Africanized Killer Bee Bullet Lube

[Just Duke]

Well...... I have been putting off casting because of the heat and now it has cooled down so I am good to go. Was good to go.
I am BEE-ING bombarded by these little guys. Dableing in apiaries in my youth I don't have any fear of bees but these guys are aggressive and attack the porch lights at night.
On the good note the Bee Killer was out and said there might be somewhere around 100 lbs of WAX!
The wax might be full of poison but I am sure it will degenerate in UV light. (Sun) ( in 20 years or so :roll:)

BULLET LUBE FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE!!! bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africanized_bee

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2000/Feb-13-Sun-2000/news/12954791.html

[Blammer]

lol

if you have a hive that has 100 pounds of wax in it, it will be the size of a small volkswagen. :)

[Just Duke]

lol

if you have a hive that has 100 pounds of wax in it, it will be the size of a small volkswagen. :)

It's a huge wall and it's hollow Blammer.
Where do you get all your bee's wax from Blammer?

[randyrat]

Remember as soon as you kill honey bees in a wall the wax will start to melt. They keep the wax below melting temp even on really hot days. So you better jump on it quick.

[Just Duke]

Remember as soon as you kill honey bees in a wall the wax will start to melt. They keep the wax below melting temp even on really hot days. So you better jump on it quick.

That's what I was thinking too. But it looks like they have to tear the wall apart. Maybe I can just put a beer tap in the wall and draw my lube as I need it. Well at least I wouldn't need a heater. :roll: lol
My concerns would be with the residual poison but it sure was a fun idea.

[Blammer]

I get mine from commercial beekeepers. (approximately 400 hives) And the little I get from my own hives.

JUST wax was what I was referring to. The wax that bees store thier honey in is very sparce if you will.

For approximately every 30 pounds of honey you will retrieve. (comb, that has honey in it and is capped) you will get about one pound of beeswax. You can melt down a section of comb about 2 ft by 2 ft and get maybe 2-3oz of wax.

so getting rid of all the honey and all of the hive in a HUGE hive say of 100,000 bees you will likely get about 10 lbs of wax, maybe.

oh, btw, the wax will "store" the poison, the wax will not be fit for consumption except as bullet lube or candles. Even with candles you may get an insecticide aroma, if it was in direct contact with the sprayed poison.

Do not eat any of the honey, it will contain the poison of the spay.

You better move on it quick, because when beeswax is abandon the wax will melt quickly. Beeswax when it soaks into wood is impossible to remove without removing the wood.

[Blammer]

I remove hives from houses.

the last job I did the comb was 16" tall, 18" wide and 6 ft deep. The hive was abandoned.

there were two other sections also 16x18 but one was 2ft deep and the other 3 ft deep.

I melted down all thatwax and got a whopping 5 lbs.

this was the absolutly without a doubt the largest hive I have ever seen!

[Blammer]

as an aside note, make sure you remove all of the hive, scrape down the walls and paint it where the hive was. Otherwise you will find yourself with more bees next year. A wild swarm will 'smell' the place where the other hive was and decide that is a good place to make home.

scrape, paint, and seal it up good!

good luck!

[Blammer]

yes, removing enought of the structure to get all of the hive is important.

[docone31]

Oh man, what a nightmare!
On the one hand, it would seem like a bonanza, then when the beeswax soaks into the studs, the honey attracts ants, and sugar insects, it grows. To counter act the attractant, insecticides have to be used. Headaches at the least. Chlorodane, imagine that.
At the onset, it would seem sheetrocking is needed.
That all sucks. Even if insured, the hassle, dust, rework, the overall mess.
My heart goes out.
I only have to worry about underground termites.

[Just Duke]

This hive is huge Blammer. I have run a 15 gallon shop vac with 3 inches of water and a bottle of dish soap poured in at the entrance for three days and it's still sucking up bees. The bee guy will be back in the mourning so I shut it off a couple hours ago.

Don't eat the honey? OOPS! oh no! gasp! choke arrgg!! cough!!! now you cough! tell me. lol ;)

[Just Duke]

Oh man, what a nightmare!
On the one hand, it would seem like a bonanza, then when the beeswax soaks into the studs, the honey attracts ants, and sugar insects, it grows. To counter act the attractant, insecticides have to be used. Headaches at the least. Chlorodane, imagine that.
At the onset, it would seem sheetrocking is needed.
That all sucks. Even if insured, the hassle, dust, rework, the overall mess.
My heart goes out.
I only have to worry about underground termites.

Yea good thing it wasn't in the house. It is in our back retaining wall.

