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To coincide with the ANTS!!! thread, I'd like to bring up bees. I have a massive oak in the front yard, and within its ridiculously large root structure i know of at least 3 nests of ground bees. One is yellowjackets, confirmed that when i went to the hospital (allergic) and there was a dead one in the collar of my shirt.
One more is little yellow guys, although i don't think they are yellowjackets, maybe paper wasps.
The third are the big, fat black ones, look like carpenter bees, but i have seen no evidence of boring into the wood structures above ground, so who knows.
I need to kill them, no options, as i'm allergic and i still need to mow. suggestions? Perhaps this should be in the anything that's not ponds threads, cuz there's no BOW involved.
Trying to help with 7.5 Acres in the Chain of Lakes Illinois
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The fish would stay out of trouble if it could just keep its fool mouth shut.
Turns out there is a lot I should be learning from the fish.
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I found that pouring listerine ( the mouth wash) will make them move and it didn't hirt my tree. Something a old woman down the road told me. I tryed it and it work.
Now this is just me and I'm just an old man from Texas.
Just working my pond for Grandkids GET THE NET PAWPAW  
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Death would be preferred to relocation, cuz i think they'll just move to the giant oak out back, but if i can't get a product to take care of them permanently, i will definitely check that out. Oh, and before someone else says it, gasoline and/or motor oil are out of the question.
Thanks!
-Skinny
Last edited by skinnybass; 03/04/10 04:01 PM.
Trying to help with 7.5 Acres in the Chain of Lakes Illinois
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The fish would stay out of trouble if it could just keep its fool mouth shut.
Turns out there is a lot I should be learning from the fish.
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Try carbaryl or a pyrethroid. They will kill your bees and have no effect on your tree. If the big fat ones are living in a colony, then they are not likely carpenter bees. Carpenter bees have a bare abdomen while bumble bees have a hairy abdomen. Bumble bees often live in old mouse nests in the ground or tree holes and are colony formers rather than solitary like carpenter bees. Sometimes one sees a lot of carpenter bees in one place if there are a bunch of nesting holes in the same wooden structure.
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Alright. Looks like i'm gonna stock up on epi-pens and start with some poisons.
Wish me luck...if you guys don't hear me post about my dad's skinnybass pond for a while, check the local st louis hospitals for a short irish guy dead of bee stings.
Thanks for all of your help!
Trying to help with 7.5 Acres in the Chain of Lakes Illinois
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The fish would stay out of trouble if it could just keep its fool mouth shut.
Turns out there is a lot I should be learning from the fish.
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You need to call a pro in. I've got stung by just about all of them, but I am just a knucklehead that is not allergic. Bees and yellow jackets are just a laugh. Wasps and hornets, not very funny. Bumble bees, just the worst.
Biggest moronic move I even did with bees was shooting a bee box with my .22. Bees came out and stung me in the face.
Biggest moronic move ever with wasps was throwing a rock at thier suspended nest. Chased me and stung me in elbow.
Been stung by yellowjackets a ton, they are usually the smallest of the wasp/hornets. Fell in my work glove.
Was moving around old barracks refrigators in Pearl Harbor. Opened it up, swarm of hornets on me instantly. Set a new record for 50 yard dash. Did not get stung.
Worst was fishing in a little slough where a dozer had just come through and scraped the ground bare. Gigantic bumblebee landed right on my abdomen, I had no shirt on. Got me right on the diaphram. Felt like someone hit me with a pipe or 2 X 4. I thought I was going to suffer respiratory failure and die.
Do not mess around if you are allergic. Call in a pro. Multiple stings could be fatal to you. And most of them will swarm on you if you try to spray.
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Do not mess around if you are allergic. Call in a pro. Multiple stings could be fatal to you. And most of them will swarm on you if you try to spray. Hence stocking up on epi-pens first. Bonus i live a block from one of those emergency care branches of the local hospital. HAd a pro come out last year, when i bought the house. He quoted me 700 to treat the front yard. Ridiculous, but apparently, he says, the chems to deal with a root ball as big as mine without killing the tree are very pricey. Or the tree could die, and then i have to cut it down. I originally (and still kinda) think i was being scammed. IMO should have been 200 bucks tops. But the guy who came to take out the honey bees (did that for free) also said it would be at least 100 per nest, and I ended up paying 90 for the yellow jackets (I'm most severely allergic to them). So who knows, maybe a full yard treatment at 700 was accurate. My most moronic moment was when i discovered i was allergic. Just turned 18, working for the boy scouts in philmont, New mexico. Strict rules about garbage there, and a bunch of kids hiking the trails told me they couldn't use the dumpster upstream from my cabin because of a hive dangling from one end. Yeah, tried the smoke method, they did not like it one bit, had to call in a helicopter to air-lift me to a hospital. The solution was a little more natural. Brown bear lived across the creek a few miles down. Saw her once, trying to get into the dumpster, she must have knocked the hive off (intentionally?), and they were gone in a few days.
