Bees...?!

Onika,
I was hoping someone else would answer this because my experience is limited. When we got them under the stairwells at the hotel I was working in Roach Busters took care of them - you can leave a message for Joe at 775-5262. Then when we got them under the windows at Duffys we sat bowls of sugar water out to lure them away and then had the pest control guys remove the nests. I believe Professional Killers were the ones that came that time. Hope this helps.

Post Edited (05-28-04 10:29)

Well, I have just returned from meeting the Bee Man, Dave Berry (awesome guy), at my home. He keeps bees and was willing to corral the bees and take them with him humanely.

We get to the house and...
THE BEES HAD DISAPPEARED!

I was horribly embarassed for dragging him from his home with my hysteria, but secretly pleased they had taken flight.

Apparently, they did not find my home as inviting as they would have hoped and they took La Reina and went to find new digs, leaving only a small hive behind. According to the Bee Man, they check out a place for approx. 24 hours and, if not to their liking, will simply move on.

Moral of the story:
Wait a full 24 hours before freaking out.

Onika,

I'm not sure if this will help, because it sounds like you want a non-lethal solution, but...

When I moved into my house in Bolongo there were lots (not thousands, but probably hundreds) of Jack Spaniards. Their little paper nests were on all of the windows, under the eaves, etc. I went to Home Depot and spent about $9 on a gallon of some kind of killer (white plastic bottle with a squeeze trigger built in) and just drenched all of the nests. The bees that were there died within a minute or so, and those that returned later lived about 5 minutes. They were just starting to reaccumulate when I left 2 weeks ago, so that one application lasted about 5 months. I only used a small portion of the gallon, so the one bottle would have lasted a couple of years.

Anyway, if you don't mind sending them to bee heaven, this will certainly be a lot less expensive than a pest control service.

Glad they are gone - watch a few too many killer bee movies in your younger days? Looking forward to meeting you.
Pamela.

Thanks Pamela and Stt for the words of encouragement and assistance.

Yes, my mother allowed me to indulge in horror a wee bit more than perhaps was age appropriate. To this day, I can trace most of my neuroses back to some 1970's shocker.
Suffice it to say my relationship with nature is all f@%*ed up. I keep hearing hacksaws, or them! (the killer ants), or SSSS! (attack snakes), or...

Anyway, I'm looking forward to meeting you both, so you can see I made it to relative normalcy, the above notwithstanding!

BTW, where are we meeting for the STT get-together?

Hello Onika,

Two of my family members kept bees so I grew up around them... we got stung so many times my siblings and cousins were just about immune to the sting. Had bee houses right above where we played and my father built one house with a a little door and flexiglass so us kids could see what was going on inside. And when the honeycombs were full we would smoke out the bees and take their honey and combs - delicious!! The bees would sworm all around the house - quite like a horror movie - you could hear them for a few days until they settled down. Unfortunately Hurricane Marilyn knocked them down and that was the end of several decades of having bees as pets.

The Jack Spaniards on the other hand have a meaner sting, actually have a small scar from a Spaniards bite and I stay away from them.

Glad you got it taken care of or rather they didn't find your new home hospitable enough for them to stay.

--Islander