[Just Duke]

I remove hives from houses.

the last job I did the comb was 16" tall, 18" wide and 6 ft deep. The hive was abandoned.

there were two other sections also 16x18 but one was 2ft deep and the other 3 ft deep.

I melted down all thatwax and got a whopping 5 lbs.

this was the absolutly without a doubt the largest hive I have ever seen!


Oh Yea. I know what you have to go through.
I had gone back and fourth on that 9 LB block of bees wax you had in the "shop and swap.. I was eye ooglin it REALLY hard!

[docone31]

retaining wall, way cool.
I found an hornets nest years ago. Yellow Jackets dig underground nests. I did not know that.
I was mowing my yard with a front wheel drive mower. It was a very large lawn and this puppy could cut 48".
I hit the nest, the front wheel went into the nest followed by the side of the mower guard. I figuired I had hit a divot. I pushed, the mower went forward. Next thing I knew it was hurt city. Gazillions of them! I ran as fast as I could, and eventually outran them. The mower was covered with them.
I figuired, a nest in the bank there, maybe a few rows of comb like paper nests you see in the facia. Small. Not so. I got an hornet flare, and gassed the nest. After it had died off, the next day I dug it. It went on and on and on. I had no idea it was so massive. Rows and rows of combs all dug into the bank.
I had seen a single wasp going in once in a while. I did not think much about it.
They dug that nest, papered it, all that small, moving that much. They must have taken the bank, one grain at a time away from the opening. I did not see any excavation debris.
I will tell you what though, they do not sting one hornet at a time, THEY MOBILIZE!

[Just Duke]

retaining wall, way cool.
I found an hornets nest years ago. Yellow Jackets dig underground nests. I did not know that.
I was mowing my yard with a front wheel drive mower. It was a very large lawn and this puppy could cut 48".
I hit the nest, the front wheel went into the nest followed by the side of the mower guard. I figuired I had hit a divot. I pushed, the mower went forward. Next thing I knew it was hurt city. Gazillions of them! I ran as fast as I could, and eventually outran them. The mower was covered with them.
I figuired, a nest in the bank there, maybe a few rows of comb like paper nests you see in the facia. Small. Not so. I got an hornet flare, and gassed the nest. After it had died off, the next day I dug it. It went on and on and on. I had no idea it was so massive. Rows and rows of combs all dug into the bank.
I had seen a single wasp going in once in a while. I did not think much about it.
They dug that nest, papered it, all that small, moving that much. They must have taken the bank, one grain at a time away from the opening. I did not see any excavation debris.
I will tell you what though, they do not sting one hornet at a time, THEY MOBILIZE!


Hornets are the bastard of the bee world.

[Just Duke]

It would keep the insect at bay while shooting.
OK Ok I'll stop. ;)

[Sven]

Oooooh, yellow jackets! I filled in an outside door years ago, and had a gap between the plate and the top of the block. My carpenter dad told me to caulk it in, but didn't get to it right away and then forgot about it for 20 years, until the yellow jackets moved in. Didn't know they were there until I got nailed about three times when walking by. Man, those things were flying in and out steady! I decided to call an exterminator first and he said he couldn't do anything unless he could safely view the nest (it was in a tight crawlspace under the family room addition), and what ever I do, DON'T block the entrance! They WILL find a way out -- through plaster or sheetrock if necessary! Just spray them as they come and go to keep the population down because they will naturally die out over the winter (and they did). Next spring I caulked that gap up good!

Now the funny part of the story: About 5 years later I had forgotten all about the yellow jackets when we had a new furnace put in and had the installer run new duct into the family room because it was the coldest room in the house. The installer was in a extreemly tight spot next to the basement, and I was talking to him, seeing if he needed anything, when he looked to the side and his eyes got as big around as saucers and his jaw dropped open! (The old nest was about as big around as a beach ball!) I said "Oh, you must have spotted that old yellow jacket nest. Don't worry they're gone." He said "A a a a are you sure???" "Ya, that nest is at least 5 years old. They're long gone."

It's probably not nice to have fun at another guys expense, but the look on his face when he spied that nest was priceless!:-D

[Charley]

The Southern Yellow Jacket typicaly kills more people across the south every year, maybe 1/2 dozen, then Africanized Bees do. SYJs have a tremendous defensive response when disturbed. They DON't always die off overwinter, some colonies continue to grow. One discovered in an abandoned house in Houston a few years back filled almost the entire floorspace of a 10x12 foot bedroom, and was about 3 to 4 feet high in some places.

Wear protective gear if you deal with them, 'cause they WILL git ya!

As for the wax being contaminated, depends on what was used. My guys use either straight pyrethrins, or a silicagel/pyrethrin dust. The pyrethrins break down pretty quickly, and will pose little actual hazard when handling the wax. Wouldn't eat the honey, though...

