Bee pulls nail from brick - GIF

[Jon]

[Crusty]

I helped my FIL remove a hive from his bedroom wall and they got in/out through a similar larger opening. One 16" bay was nearly full of honey and comb and the one next to it was half full and it took us all weekend to get all of it out. Before we started he sprayed two cans of insect killer into the walls but there was still plenty of live (and mad) bees left when we opened the sheetrock and he kept busy with flyswatters while I used a shop vac to pluck them out of the air. It was like playing a real life video game where you got physically punished for misses.

[will52100]

Next time use soapy water if you have to kill them, it'll plug up their air intakes and suffocate them, then there is no issue with poison getting to the honey, simply wash the comb off and crush and strain.

Or better yet simply smoke yourselves and the bees and you can extract them with little issue and either re hive them or give them away.

[Frank S]

We had bees in the corner of our house when we got it I called several people who keep bees most said they didn't want them without even coming out to have a look but a couple did come over the first words out of their mouths was If I were you I'd insure the place as quick as possible and prey that it accidently catches fire some night while all of the bees are on the hive so none can escape to someone's commercial hives. They wanted no part of the strain of bees in my house. It took me a few months of injecting a concoction of DemonXP dawn dish soap DR Pepper and water to finally kill all of them off

[will52100]

Africanized?

[Frank S]

Africanized?

I figured what was what he meant although he had some long word for them He caught and killed one then showed me the body these bees are not exactly what you would call honey makers they are colony builders. They do produce honey since that is how the larva are fed but he said the honey is poor quality and not saleable. A hive will have up to a 5 to 1 soldier bee to worker bee ratio with the soldier bees having longer stingers smaller misshapen bodies with shorter hairs on their legs to form the pollen baskets in which the pollen is transported. And they often fly in swarms. When the bee keeper guy showed up there were so many bees swarming around the corner of the house even he wouldn't get within thirty feet of it before putting on his space suit and then only got close enough to capture 1 before backing away. The next weekend when I went to the house I stopped down the road and put on my new space suit then drove to within 100 feet of the house got out grabbed 2 1 /12 gallon sprayers already set up and ready then attacked with a vengeance. there is no escaping them until you have killed almost all of them. I must have killed enough to had filled a couple 1 gallon cans if I had been interested in scooping them up. it took several trips over a few weekends before no more bees were flying around.
I never got stung which is a good thing. I don't know if they would effect me like bumble bees do or not but being alone I wasn't at all sure if I would have been able to drive myself the 14 miles to a hospital. Yellow jackets and wasps don't effect me, their stings just make me swell up at the sting, but I don't allow anything with stingers that fly to exist for very long on my property if I find them.

[will52100]

Sounds like Africanized bees. They can be managed and you can get honey from them, good quality honey at that, and in some environments that kills off Italians they thrive. But they are a bit more trouble, actually can be a real PITA to manage compared to Italian bees. Sooo glad we don't have them in MS yet.

[hemmjo]

I have solved a few bee infestations just using a shop-vac. Mount the intake nozzle close to the entrance, turn on the vac, let it run. It is taken as much a 3-4 days on some, but I have never had it fail. I am always amazed how many end up in the vac container.

[will52100]

One thing to remember is that you've got to get the honey out, or else perfectly seal it, otherwise all kinds of critters will be eating it, like roaches.

[Frank S]

One thing to remember is that you've got to get the honey out, or else perfectly seal it, otherwise all kinds of critters will be eating it, like roaches.

How well I know