I am a bee keeper and need to correct some mis-information posted here.

Ants do not eat honey, they are atracted to sweet things but honey is not one of them. We have had a few ant nest in damp or hollow boxes but they do not go to the honey.

Bears do not eat honey. They eat brood (baby bees)for protein. Same for racoons. Pooh lied.


Even if you get the queen out or she swarms the workers can make another queen.

Sevin dust is the best bet for killing the bees just keep applying it around the entrance, also mix liquid dish washing soap and spray into the entrance, you might get lucky and get it on the bees.

Remove any water sources or hummingbird feeders from around the house.

Bees do not die in the winter, several will starve to death nd they will eliminat the drones (male bees with no stingers) but you can always count on a cluster about the size of a softball surviving. They keep it around 95 degrees in the hive to survive.

Interesting bee facts: Bees entering a hive front enrance and go to the right of the hive and bees leaving exit out the left side of the hive, front entrance.

Other than the hive, bees do not like dark places. If you have bees in a room, or in our case the honey house, we just turn off all of the lights so it is pitch black dark and crack the door enough to let in stream of light. They will fall to the floor and walk toward the light to get out.

So far nothing works for honeybee stings. Tobacco, meat tenderizer, etc.. I am experimenting with plantain from the yard, but haven't gotten stung to try it out.

Any questions about bees, just e-mail me

chcordell@hotmail.com

Thanks! That's quite helpful. I "think" the situation is improving with my problem nest. Have not noticed any further use of the Sevin-laced entrance in several days.

Welcome to the OG forums Chanel.

I used to keep honeybees back in the early 70’s and it was fun watching them work. What you said about the bears and ants and even the queens is all true. Bees are such fascinating insects.

Here if you have honeybees in your wall, the local beekeeper's association will come and vacuum the bees out of structures. Sometime back (a year or two?) I saw footage on our local news of beekeepers performing a removal on a house in Biloxi (?) that ended up having a very large hive up under the fascia boards in an overhang.

Before you call an exterminator, try calling your extension service to see if there's a beekeeper's association nearby that does removal services. If they have the equipment, they may be willing to come take care of your bee problem for you.

Hi Chanel-
Thanks for the corrections. I have seen a tree that was pulled apart by a bear to get at the hive, so I assumed honey was the target. Now I know better. I hope you won't be offended, but I am going to set some honey out near a sugar ant colony tomorrow to see what happens. It would make sense that bees would have evolved to make honey that is unattractive to ants. Now my mother did leave a grocery bag containing, among other things, a honey comb, and it was torn apart by her local raccoons. But that is what raccoons do. I really enjoyed your post. Thank you for educating us.
And happy bee keeping! It is important work.
Ria

I just have one correction to make to Chanel's post - technically, Pooh didn't lie...it was A.A. Milne. Sorry, I couldn't resist!!
Seriously, thanks for a very informative post and welcome to the OG forums!

After some research I would like to state that the results are inconclusive. Chanel said:

Ants do not eat honey

The tiny ants I thought might be sugar ants ignored the spot of honey I put out, but the average sized ants sent some of their guys out to get some.



So, if the bees aren't actively killing the ants off, I think honey in one's wall might be a problem.
Ria

Well Hello!
I found the second page. The information is great. I haven't seen any bees entering or exiting the hive, (through the shingles on the house), in about a week. I got a hold of a couple of local bee keepers and was about to schedule one them to come in and remove the bees. James_1 mentioned that wild honey bee colonies don't last long due to diseasees and mites. So possibly they may have died off.
Windaway

@ Liz1:

Y don't you try and make a business out of it? it wouldn't hurt to take advantage of what mother nature is giving you. Honey bees are pretty much in demand at sweet's industry.
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