[WickedGoodOutdoors]

The first thing that went thru my mind was BEE Killer Bullets.

I was working part time in the hunting depta Big Outfitter Store here in Maine and a guy from Mass came in looking to make "Wood Bore BEE Killer Bulletts" He had an idea that sounded pretty good.


This was his plan:

Take a pistol/revolver (.44mag? .45?) and load a small slug of wax over a tiny powder charge. then fill with very fine shot #12 if he could find it, then anouther wax seal cap.

He wanted to be able to sit out on his porch and drink beer and shoot the Carpenter Bees that drill holes ito the roughsawn wood on his porch.


Kill the bees have some fun and not destroy the porch.


Pretty Good idea? He could not find#12 shot so I suggested he use corn meal.

Just thought of a name for these Bee Bullets: TRUE GRITS


http://johnbokma.com/mexit/2006/12/31/carpenter-bee-resting-on-my-hand.jpg

[Blammer]

I remove honey bees from houses. That is the job I do.

Here are some pics

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g81/blammer8mm/Beekeeping/DSCN6760.jpg

The hive fully exposed, it's a small one.

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g81/blammer8mm/Beekeeping/DSCN6762.jpg

and right next door, A hornets nest. and yes it was still active.

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g81/blammer8mm/Beekeeping/DSCN6773.jpg

[Just Duke]

WOW! Cool Cool! Thanks for sharing the pics Blammer. I think the guy that was telling me about the 100 lbs of wax was also adding the weight with the honey.
So do you kill the bees then take the wax out?
Would the poison be harmful to the wax?

They look pretty alive to me. :shock:

Did you read the article on how busy the beekillers are here in Vegas? Might want to set up a branch office here. ;)



.

[jameslovesjammie]

Blammer,

In the top picture, it looks like you should be saying, "TADA!!!"

[AZ-Stew]

Boolit lube made from "Killer Bee" wax?

If I'm not mistaken that stuff is called "Assault Lube" in MA, CT, RI, NY, NJ, MD, IL, HI and CA.

Regards,

Stew

[Blammer]

lol

assault lube! too funny!

no I do not kill any bees. I take them out alive. yes those bees are alive and moving.

I use sugar water spray and smoke to calm the bees down. I either then use a brush and brush them off into a bucket or I use my custom made bee vacuum that will vacuum up the bees but not kill any.

I then cut out the comb in the hive and put it in frames that fit in my bee hive. Afterwards I take the bees I brushed or vacuumed off and put them in my hive.

Around here, bees are in demand and a good hive as you see before you is worth about $50 to a beekeeper. (not counting equipment, aka, the hive boxes and stuff)

Plus I get paid by the people who's house I am removing the bees from. :)

It's a win win for me and the bees. I get paid and the bees get a new home for people who will help care for them.

[Sven]

The Southern Yellow Jacket typicaly kills more people across the south every year, maybe 1/2 dozen, then Africanized Bees do. SYJs have a tremendous defensive response when disturbed. They DON't always die off overwinter, some colonies continue to grow. One discovered in an abandoned house in Houston a few years back filled almost the entire floorspace of a 10x12 foot bedroom, and was about 3 to 4 feet high in some places.


Mine must have been NORTHERN yellow jackets!:)

[Old Ironsights]

lol

assault lube! too funny!

no I do not kill any bees. I take them out alive. yes those bees are alive and moving.

I use sugar water spray and smoke to calm the bees down. I either then use a brush and brush them off into a bucket or I use my custom made bee vacuum that will vacuum up the bees but not kill any.

I then cut out the comb in the hive and put it in frames that fit in my bee hive. Afterwards I take the bees I brushed or vacuumed off and put them in my hive.

Around here, bees are in demand and a good hive as you see before you is worth about $50 to a beekeeper. (not counting equipment, aka, the hive boxes and stuff)

Plus I get paid by the people who's house I am removing the bees from. :)

It's a win win for me and the bees. I get paid and the bees get a new home for people who will help care for them.

Good for you Blammer. What with Colony Collapse and all the fewer bees killed for ANY reason the better... :drinks:

[Just Duke]

lol

assault lube! too funny!

no I do not kill any bees. I take them out alive. yes those bees are alive and moving.

I use sugar water spray and smoke to calm the bees down. I either then use a brush and brush them off into a bucket or I use my custom made bee vacuum that will vacuum up the bees but not kill any.

I then cut out the comb in the hive and put it in frames that fit in my bee hive. Afterwards I take the bees I brushed or vacuumed off and put them in my hive.

