Board logo

Killer Bees!
JeffHs - 22/5/12 at 10:40 AM

I like my wildlife-friendly garden and was very pleased to see a colony of tree bumble bees (bombus hypnorum) take over an empty blue tit box, but the little buggers have suddenly turned nasty. We've had them for about 6 weeks and they've been no bother at all but now they take exception to anyone going near the nest. They've chased my wife out of the garden twice so she daren't go into the greenhouse to water and I was stung yesterday in a swift unprovoked attack.
I need to get rid of them but beekepers don't want to know because they're not honeybees and pest people don't want to know because they're bees!
Any (safe) ideas?

daviep - 22/5/12 at 10:45 AM

How about the homemade flame thrower...........can of deoderant and a lighter, torch the little buggers

Davie

loggyboy - 22/5/12 at 10:56 AM

...Lazlow

maccmike - 22/5/12 at 11:01 AM

Id imagine theyre suddenly attacking for a reason. Can you not give them bit longer? Other than that pay an exterminator. Or hire hornets :-)

mookaloid - 22/5/12 at 11:03 AM

friend of mine has a similar problem but in the wall of his house. he had to go to hospital with about 20 stings last week

After unsuccessful attempts by a local bee keeper to smoke them out he has borrowed a bee keepers suit and attached a long pipe to his Dyson and is collecting them up rapid fire a thousand or so at a time!

He is hoping that the queen will get sucked in at some point and then the other bees will lose interest and go away.

RedAvon - 22/5/12 at 11:22 AM

I had several nasty wasps nests over the last few years and found - don't laugh - putting my finger over a hose pipe to create a fine mist over my head protected me from them flying close enough to sting - in good weather like this it's quite refreshing.

I then quickly directed the full force of the hose onto the nest and drowned them all - took a few goes but this smashed up the nest with the force of the water. Never got stung once and on one occasion gave them a sporting chance by wearing shorts and no tee-shirt.

I've now got from Aldi a useful can of wasp nest destroyer - only a few pounds which sends a foam jet from around 3 metres away - this has a knock down agent allowing you to get closer and closer until you foam the nest and kill them all.

Not tried anything on bees - yet !

Ian

nick205 - 22/5/12 at 11:29 AM

quote:
Originally posted by mookaloid
friend of mine has a similar problem but in the wall of his house. he had to go to hospital with about 20 stings last week

After unsuccessful attempts by a local bee keeper to smoke them out he has borrowed a bee keepers suit and attached a long pipe to his Dyson and is collecting them up rapid fire a thousand or so at a time!

He is hoping that the queen will get sucked in at some point and then the other bees will lose interest and go away.



This sounds like pretty good sport to me

How do you go about emptying the vacuum though????

mookaloid - 22/5/12 at 12:03 PM

quote:
Originally posted by nick205
quote:
Originally posted by mookaloid
friend of mine has a similar problem but in the wall of his house. he had to go to hospital with about 20 stings last week

After unsuccessful attempts by a local bee keeper to smoke them out he has borrowed a bee keepers suit and attached a long pipe to his Dyson and is collecting them up rapid fire a thousand or so at a time!

He is hoping that the queen will get sucked in at some point and then the other bees will lose interest and go away.



This sounds like pretty good sport to me

How do you go about emptying the vacuum though????


Apparently the force of them hitting the tube and bends on the way down kills them so it's not a problem.

JeffHs - 22/5/12 at 12:15 PM

Must admit the Dyson crossed my mind too.

ReMan - 22/5/12 at 12:38 PM

jet washer sounds good

TimEllershaw - 22/5/12 at 12:47 PM

quote:
Originally posted by ReMan
jet washer sounds good


I would have thought the danger there is you explode the nest and spread a load of angry (but a little damp) bees all around the garden ?

ashg - 22/5/12 at 01:03 PM

petrol and a match in the night works pretty well.

nick205 - 22/5/12 at 01:06 PM

What about a CO2 fire extinguisher?

Creep up in the dark and smother the nest with CO2 then bag it and torch it.

Irony - 22/5/12 at 01:39 PM

I would be tempted to wait until their sleeping and quickly bung the hole up and then drop in a water butt.

