bumble bee info needed ASAP

Kathyp · July 02, 2007, 12:07:26 AM

got a note from a woman who has a nest of bumble bees in her sprinkler box. i am not going to drive across several towns to remove bumble bees, but i wanted to see if i could give her some advice if she calls me back. she had the can of Raid in her hand as she typed :-)

the only thing i could think of off the top of my head, was to open the box and expose them. i know they usually are under stuff or in the ground. the box seems like an odd place, but it must be sheltered well.

any other thoughts would be welcome.

Michael Bush · July 02, 2007, 01:00:32 AM

Their preferred house is an abandoned mouse nest. They like to be underground and they like to be protected. I've found many under concrete forms and one times I found one in a pile of old pine boughs.

If you want to open it, I'd run. They are pretty defensive, although I've never been stung by one, I have been assured by those who have that they will.

I killed a lot of them when I was moving concrete forms that had nests under them. I used a weed sprayer with diesel fuel in it that we used to soak the forms before pouring. I don't know if they would have left on their own after flipping over the forms, but I didn't have time to find out. :)

My guess is, if you don't want to harm them, you should open things up and run. After they calm down, mist them with water to give them the idea that they are not well protected. maybe they will get the idea. :)

JP · July 02, 2007, 01:18:39 AM

You must be protected if you are going to deal with bumbles. They can be very defensive of their colony site. I'm having trouble picturing a sprinkler box. Is it something mobile? If so I would just move the whole thing after I sealed it, but odds are that they are also under the sprinkler box in the soil. Their colonies can be 50-100 bumbles. Like MB said if you can expose the hive, perhaps they will move if they feel vulnerable. Good luck with this one. There's a chance that if this is a high traffic area, if they don't move, they may have to be sprayed, which would be unfortunate.

Mici · July 02, 2007, 06:17:15 AM

i'd say murphy law would aplly to bumblebees aswell.
if you want them to move into a box and IF they do, they'd surelly move at first "inspection", but in this case, they probably won't be so willing to leave :-D

they say bumblebees move if you disturbe them much so exsposing should work.

Kathyp · July 02, 2007, 09:47:16 AM

thanks for the ideas. i'm not going to go do this. it's to far for me to go just save bumble bees. i was just hoping i could keep her from killing them. i have exposed them under stuff by accident, but never found them to be aggressive. guess i was just lucky.

we''ll see if she contacts me again. :-)

Scadsobees · July 02, 2007, 01:46:29 PM

Veil and a tennis racket :-D Who needs one of those tennis ball shooter thingys?

I think that their buzz is bigger than their ~~bite~~ sting.

Mklangelo · July 02, 2007, 02:05:59 PM

Quote from: kathyp on July 02, 2007, 12:07:26 AM
got a note from a woman who has a nest of bumble bees in her sprinkler box. i am not going to drive across several towns to remove bumble bees, but i wanted to see if i could give her some advice if she calls me back. she had the can of Raid in her hand as she typed :-)

the only thing i could think of off the top of my head, was to open the box and expose them. i know they usually are under stuff or in the ground. the box seems like an odd place, but it must be sheltered well.

any other thoughts would be welcome.

Tell her they will die with the first frost. But there will be her opportunity to safely go in and remove any newly mated queens which will hibernate but the old queen will die with the first frost.

Also stinging does not cause them to die. They are on semi-automatic as it were...

Here is where I got this info: http://hercules.users.netlink.co.uk/Bee.html

Mici · July 02, 2007, 02:18:40 PM

new queens don't hibernate in the old nest, at least usually they don't. they burrow in some fluffy soil or something. plus...how would killing next years queens help? she seeks imidiate solution, and queens from other nests could come next year.

Mklangelo · July 03, 2007, 01:56:01 AM

Quote from: Mici on July 02, 2007, 02:18:40 PM
new queens don't hibernate in the old nest, at least usually they don't. they burrow in some fluffy soil or something. plus...how would killing next years queens help? she seeks imidiate solution, and queens from other nests could come next year.

It would help to go in at a safe time and clean it out (October?). Then make it so there is no place for another nest, at least in the same spot.
Or one could go in now and start killing or spraying with water or in some other way antagonizing them when at this time of year they are at max population/activity.
Those are the choices. Like it or not.

kensfarm · July 03, 2007, 09:26:01 AM

Hopefully the bumble nest won't turn out to be black hornets..

bluegrass · July 03, 2007, 09:25:21 PM

MB
Your a concrete finisher? I hate concrete finishers, but being a mixer driver will make anybody hate them ;)

Michael Bush · July 05, 2007, 11:20:53 PM

>Your a concrete finisher? I hate concrete finishers, but being a mixer driver will make anybody hate them

The bumble bee incidents were in Oklahoma where I did everything from the footings to the bathroom tile.

I WAS a concrete finisher (and everything else to do with concrete) from about 1976 to 1978. I haven't done any concrete work for a very long time.

I am now (and have been for a few decades) a computer programmer/analyst/database administrator/database developer.