Around here, bees are in demand and a good hive as you see before you is worth about $50 to a beekeeper. (not counting equipment, aka, the hive boxes and stuff)

Plus I get paid by the people who's house I am removing the bees from. :)

It's a win win for me and the bees. I get paid and the bees get a new home for people who will help care for them.


That's way cool Blammer. Yea you have the cool bees and we have the gang banger bees. Killer bees here in Vegas are quarintined. The Bee lady is coming out tomorrow and she said NOT to use the wax.
Blammer, can the wife and I buy honey from you? Is it a high grade honey?
Do you sell it in bulk like 5 gallons also for when we get relocated?

[randyrat]

Licensed Killer.

[Echo]

A limerick, written by somone who wasn't very good at it:

There was a man from St Bees
Who was stung on the arm by a wasp
When asked 'Does it hurt?'
He said 'No, it doesn't.
I'm glad it wasn't a hornet.

Really didn't mean to hijak...

[leadeye]

retaining wall, way cool.
I found an hornets nest years ago. Yellow Jackets dig underground nests. I did not know that.
I was mowing my yard with a front wheel drive mower. It was a very large lawn and this puppy could cut 48".
I hit the nest, the front wheel went into the nest followed by the side of the mower guard. I figuired I had hit a divot. I pushed, the mower went forward. Next thing I knew it was hurt city. Gazillions of them! I ran as fast as I could, and eventually outran them. The mower was covered with them.
I figuired, a nest in the bank there, maybe a few rows of comb like paper nests you see in the facia. Small. Not so. I got an hornet flare, and gassed the nest. After it had died off, the next day I dug it. It went on and on and on. I had no idea it was so massive. Rows and rows of combs all dug into the bank.
I had seen a single wasp going in once in a while. I did not think much about it.
They dug that nest, papered it, all that small, moving that much. They must have taken the bank, one grain at a time away from the opening. I did not see any excavation debris.
I will tell you what though, they do not sting one hornet at a time, THEY MOBILIZE!

An easy way we get rid of them in the southern Indiana woods is to put old bananas around the hole where they live. Skunks smell the stuff at night, eat it , and when they find the nest they dig it out and eat the yellow jackets as well. I hate those things in the fall when you are out deer scouting, you can be standing on a nest and not know it until they are on you. Permanone which we use as tick repellent keeps them off of you long enough to get away. You are right, when they attack it's like a swarm!

[Blammer]

Yes I sell honey and the only honey I have is from the 'wild' hives that I go an retrieve.

Unfortunately I don't have bulk, say 5 gallon, honey.

My honey commands a premium around here because it's 'local' and it's '100% all natural' as in from a wild hive.

Honey is generally sold by wt, 12 fluid ounces is 1 pound of honey. I sell mine for $7-8 per pound and more if I have 'wild natural' comb in the honey.

I only 'crush' and strain, so it's not heated or "pasteurized'' as some would say. (although honey is naturally pasteurized and heating has no affect on it.. I digress)

let me see if I can get a pic of it.

[Blammer]

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g81/blammer8mm/_DSC4434.jpg

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g81/blammer8mm/_DSC4439.jpg

[Just Duke]

Yumm!!!!

[Just Duke]

PM sent on price

[mold maker]

When I first moved here in "62, I was cleaning off a ditch bank with a mower. I broke through a cavern up to my knee. When I pulled my foot out I was imadiately covered with those SYJ dive bombers. When I got to the basement door I was just like I came into this world, and didn't care who saw me. Over 80 stings on that leg alone, and a new reverence for the little buggers.
Just recently a valued puppy found and started snapping at a nest. When we heard him, he was completely covered. The little guy died 4 days and over $900. later.
This year has been the worst year I can remember for yellow jackets. I've killed out 7 nests in my yard alone.

[Old Ironsights]

An easy way we get rid of them in the southern Indiana woods is to put old bananas around the hole where they live. Skunks smell the stuff at night, eat it , and when they find the nest they dig it out and eat the yellow jackets as well. I hate those things in the fall when you are out deer scouting, you can be standing on a nest and not know it until they are on you. Permanone which we use as tick repellent keeps them off of you long enough to get away. You are right, when they attack it's like a swarm!

I dunno which would be worse under my deck... yellowjackets or skunks....

I use seVen-10 powder and a glass bowl just after dark.

[Just Duke]

Yea the web sites say seven is the best.

[Old Ironsights]

Yea the web sites say seven is the best.

Nasty stuff though. Basically powered nerve gas.

