May 20, 2012 – Evicting the Bees
QUESTION:
I am an exterminator and live in Cincinnati, Ohio. I have a customer who has 2 different honey bee colonies living in the walls of their house. I have called several bee keepers and none of them is willing come out. What options do I have?
ANSWER:
The basic consideration here is that it is unacceptable to have honeybees living within a structure, so they do have to go one way or another. It would be nice if a local beekeeper were to take on the job, and there are some ways to get the bees out alive and change them to a portable hive, but it is an iffy process that takes time and may not be successful. The beekeepers may already have plenty of bees or may be concerned with bringing diseases bees into their healthy colonies. They may also recognize that the burden could be put upon them to do the destruction of the walls to remove the hive and honey, and not be inclined to do it. However, that is one of the steps that absolutely must be done once the live bees are eliminated. They hive cannot be left there or it will attract other insects and the wax will eventually melt to release the honey into the wall. Whatever else you do I suggest that you put the advise in writing to the customer, and have them sign that they received and read it, that the hive must be properly removed along with all honey and other traces of the bees.
View past Ask Mr. Pest Control questions.
I am an exterminator and live in Cincinnati, Ohio. I have a customer who has 2 different honey bee colonies living in the walls of their house. I have called several bee keepers and none of them is willing come out. What options do I have?
ANSWER:
The basic consideration here is that it is unacceptable to have honeybees living within a structure, so they do have to go one way or another. It would be nice if a local beekeeper were to take on the job, and there are some ways to get the bees out alive and change them to a portable hive, but it is an iffy process that takes time and may not be successful. The beekeepers may already have plenty of bees or may be concerned with bringing diseases bees into their healthy colonies. They may also recognize that the burden could be put upon them to do the destruction of the walls to remove the hive and honey, and not be inclined to do it. However, that is one of the steps that absolutely must be done once the live bees are eliminated. They hive cannot be left there or it will attract other insects and the wax will eventually melt to release the honey into the wall. Whatever else you do I suggest that you put the advise in writing to the customer, and have them sign that they received and read it, that the hive must be properly removed along with all honey and other traces of the bees.
Whoever does this bee removal needs to wear the proper protective clothing, and Univar sells the full complement of hood, helmet, gloves, and bee suits to protect you from stings. If you can access the specific voids where these bees are living then you could treat directly into that void, using either a dust and a power duster to ensure good dispersal or a fog using a deep void injector. It also may be useful this time of year to observe the bees as they enter the structure, and if they are carrying loads of pollen then it tells you this is an established colony with larvae in place. If they are not then perhaps it is a brand new colony from a recent swarm, and that would at least simplify the aftermath and cleanup.
If you cannot access the voids the hive is in then you may have to treat only the openings the bees are using. Use a contact dust product like Apicide or Tempo Dust or DeltaDust. These are residual dusts that, with a little luck, will attach to the bees as they pass over the dusted surface and be carried into the hive to affect the other workers. This will be a lot slower than directly treating the nest area, so that would be the better effort if possible. It may also be possible to use a deep void fogger such as the Actisol or Patriot, with pyrethrum or even one of the residual liquid concentrates labeled for use in these tools, to fog directly into the entry opening. This could push the mist back into the nest area, but you need to be careful to ensure the mist stays within the void and does not somehow enter the living areas inside the home.
View past Ask Mr. Pest Control questions.