Trying to help with 7.5 Acres in the Chain of Lakes Illinois
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The fish would stay out of trouble if it could just keep its fool mouth shut.
Turns out there is a lot I should be learning from the fish.
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Do not mess around if you are allergic. Call in a pro. Multiple stings could be fatal to you. And most of them will swarm on you if you try to spray. Hence stocking up on epi-pens first. Bonus i live a block from one of those emergency care branches of the local hospital. HAd a pro come out last year, when i bought the house. He quoted me 700 to treat the front yard. Ridiculous, but apparently, he says, the chems to deal with a root ball as big as mine without killing the tree are very pricey. Or the tree could die, and then i have to cut it down. I originally (and still, kinda) thought i was being scammed. IMO should have been 200 bucks tops. But the guy who came to take out the honey bees (did that for free) also said it would be at least 100 per nest, and I ended up paying 90 for the yellow jackets (I'm most severely allergic to them). So who knows, maybe a full yard treatment at 700 was accurate. My most moronic moment was when i discovered i was allergic. Just turned 18, working for the boy scouts in philmont, New mexico. Strict rules about garbage there, and a bunch of kids hiking the trails told me they couldn't use the dumpster upstream from my cabin because of a hive dangling from one end. Yeah, tried the smoke method, they did not like it one bit, had to call in a helicopter to air-lift me to a hospital. The solution was a little more natural. Brown bear lived across the creek a few miles down. Saw her once, trying to get into the dumpster, she must have knocked the hive off (intentionally?), and they were gone in a few days. oops.
Last edited by skinnybass; 03/04/10 05:12 PM. Reason: and that kids, is what happens when you hit quote instead of edit.
Trying to help with 7.5 Acres in the Chain of Lakes Illinois
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The fish would stay out of trouble if it could just keep its fool mouth shut.
Turns out there is a lot I should be learning from the fish.
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Spray at night when they do not fly. I find bumble bee nests that I accidentally run over while bush hogging, by stepping around at night until I hear them buzz. Then I squirt on a little pyrethroid and say goodbye to the nest. My least favorite are yellow jackets. Got 40 stings when I stumble on one when I was 8 years old. I also got some stomach stings from bumble bees when I was about 12. I have had the occasional paper wasp sting as an adult when I stumble too close to a nest that I do not see. Wasps and bees are generally beneficial, but I don't tolerate getting stung. If I was allergic, I'd find someone else to kill them off. 
Last edited by RAH; 03/04/10 06:56 PM.
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I would seriously find someone else. Nothing is worth your life, especially saving a few bucks.
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For me, yellowjackets are the most fierce. You never know when or where you will stir up a nest. They get nasty in a hurry, and stay that way. I ran over a nest last year when mowing with a rider, and at the same time, got stuck on a buried wooden beam from an old raised bed. Several hours alter, they were still attacking the mower. Sprayed all sorts of stuff on the mower. Next day, there were hundreds dead on the seat. The rest were still buzzing around.
Bumble bees are much more docile, but more deadly.
Last edited by burgermeister; 03/04/10 08:09 PM.
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Bumble bees out east are nasty angry, but here in Indiana they are really hard to rile up. Perhaps they are different species. They are also smaller in Indiana.
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If you can get this it works wonders on all bees/wasps/mosquitoes/biting flies, etc. Pretty pricey, but it DOES work. I had a Bald Faced Hornets "hive" built on the side of the house. I was planning on re-roofing the house the next week and had to get rid of them quickly. I mixed up some of that stuff, opened a window and sprayed the nest. Every time a hornet wanted to come out of the nest I hit 'em. The ones that were outside of the nest would die once they landed on the nest (after a bit). I've also used it on a ground nest of yellow jackets. None crawled more than a foot from the nest.