[Just Duke]

When I first moved here in "62, I was cleaning off a ditch bank with a mower. I broke through a cavern up to my knee. When I pulled my foot out I was imadiately covered with those SYJ dive bombers. When I got to the basement door I was just like I came into this world, and didn't care who saw me. Over 80 stings on that leg alone, and a new reverence for the little buggers.
Just recently a valued puppy found and started snapping at a nest. When we heard him, he was completely covered. The little guy died 4 days and over $900. later.
This year has been the worst year I can remember for yellow jackets. I've killed out 7 nests in my yard alone.

Very sorry about your puppy MM.
How did you fair after the stings?
Any external scars?

[montana_charlie]

My honey commands a premium around here because it's 'local' and it's '100% all natural' as in from a wild hive.
I understand about the 'all natural' tag on various food items...and how consumers will pay a premium for it. But, just between you and me (and the rest of this forum), isn't the 'wild honey' thing mostly hype?

We have a local honey company (Smoot) that parks stacks of hives all over the area. The bees work over the many alfalfa crops, and also spend time on (abundant) Canada Thistle and Spotted Knapweed...which have purple flowers like the alfalfa.

I'm certain a 'wild' hive, if there was one in the area, would make it's honey from the same raw materials.

Is there any real difference in 'wild' versus 'commercial' honey?
CM

[Old Ironsights]

In my area, "wild" honey means un-creamed, un-mixed, single-source raw honey from "unboxed" apiaries.

[Blammer]

There are no standards on labeling honey or naming honey. There is very little proof that honey does all the things that many people claim. The more someone claims their honey does things the more desperate they are to sell it.

I claim nothing on my label or in advertising. I just sell it. I will tell you where I got it from and what I think it is. For example: I retrieved this hive a week after the locust blooms were finished. I suspect that most of the honey was from locust so I'll call it locust honey. (but this will not appear on the lable) This hive was retrieved from the back wall of a barn. I'd consider it a wild hive because no one started or took care of it until I took it.

wild honey can mean several things.

wild as in the bees themselves are not kept in standard langstrof hives. as in go out in the woods find the bees and rob the honey. NOT a common thing.

wild honey as in you don't know what the bees foraged to make the honey. Could refer to a mixture of locust, tulip poplar, blackberry, or whatever was in bloom at the time.

or any other number of things. Like I said earlier there is no standard for naming honey. It can mean what the seller wants it to mean or represent or mean nothing at all.

there can be many differences in "wild" vs "commercial" honey or there could be NO differences. One difference is how it is processed, another is how the bees are taken care of.

One difference that could be pointed out is that in commercial beekeeping, it is very common to use chemicals to control the pests of the bees. These chemicals can and do get in the wax that the bees have built. The commercial beekeepers also time it so that it doesn't contaminate the honey.

Wild hives or all natural hives (remember the naming rules, there are none )do not have any man made chemicals added for any reason. The bees are left to fend for themselves. Do or die if you will.

I take the time to explain where and how I get my honey. I can still call it anything that I like.

In my descriptions of how I got this honey I explain that I retrieved it from hives that were not kept by beekeepers, and had no assistance of any sort. They were in fact hives that were found out in nature. Although the nature was the side of an old barn, or the roof of a house.

so I hope I helped. I do know it's a very "undefined" area on what you can call honey.

[Old Ironsights]

Blammer - I'm sort of a "honey nut" (I may even be a cheerio...) My last big buy was 35# of raw blackberry that I used to make a batch of mead.

I have 2# on comb in the cupbord and 10# of raw blueberry in my "I can't bug-out" basement storage.

I'd love to try some unboxed wild sometime.

You cool on shipping?

[Blammer]

PM on the way

[Old Ironsights]

Cool... I've been known to drink raw honey... and I'm thirsty. ;)

[leadeye]

Blammer - I'm sort of a "honey nut" (I may even be a cheerio...) My last big buy was 35# of raw blackberry that I used to make a batch of mead.

I have 2# on comb in the cupbord and 10# of raw blueberry in my "I can't bug-out" basement storage.

I'd love to try some unboxed wild sometime.

You cool on shipping?

Making mead is something I have wanted to try, how did you like the finished product?

[montana_charlie]

I take the time to explain where and how I get my honey. I can still call it anything that I like.
I fully agree. I did not mean to question your right to call it what you wish.
My only intent was to get your view on what difference there could be in the honey itself between the product of a 'tame' hive and a 'wild' hive...both working the same area during the same season.

Your practice of calling yours 'wild honey' is more honest (imo) than restaraunts that sell 'Certified Angus' steaks.
That 'certification' only means the meat meets a certain 'quality grade'.
It does not signify that it came from a black-colored steer, it MAY not have even come from an American-raised steer...and it certainly does not guarantee that it came from an Angus steer.

