Jan 10, 2012 – Bees And The Comforts of Home
QUESTION:
What are your suggestions for bees at the bars in hotels? How can we keep them from biting the employees or guests?
ANSWER:
You are in the West Indies, which is one reason you are still having bee issues in January, although just a couple of weeks ago I visited a relative in Arizona at about 4000 feet elevation, and even with the frigid nights the daytime temperatures reached the high 50's one day and honeybees were nearly swarming around a garbage can filled with soda cans and other sugary temptations. It managed to get just warm enough to activate the bees, which do not hibernate during the winter, so when they have the opportunity to forage to replenish the energy they are using they go for it.
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What are your suggestions for bees at the bars in hotels? How can we keep them from biting the employees or guests?
ANSWER:
You are in the West Indies, which is one reason you are still having bee issues in January, although just a couple of weeks ago I visited a relative in Arizona at about 4000 feet elevation, and even with the frigid nights the daytime temperatures reached the high 50's one day and honeybees were nearly swarming around a garbage can filled with soda cans and other sugary temptations. It managed to get just warm enough to activate the bees, which do not hibernate during the winter, so when they have the opportunity to forage to replenish the energy they are using they go for it.
You do say that these bees are "biting" the people at this hotel, and of course the problem with honeybees is primarily their stinging, not biting. Is this just an expression you are using to describe their stinging, or could these be other bees that are non-stinging but do bite? In the tropics there are plenty of non-stinging bees that are attracted to various food resources, including sweat on our skin, and they land and do bite at the skin. These would be two separate problems, and for these "stingless" bees the only solution would be to find their colony and eliminate it, which could be difficult since they nest in so many places, including within hollow spaces in tree trunks and rock or brick walls.
But, if this is honeybees then it doesn't get any easier, and the real long term solution is to eliminate any foods that are attracting the bees. Honeybees are common around picnic areas where garbage cans contain sweet materials for them - soda cans and cups, sugary foods, etc. Eating areas may have spills of sweet foods or drinks that the bees forage on. They even may be looking for just moisture if the surrounding areas are particularly dry, and a pool or other water features or irrigated landscapes could be the attraction. I suppose the solution must begin here with identification not only of the kind of bees you are facing, but an inspection to identify the reasons the bees are there at that place.
There are no repellents that you can use to keep the bees away. You could seek out and destroy the nests of the bees if you could possibly find them, but a hotel surrounded by forests and other natural areas is not conducive to this kind of resolution. So, if we cannot kill the bees at the source and we cannot keep them from flying to the hotel property, what are our options? Really, it boils down to sanitation and removal of the food and moisture attractants as much as possible. Identify what the foods are and emphasize cleaning of surfaces and lids on garbage receptacles. You really do not want to get into a program of constant application of contact insecticides in a hotel setting, so killing them after they arrive using toxins is not reasonable. If there is a lot of standing water then discuss this with the landscape manager to see if irrigation can be improved, drainage provided for wet areas, etc.
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