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Bee & Hornet Troubles

Posted by midnightsmum 4b ON (My Page) on
Mon, Nov 24, 08 at 23:07

I purchased this house and occupied it late January. Of course, the learning curve with a new house and property are pretty much straight up, so I didn't catch on to this till late summer.

On the west side of my home, in the soffits, I have a MAJOR nest of European bees.
Photobucket
They look like small bumbles, but hive up and sting like h@&&. I know they come from greenhouses, cause I used to live up the road from a hydroponic Tomato greenhouse, and was told on a tour that they were brought in from Belgium. They had tried to invade my home there - so like I said, a very large hive on the west end. Sounds like a small engine if you bump the soffit. I stole the above photo from an Aussie web site about these bees. Sadly, it was copied from http://unis.mcgill.ca/en/uw/insects/bumblebees.html, which shows the same bee as a native bumble.

On the Eastern Front, I have what I suspect is a honey bee hive, again, large(not as large as the west); on the 2nd floor, I have hornets.

To the best of my knowledge, these are long term tenants; sadly they do not help with the taxes. I have tried to contact local bee keepers, as I thought at least the honey bees were worth saving. Possibly someone would find value in the european bees as pollinators, and then I could poison the hornets. That was me trying to be nice.

Now it is winter, and the not nice me is thinking, hmmm, January, February - very cold. Maybe I could just knock my soffits out, kill them all, and have a carpenter in to fix the soffitt.....

Is it a plan, or a plan for disaster??

Nancy.


Follow-Up Postings:

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RE: Bee & Hornet Troubles

If it's cold enough, they aren't going to fly far when you knock the soffitts out...but they may fly far enough to sting you! I guess you could hit them with multiple shots of 'wasp and hornet' spray over a period of days and eventually get the hive weak enough that it won't survive the winter. Good luck.


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RE: Bee & Hornet Troubles

Txbeeguy - merry Christmas - hope all is well with you and yours, and that your Turkey coma is not toooooo severe!!

Nancy - who will wait for -5F or more to beat the crap out of her soffits!!!!


 
 

 

 


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