Anyway, it seems to me that honey is honey (pretty much) regardless of whether it was made by 'salaried employees' or 'undocumented migrant workers'...until you get to the area of producing Tupelo honey.
CM

[Just Duke]

Best source of quick healthy energy for mourning hunts is;
Oatmeal with brown sugar and honey.
Grain and honey will super charge carbon based life forms to no end.

[Blammer]

MC, I didn't mean to come across as mean or rude or anyting I was trying to keep it in context of the naming issues honey suppliers and the general public have. I was not offended nor intending to make offense. :)

yes in the honey itself there is only a few differences IMO, and that is what chemicals are used on the 'salaried employees'... :)

that analogy has me laughing quite a bit! I'll have to use it at the fair today,it'll sure to get a laugh! lol

[RustyFN]

When I was a lot younger and lived in California a friend of mine lived with his inlaws to save money for a house. The inlaws house had bees in the wall and they were left there for a long time. It got so bad they finally had to have them removed. My friend was telling me that the people that removed the bees took the siding off the outside of the house. They ended up getting 700 pounds of honey out of the wall. A year or two later they started to get the bees back.
Rusty

[Tom W.]

I see most of the yellow jackets about the time hunting season comes around. They love to help you when you clean game.
I was mowing the yard once when I spotted a bunch of yellow jackets coming out of the ground. I just left the mower over the hole and went inside until it ran out of gas.

[Just Duke]

There back! :groner:

[johnlaw484]

YA'll don't forget those ugly red wasps. Them things make all the rest seem minor. Those things are looking for a fight.

[Blammer]

You had another swarm of bees move in? Wow!

[Green Frog]

I was clearing a rough patch of my yard with a weed eater and came on what I thought was the inside of a basketball, with the rubber coating weathered off. I had stopped to answer a call on my cell phone and as I talked I idly kicked the "ball" to get it out of the way. When my sandaled foot hit the surface of the "ball" and it peeled away showing rows and columns of cells, my mind immediately hit on a plan... get the H3** out of here! I LEVITATED halfway across my front yard and didn't get stung once, in fact, I may even have dematerialized and then reappeared, 'cause those little yellow guys never figured out where I went.

That evening after dark I poured the nest full of gas and let it settle, then threw on a match just for good measure. Flame shot up out of holes at least six feet away from the main nest... I have no idea how big that colony was underground or how many residents, but I sure am glad they didn't all find me while I was figuring out it wasn't a basketball!

Froggie

[docone31]

I worked for a tree service, back when, and Hurricane Bob struck.
Lots of work!!!
Well, there was this Willow. Huge leaders, the tree had been trashed by the storm and I had to cut the leaders down.
There was this one leader. I was tied off above it, and I lowered myself to the leader to make the cut. Being Willow, it cut fast! I mean fast. The leader was about 24" in diameter, and long...
Well, aside from the beserk squirrels once in a while, they like to go for your face while you are hanging on a rope with a chain saw running, bees nests are the next worse.
This leader had a nest within it. It was huge and full of honey bees. I doubt they were Africanized, they were the garden variety honey bees, just without a nest. It had fallen with the leader, leaving only the stump.
Well, the bees, left the fallen nest, and went to where the nest had been! They just flew in place. This went on for hours. Where the nest had been, there were a gazillion bees.
Next day they were gone, but they were there untill we left for the day.
I have seen swarms of bees actually pull a branch down with the weight of the bees.
That be lots of bees.
Worse are Yellow jackets. Especially when you take a sip of Coke, and one had gone into the can.
That sucks.....

[Lead Fred]

100 lb Bees [smilie=f:

Dang Duke, you might have to shootem with a 45-70 , skin and make a rug outta one, then get a pic with Barb, and post it :holysheep


I bet folks would buy Killer Bee wax, for boolit lube.

I see a good marketing ploy

[Recluse]

Worse are Yellow jackets. Especially when you take a sip of Coke, and one had gone into the can.
That sucks.....

I put Yellow Jackets, Wasps and Hornets in the same category as I do rattlesnakes, Cottonmouths, moccasins and copperheads.

When I see one, I kill one. I have zero use for them.

If we could exterminate them from the planet, I'd be fine with that.

:coffee:

[FN in MT]

Interesting thread.
The WINTERS out here may suck...but at least I don't have to deal with the INSECTS like you warmer climate folks!

