Getting bees to.....well.....leave! (With no eviction notice)

kudzu80 · September 10, 2015, 11:19:40 PM

Hi All,
I'm a contractor for several cell phone companies. Bees to tend to be a problem for the companies as they get inside the towers and whatnot. We usually get the call to take care of them. In "take care of them", you know that I mean kill. I told my boss years ago that I flat out refuse to do this. He has sent others to do it though on multiple occasions. I have tried for years to get him to find a more humane way and FINALLY he is seeing my thinking (I had to wait on it to be his idea). He has never liked killing the bees himself, I know he hasn't. The companies aren't willing to pay for, or wait, for proper removal. My boss is now standing up and telling them he will not kill them anymore, we will do it humanely, and they will have to deal with it or find someone else.

Now, the dilemma. There's only so far that we can go with this. We can't open walls. We can't remove cable. We can't really do anything to access the hive. Currently I have one 65' in the air, in the top of a steel pole. The only sizeable entrance is about 8' down from the top and is only about 8"x8" square. In other words, they're encased in steel and unreachable. I need a way to aggravate these things out of there to find a new home. I tried smoke today. I had that tower smoking like a chimney. It aggravated them enough for them to come out of the hive and sit on the pole, but that's all it did. I put a steady stream of smoke up that thing for 6 hours. No dice. I knew it was a long shot, but worth it.

Keep in mind, we're not trying to collect them, we're just trying to get them to vacate the premises. The alternative is death, and we are trying to avoid that. Also, to make matters worse, any solution must be quick. These bees aren't normally a problem until a project is started. Now the project is on hold and these bees are standing in the way of progress and the almighty dollar, and we just can't have that......apparently.

Any ideas, any at all, to help me facilitate this will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Jedda · September 11, 2015, 05:03:33 AM

I'm just a rank amateur rookie so I wont be giving any advice, but I can at least give you a link to a video from JPthebeeman removing bees from a cell phone tower to watch, till those with more knowledge have a chance to chip in.
https://youtu.be/QraQVaItgPU

splitrock · September 11, 2015, 06:46:13 AM

try a product called Bee Go.

deknow · September 11, 2015, 06:47:15 AM

I think you might want to reconsider.

The liability for simply driving bees out of a cavity and not collecting them is just too high.

They are going to tend to be upset....and eventually it will cause a stinging incident. They are going to move in somewhere else...which will sometimes mean someone's home or other structure.

Driving them out with smoke or bee go should only be done if you are trying to capture them. If you can get them to cluster outside (as you describe), youight be able to get them to move onto a frame of open brood if you can get it up to them.

...and now you have a baited swarm trap.

ldeano · September 11, 2015, 11:26:02 AM

You might try talking to the local bee club and see if someone there could help. If nothing else they may have someone willing to take the bees if you can get them out or even help you remove them or loan out a swarm trap and capped brood to try to drive them into. If you haven't already you really should watch some of Jp's hive removal videos.

Hops Brewster · September 11, 2015, 01:54:54 PM

Bees, wasps, hornets, ants, all are at the mercy of utility personnel when they build in poles, cross boxes, terminals, transformers or app cases. SOP is to spray them. It's a sad fact, but true.

OTH, you are taking a big risk trying to save those bees. In SOCal there is a high possibility that they are africanized bees, and as such, require destruction. You may actually be perpetuating a danger to the public by saving them.

BeeMaster2 · September 12, 2015, 02:13:35 AM

I hate to say it but I agree with Hops. In S CA you have a 60 percent chance that they are AHB. A report on a long term study in CA just came out today with those numbers.
If it is AHB, and you stir them up, they will travel as far as 350' to sting someone that does not even know you doing the removal.
Jim