimg.org/image/433eiyr17/)
GD,
Get some bee quick. After you have removed the bees, spray the cavity with the bee quick to discourage them from returning.
Jim
bee quick is a good idea, but you did evidently miss some, and they may even be requeening and restarting a hive now. you have to go take care of it for sure. Hard to say what you will run into for sure, but it could be just a little bit of cleanup and them in another area. Or it could be a whole new hive too. so be prepared I guess.
Being an older couple, it may be that they have had a hive there for months and just never noticed them before. I see that often. You may get another batch of honey when you remove them.
Quote from: sawdstmakr on October 02, 2014, 12:20:43 AM
GD,
Get some bee quick. After you have removed the bees, spray the cavity with the bee quick to discourage them from returning.
Jim
Quote from: Better.to.Bee.than.not on October 02, 2014, 12:26:42 AM
... but you did evidently miss some, and they may even be requeening and restarting a hive now.
Heya Jim & Better, thanks for the tips guys. Actually these are not in the cavity, or even the same structure. They are going into a crack in the garage of another house in the general area (a couple hundred yards away), so it's not a matter of returning to the scene of the crime, so to speak. Since I've never used it and not sure how it works exactly, I'm not sure a product like Bee Quick will help in this case.
Quote from: iddee on October 02, 2014, 03:46:57 AM
... You may get another batch of honey when you remove them.
10-4 iddee . . . I like the sound of that :D
I guess my return trip may need to be sooner than later? I've got a call in to the land owner with some follow up questions. I MAY be able to get him to get a closer look at the bees "going into the crack" and hopefully he can tell me if there are any bees bringing in pollen. If so, obviously we have a working hive and I'll prepare for another removal. We shall see I suppose.
Thanks again for the input folks!
Vac them up them bee quick to kill the hive scent.
Quote from: AllenF on October 02, 2014, 06:56:22 PM
Vac them up them bee quick to kill the hive scent.
Yeah the vac would likely be my first choice if I were there, but since they are about 3.5 hours from me, I was looking for something the land owner may be able to do with an over the counter product . . . wishful thinking I suppose.
Put a cup of Dawn dishwashing soap in a gallon sprayer and fill with water. Spray the bees and then the area where the honey.cmb was. The soap will knock the bees down and then kill the smell of the honey.
Quote from: jredburn on October 21, 2014, 09:54:36 PM
Put a cup of Dawn dishwashing soap in a gallon sprayer and fill with water. Spray the bees and then the area where the honey.cmb was. The soap will knock the bees down and then kill the smell of the honey.
We have a winner! I tell all my removals just to use dishsoap and water in s spray bottle if the lingering bees become an issue. I tell them to wait until dark when the bees are clustered and just wet them down.
When you do a cut-out, masking the smell is not going to do much for lingering bees. The bees are returning because that is their last known residence.
Evidently I did a poor job of explaining the situation properly in the beginning.
The "lingering bees" were not lingering in the place where the removal occurred, they were not even on the same house . . . which is likely where this got a little confusing. They were - according to the land owner - lingering on a house (on the same ranch) located a couple hundred yards from the removal. That didn't make sense to me, but since I was several hours away, I was asking if anyone had any suggestions that the landowner could try until I returned.
What happened was, the land owner's father took a tub of comb (with honey) from the previous night's removal from house #1 down to his house (#2) and put it in the garage. Once he noticed bees gathering on the comb, he discarded the comb. (not sure how or where) Then the next day, the father noticed bees going into a crack in the siding on the outside of his garage. They had not seen this activity prior to him bringing the tub of comb from the removal into the garage. Sooo they just assumed that it was the same bees from the removal that "followed" his tub of comb and decided to move into his house... lol
As it turned out, it was not "lingering bees" from the removal after all. It was a new colony that had evidently recently moved into the space on the outside of the second ranch house.
I removed them on a follow up trip to the ranch and did the soapy water thing and they are no longer an issue.
Thanks again for all the replies and info.
GD
I think there was a mention of something like that in the first reply you got on this thread. :evil: :bee:
Indeed . . . Iddee
You hit it on the head right off the bat. Good call bud!
Arguing with Idee is like arguing with my wife.. Somehow I am usually wrong...