[mpmarty]

I use cyanide sticks on yellow jacket nests in the ground. I don't bother wasps or hornets as they keep the spider population under control. When I pressure washed my barn before painting it I got stung a few times by wasps. No big deal just aggravating. I painted their nests pretty well after the barn dried out from the pressure washing. That seemed to be the end of them. When I lived in Florida (Tampa St.Pete area) I used to go on cockroach safari in my living room at night with a spray bottle of 409. Flip on the light and start shooting:bigsmyl2:

[Just Duke]

100 lb Bees [smilie=f:

Dang Duke, you might have to shootem with a 45-70 , skin and make a rug outta one, then get a pic with Barb, and post it :holysheep


I bet folks would buy Killer Bee wax, for boolit lube.

I see a good marketing ploy

Barbie is alergic to bee stings.

[Beekeeper]

Blammer,
How many hives do you have?
I ran 1500 hives just before I sold out.
The work just got to be more than the monitary return.
!500 hives is about 330 days a year work.
I agree with you about the hive size as 100 lbs of wax coming from the cappings means it is about the size of a small car.


Jim

[Beekeeper]

Sorry I got called away,
Duke,
If you want to use the beeswax it is perfectly safe to use.
Do your melting in a large container with water in it.
wax is lighter to the water and will float on the top.
Make a screen about the same diameter as the pot and weigh it down.
That will force the trash to the bottom and will give you clean wax.
Don't reccomend doing outside as it will attract bees to the smell of the wax.

The way I got bees out of a wall or building is to place a cone of hardware cloth with the small end out over the hole.
The bees will find a way out but not back in.
Takes several weeks but will get rid of them.
They will fly away and find another hive that will accept them
Like blamer says remove all of the honey and wax and then seal all areas that even look like they will access the area.

Hope this helps in some way,


Jim

[Blammer]

I have 2 hives now, I'm just a hobbiest.

[troy_mclure]

i see nobody mentioned bumble bees(the ones that look like carpenter bees but swarm).

they are super aggressive, and their stings are horrible.

we got trapped in the house by a hive that moved into a wall. we opened the bathroom window a crack and put a fan above it to blow them down into a bath tub of hot water.

in one day we killed a 2sq ft box of them this way. we had to bug bomb the wall to get to it to break it open. there were still thousands of them in there.

[Charley]

I put Yellow Jackets, Wasps and Hornets in the same category as I do rattlesnakes, Cottonmouths, moccasins and copperheads.

When I see one, I kill one. I have zero use for them.

If we could exterminate them from the planet, I'd be fine with that.

:coffee:

All are predators, there'd be more rodents than you can imagine with no snakes. Paper wasps prey very heavily on caterpillars, although the Red Carolina paper wasp is one aggresive SOB. Mud Daubers prey on spiders, The large Cicada killer wasps keep cicadas under control. Pretty much every animal has a use.

[Recluse]

All are predators, there'd be more rodents than you can imagine with no snakes. Paper wasps prey very heavily on caterpillars, although the Red Carolina paper wasp is one aggresive SOB. Mud Daubers prey on spiders, The large Cicada killer wasps keep cicadas under control. Pretty much every animal has a use.

Yep, but a rattlesnake eats the same rodents that rat snakes eat. Copperheads eat the same frogs and whatnot that other snakes eats. Etc etc.

I have zero use for venomous snakes--and not just the pit vipers found in North America. I have zero use for the mambas, the cobras, the friggin' tree snakes, fer de lance, gaboon vipers, asps, kraits. . . If they were to all go extinct, it wouldn't bother me one whit.

Feel the same way about sharks, too.

Come to think of it, I feel the same way about lawyers and politicians as well. :)

:coffee:

[Beekeeper]

Bee very careful Blammer.
Like the man who helped me get started said , bee hives are like lays potato chips , "you can't stop with only one"
As you work with them you will have time to find the queen cells and use them to start new hives.
I used what are called NUC hives , which are half size hives (three or four frames) and put a good queen cell and a comb of brood in them. Takes a couple of months before they are ready to put in a full size hive.
It is a great hobby but has a way of turning into a business real quick.
Ever need help let me know .


Jim

[Crash_Corrigan]

Some years ago in a place far away, called Vermont, I had a piece of property with a nice 3 level log home. It had 2 acres of lawn that required mowing. I was gifted with a '65 sears riding mower that would with coaxing run pretty good.

I got this relic running one day in the Spring of '87 and I was cutting wide swaths of grass and enjoying the day when I apparently ran over a Yellow Jacket nest in the lawn.

They were some annoyed! I bailed offa that relic faster than a Top Turret Gunner out of a B 17 over Berlin and my feet were a blur on my way to the cabin. My lovely wife having observed this whole fiasco was ROTFL on the porch while sipping an adult beverage.

I made my way into the shelter of the cabin with a large swarm of insects following me. Now I was on the inside and they were on the outside and they were still angry. My wife next became the target of thier anger. She apparently had muddled her mind with the adult beverage since she ran off the porch and down the drive with a swarm closely following.