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Yes. Permethrin is a widely used insecticide. That is the ingredient in a lot of hose end sprayer 1 quart applicators. Problem is that it only 2.5%. By the time it is diluted thru the sprayer it is only good for basic grass insects.
If you can get strong solution and mix as you wish, it will kill most anything. Looks like Esshup's product is very concentrated.
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I wonder which species has the most potent sting. I do agree yellow jackets are fierce. I don't live where Africanized honey bees live, but I can't imagine how nasty they must be...
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IMO a hornet sting is by far the worst. I have seen one sting knock a man down (not an allergic reaction). Big red wasps are next. I have been stung by all of them except a bumble bee as ours are docile and a lot are whiteheads that don't sting. I am sure there is a lot of regional variation.
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Anybody seen a cicada killer wasp? Some years I never see them and others they seem to be very common. They don't have hives or nests, so I guess getting stung by one is rare. They just dig holes in the ground where they lay their eggs and shove a paralyzed cicada or two. However, they are highly attracted to light at night. One flew into my cruiser one night, I guess attracted to the bright spotlight. I didn't realize it until it was too late. I felt something crawling on my neck and brushed it. Well, it let me have it. Wow! I'd gladly get stung by 50 yellow jackets than one of those things.
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Yep! They love the sandy soil around here. I've mowed right over their hole and they haven't bothered me. I've also had my head within 3' of a bald faced hornets nest while mowing and they haven't bothered me either, but I didn't take a chance on making a 2nd pass!
I've been trying to get a nice Bald Faced Hornet's nest to hang in the barn for a few years now, and every time the weather cools down (as in approaching a frost) something comes along at night and tears open the bottom of the nest, which ruins it for me. I have yet to figure out just what's doing it. It's happened to nests that are out on the end of a thin branch, and a nest that was less than 2' off of the ground. If I find one this year, I'm stringing an electric fence around it 'till I take it out of the tree!
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My biggest problem is ground bees. They are very small, very mean, swarming bees. I'm not allergic but my Wife is.
I generally locate the nest(after they settle down), go back at night, and pour dish washing soap down the hole.
I had one hive by my brush hog. I had to sneak in, put a strap on it and pull it away before I could use it. Then I forgot about it for awhile. When I came back later to kill them, I found that an armadillo had found the nest, dug down into it, and destroyed the hive. They also seem to dig into fire ants mounds. I need more armadillos.
At one time I had 20 colonies of honey bees and only one was a problem. It was a seriously mean bunch of bees. I tried requeening but couldn't catch and kill the old queen. I finally built a fire, suited up and tossed the whole mess onto it. Although it was my most productive hive, I didn't regret it.
For wasp nests, I shoot the foam stuff from about 10 ft. away. I have never seen a hornet nest.
It's not about the fish. It's about the pond. Take care of the pond and the fish will be fine. PB subscriber since before it was in color.
Without a sense of urgency, Nothing ever gets done.
Boy, if I say "sic em", you'd better look for something to bite. Sam Shelley Rancher and Farmer Muleshoe Texas 1892-1985 RIP
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I wondered how long that would take. Rock on.
Trying to help with 7.5 Acres in the Chain of Lakes Illinois
- -
The fish would stay out of trouble if it could just keep its fool mouth shut.
Turns out there is a lot I should be learning from the fish.
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Surprised myself. Double checked a couple times to make sure. 
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OK- bees. Some good advice thus far. Do not bother with spraying during the day. Most will be out foraging. Any social insects you want to deal with at night when nearly 100% will be on the nest. IIRC, bumble bees (I believe that is what you have based on description), are semi social. They are male and female live in single or multiple holes, but all females are reproductives (unlike termites, honeybees and ants where all the workers are sterile females). Powders like Sevin and other available powerdered insecticides work best. The first thing that bees do when you douse them with powder is fan their wings which aids in spreading the fine dust throughout the colony. A more environmentally friendly approach is to use smoke from sulphur which kills the bees and helps the tree, of course it is not nearly as effective.
Please be very careful with the allergies. If possible, you may have a beekeeper that can assist you with this. I am a beekeeper and have developed a near complete immunity to stings. Since they don't hurt as bad, a beekeeper may be willing to do the job for much cheaper. You provide the dust, the duster and the $100.00 and almost any beekeeper would come do it. We don't have that high of margins on pollination jobs and honey!
Good luck.
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