I work on a large complex that used to be a working farm. The business has retained it's original groundsmen from way back. He's a cross between groundskeeper willie (The Simpsons), Greengrass (Heartbeat) and Tom Good (the Good Life). I couple of years ago we had a wasp nest in the grass near my office window. I informed him of said nest and he said he'd sort it. I watched him wander over from his office (a haven of junk he's collected over the years) with a funnel and a can of petrol. He stuffed the funnel in the largest entrance and filled it with petrol. He stomped on the other entrances to the nest. When the entire funnel had soaked away he pulled out a squeezy bottle of yet more petrol and squeezed out and long line to a safe distance. He then pulled out a box of matches.................small muffled 'wump', no more wasps.

PLEASE PLEASE do not try the above.............

TimEllershaw - 22/5/12 at 03:17 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Irony

small muffled 'wump', no more wasps.

PLEASE PLEASE do not try the above.............


scudderfish - 22/5/12 at 04:15 PM

quote:
Originally posted by TimEllershaw
quote:
Originally posted by Irony

small muffled 'wump', no more wasps.

PLEASE PLEASE do not try the above.............




But if you do, put the video on youtube for us

Ninehigh - 22/5/12 at 04:21 PM

quote:
Originally posted by mookaloid
quote:
Originally posted by nick205
quote:
Originally posted by mookaloid
friend of mine has a similar problem but in the wall of his house. he had to go to hospital with about 20 stings last week

After unsuccessful attempts by a local bee keeper to smoke them out he has borrowed a bee keepers suit and attached a long pipe to his Dyson and is collecting them up rapid fire a thousand or so at a time!

He is hoping that the queen will get sucked in at some point and then the other bees will lose interest and go away.



This sounds like pretty good sport to me

How do you go about emptying the vacuum though????


Apparently the force of them hitting the tube and bends on the way down kills them so it's not a problem.


I imagine flying down a bendy pipe at 150mph is rather dangerous

AndyW - 22/5/12 at 05:08 PM

or try a bomb

you tube madness

I predict a Riot - 22/5/12 at 08:42 PM

Try the RSPCA.

They put us in touch with a local Bee expert a few years back.

Dusty - 22/5/12 at 08:46 PM

As 99% of the little loves snuggle up and go bye byes at night do what you have to at night. In the morning you will find a few stragglers who stopped out late will be flying around looking for home but they will disappear in 24 hours. Cavity wall foam works well if there is only one entrance.

ChrisW - 23/5/12 at 11:26 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Ninehigh
quote:
Originally posted by mookaloid
quote:
Originally posted by nick205
quote:
Originally posted by mookaloid
friend of mine has a similar problem but in the wall of his house. he had to go to hospital with about 20 stings last week

After unsuccessful attempts by a local bee keeper to smoke them out he has borrowed a bee keepers suit and attached a long pipe to his Dyson and is collecting them up rapid fire a thousand or so at a time!

He is hoping that the queen will get sucked in at some point and then the other bees will lose interest and go away.



This sounds like pretty good sport to me

How do you go about emptying the vacuum though????


Apparently the force of them hitting the tube and bends on the way down kills them so it's not a problem.


I imagine flying down a bendy pipe at 150mph is rather dangerous


I've done this with wasps on a couple of occasions and can tell you from experience that it works. You do need to leave the vacuum on for an hour or so at least, and will have to repeat 2 maybe 3 times over the course of 24 hours. I've found that drops the population sufficiently for you to get enough time to fill up the entrances to the nest with whatever is laying around. Expanding foam works well, as does a bead of gripfill (or similar) if the holes are small.

I'll see if I can find a photo....

Chris

ChrisW - 23/5/12 at 11:36 PM

http://video.chrisw.net/Jg4We29K

Chris

James - 24/5/12 at 12:15 AM

quote:
Originally posted by I predict a Riot
Try the RSPCA.

They put us in touch with a local Bee expert a few years back.



I have to agree.

Bumble Bees are severely endangered.

And Bees in general are utterly vital to pollenisation of all our food crops (globally)- and they're populations are in big trouble- as will we be if they die out.

Please don't just kill them!

Cheers,
James

Peteff - 24/5/12 at 07:38 AM

Move to Worcestershire, apparently they don't like it there