I got a phone call in about 20 minutes from her. She had retreated to the neighbor's house about a half mile away and she wanted to know if the coast was clear to come home. I told her that the mower was still running in circles around the yard and the insects were following it and that until the gas ran out they were still annoyed.

I lied...but I was able to inibe the remainder of the container of adult beverage without sharing. I do not appreciate being laughed at.

[Curly James]

I eat a tablespoon of honey every day along with a glass of OJ and eat an apple a day. I don't kow if it does that much good but I figure it's better than all the pills everybody seems to take.

Wasn't it Albert Einstein who said we will all die when all the bees die?

[mag44uk]

I take it,from Blammers photos,that bees and yellow jackets tolerate each others prescence?
Fortunately we dont have yellow jackets here but I always get bitten by "mozzies" at our club over summers.
Tony

[zuke]

My brother found a nest on the ground one day while mowing the lawn and ran with the mower in tow.
Couple hour's later after making sure the tank was full he started it up and parked it right over the nest till it ran dry a couple hour's later. All gone.
When I come across a nest I usually attack it with WD-40 at night with someone else holding the flashlight from a distance.
ALL flying insect's require sunlight to navigate and the ALL see in the UV spectrum.
So I figure night with a flashlight from a distance should get em and it does!
I've never been stung yet!

[qajaq59]

I only have to worry about underground termites. And even those are preferable to the dry wood termites we have in Florida.

[troy_mclure]

a great way to kill hole burrowed yellow jackets is take a gallon of blue windshield washer fluid and pour it down the hole.

step back and light it.

the alcohol burns clear, and makes a mini fire tornado which blows them out of the hole and burns off the wings.

[docone31]

That sounds like downright fun to watch!
I like that.
Yellow Jackets on foot!

[leftiye]

Or in daytime use a can of starter fliud and a lighter for anti aircraft practice! (you WILL be motivated to not miss!)

[blackthorn]

I grew up in a 21/2 story farm house in mid-south Manitoba (Canada). For a lot of years the house was not insulated, rather it was simply a frame covered with ‘tongue and groove’ shiplap outside, with lathe/plaster walls within. Sometime after the house was built some wild honey-bees took up residence in the front wall. Over time this bee colony became quite large and, as nature intended, periodically they would swarm. Bees, when they swarm, once out of the over-populated hive collect around the Queen bee in a big bundle before deciding where they want to go. When one of us saw a swarm forming we would call Dad and he would watch to see where the Queen of the new swarm would land. Dad would walk over to wherever the bees were collecting (usually a tree branch) and gently pick up the queen. He would stand, holding the queen gently in his hand, with his arm extended at waist height and bent at the elbow, while the swarm collected around the queen bee. Dad was just over five feet nine inches tall and some of the swarms would almost touch the ground hanging off his arm, wrist to elbow and these gatherings of bees were five to six inches thick. Mother would go and take the top off a prepared hive (always had one ready) and Dad would carry the swarm over and very gently put it in the hive. I never saw him get stung during this process but if he had injured the queen, the swarm would have turned on him and likely killed him. One year Dad decided to insulate the walls of the house and, for extra insulation, cover the exterior with a product called “Insul-Brick” siding. They “smoked” the bees and removed the old siding, caught the queen and moved her to a hive. The front of the house, between the studs, was almost completely full of honeycomb. They took almost fifteen washtubs full of honey (in the comb) from that hive. The old siding was put back on and the space between the studs was filled with packed-in planer shavings then the Insul-Brick was put on. This was completed around 1948 or 1949.

[qajaq59]

As a small kid I saw a guy do that trick of picking the queen off a tree branch. He put her in a hive, and sure enough, all the bees went in there as well. All of us kids thought he was magic. LOL

[bohica2xo]

As a kid in southern california I watched a swarm of argentine army ants destroy more than one large wasp's nest. A swath of ants about six inches wide going up the wall of the garage... Next day all the wasps were ant food.

Nasty little ants would hang around the nest, and kill the wasps that landed there for a couple of days. I always wondered how a large argentine ant colony would fare against an africanized bee hive.

We do have africanized bee problems here in Las Vegas. Unfortunately the solution has become "kill all bee hives" simply because it is too hard (and dangerous) to tell if a wild hive is simply honeybees.

I do protect the cicada killers here on my property. They look scary, but are more or less harmless - unless you are a cicada. They look like a cocktail sausage with wings, and sound like a B17. Really cool to see one carrying off a large cicada...

B.

[ghh3rd]

Crash - funny stuff :-)