Got a swarm of honey bees in wood pile in the shed. Guess I'll pull them out this coming Winter? Too few left to get rid of them. We need the pollenation. Maybe I'll find a local bee keeper that will take them. Just need to find the queen.
Honey Bees in wood shed
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bfitz3
Feeling the Heat
Put an ad on craigslist for a removal for free. A beek will come and get them. Include a picture of the bees and you’ll get a good response. Without a picture, Beeks will likely assume you have a hornet’s nest you want removed and will avoid you like a naked guy avoids a hornet’s best.
Montanalocal
Minister of Fire
I had a bee hive up in my soffit once and I contacted a local bee keeper. He did not want to come and take them, but he did tell me how to get rid of them. He said to to get a pump type weed sprayer and put a cup of liquid soap in it and then fill it with water. Then spray the bees as they come out. The soapy water will clog their breathing, and they will die. It worked very well, and they all died.
Don't want to kill them. We need the pollination. Going to see if I can get a bee keeper to take them. They will get used to you being around them and won't bother you unless you become a direct threat to the nest. But I do need to add wood to the shed so that will be a problem. Already mowed around the shed and no problem. They can sense if your a threat or not.
bfitz3
Feeling the Heat
“...won’t bother you...” There is some truth to that statement, but it certainly isn’t a rule. I’ve found that my bees often start off pissy in the spring until the maples are in full bloom. They’ve been cooped up in a box for 7 months, resources are getting low, and they can snap. As the winter bees die off, spring bees are happy as clams as there is more nectar and pollen than they can handle and the queen is machine-gunning eggs into the comb. Unless there is a dearth, I can work many of my hives without gloves through most of the summer. However, if they go queenless they can act irritated. Sometimes their new ruler will make little witches. Usually not. The point is that a hive that was nice last week may not be so nice this week. Once the nectar stops flowing (August) all bets are off. Some colonies will stay nice, others are holy terrors! Fall inspections/treatments usually involve taping the leg/hand openings in my bee suit as well as wearing welding gloves.
Because of fall behavior, I moved my stacks that were ~100 feet from the hives. Repeated stings while moving wood are highly motivational! As you have a colony IN your stacks, you NEED to move them. They may tolerate you for awhile, but eventually they will start tagging you.
If the first beekeeper (or fourth) says no, keep trying. Someone will take them this early in the year. In August, probably not! Packages of bees are running $120+. A colony with a laying queen, brood, comb, etc is quite valuable to most beekeepers. ...as in it’s worth a decent number of hours of labor etc. Don’t ask for money for them, or you may end up on a “Craigslist Laugh of the Day” thread on a beekeeping forum!
Because of fall behavior, I moved my stacks that were ~100 feet from the hives. Repeated stings while moving wood are highly motivational! As you have a colony IN your stacks, you NEED to move them. They may tolerate you for awhile, but eventually they will start tagging you.
If the first beekeeper (or fourth) says no, keep trying. Someone will take them this early in the year. In August, probably not! Packages of bees are running $120+. A colony with a laying queen, brood, comb, etc is quite valuable to most beekeepers. ...as in it’s worth a decent number of hours of labor etc. Don’t ask for money for them, or you may end up on a “Craigslist Laugh of the Day” thread on a beekeeping forum!
Agreed. They apparently just moved into the splits about two weeks ago or my daughter noticed them in there. we keep a few trash cans in there as well and she noticed them buzzing around there. Thought she was talking about the carpenter bees that buzz around there very spring but now I know not the case. Was just the one partial stack of splits left in the shed and surprised they would pick that to build a comb but go figure. lots of blossums out there on the trees now and the locust will be out before too long.
I wish this was true for carpenter bees. There is simply no way to get rid of them. I kill hundreds a year around my house and plug every hole I can with cotton balls dipped in Sevin. This seems to get rid of them all by late spring early summer and I think I finally got rid of them. Then next spring I have hundreds more. Wash, rinse, repeat.
Jan Pijpelink
Minister of Fire
Yes, they do work well. Not as fun as a tennis racket but just as effective. They still come back every spring.
Jan Pijpelink
Minister of Fire
heavy hammer
Minister of Fire
I agree with bfitz3 with some pics and a listing for a beekeeper you should be able to get someone to remove them without killing them.
Yea, I'll have wife or daughter put up something on Craigslist and see if that works.
walhondingnashua
Minister of Fire
If you think the tennis racket is fun for killing carpenter bees, you're missing out. About this time of year when their decorative weeping cherry is blooming beside their log cabin, you might catch my father in law with is gas powered stihl string trimmer "whacking" carpenter bees out of the air. My boy has been conditioned to run when grandpa starts power equipment.
Carpenter bees and a .177 air gun- great practice- dosen't have to be high power as long as it is reasonably accurate. Most of the daisy offerings are too weak, Crossman/Gamo ( Gamo bought Crossman couple years back or so) units are not too bad. need 500-700 fps min just to get a decent trajectory at say 20-35 yards. I was having great fun picking off Bald faced hornets for a couple summers.
SpaceBus
Minister of Fire
I saw this thing online called the 'Bug-a-salt"or something like that and it's an air rifle that fires salt. Sounds like it might be a good thing for carpenter bees.
Soundchasm
Minister of Fire
Is it an actual swarm? Do you see the classic ball of bees? A few years ago, I thought maybe I had one in my woodshed. Looked up "Dayton Bee Keeping Society", got a list right away, called the first number, and it turned out the guy was a mile from my house. He was there in 15 minutes.
It wasn't a swarm, but there was a cloud of bees flying around. They were wanting something out the the woodstacks.
I showed him one I had caught, and he said they were just "Mutts". Well, I beg your pardon, they're MY Mutts, thank you very much. ;-)
Still haven't found the hive.
It wasn't a swarm, but there was a cloud of bees flying around. They were wanting something out the the woodstacks.
I showed him one I had caught, and he said they were just "Mutts". Well, I beg your pardon, they're MY Mutts, thank you very much. ;-)
Still haven't found the hive.
Turned out they are not honey bees supposedly. Guy came out from the Frederick County Bee Keepers Association and said they were wood bees. Same size as honey bees but not them. They are very docile supposedly until you actually pick up the piece of wood that they are raising a brood in. Well since not honey bees they are going to go one way or another.
walhondingnashua
Minister of Fire
Ashful
Minister of Fire
Do you mean carpenter bees? Big fat guys larger than a marble, that make a finger-sized hole in your wood? If so, dust the holes with any one of the many dessicant or pyrethroid products on the market, it will finish them off right quick.
https://store.doyourownpestcontrol.com/tempo-dust-cyfluthrin-tempo-dust
https://store.doyourownpestcontrol.com/tempo-dust-cyfluthrin-tempo-dust
No these aren't the Bumblebee size bees. They are actually about the same size as a honeybee. The yellow bands aren't as distinctive is about the only difference that I can see. I'll get ahold of one and post it. Dead of course. I tried to Google the different species and still didn't come up with what I got. They are not aggressive at all but I haven't gotten to the splits they're nesting in yet.
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