A couple of months ago, I wrote about a master of bee destruction. Yesterday, an e-mail from Bob H. contained this story and series of photographs. He tells me he didn't originate it, but simply forwarded it after receiving it from a friend. It's apparently doing the rounds on the Internet. Click the pictures for a larger view.
The story goes:
So I was going to use my B-B-Q this weekend and I thought that I'd clean it up.
I had known there were bees coming from under the cover, so I thought I'd kill them.
So here's the B-B-Q in question.
Now I know these bombs aren't for bees, but I thought I'll suffocate and smoke them out. So here is the weapon of choice and delivery system. I thought I was pretty smart (Ha! Ha! Ha!) designed to be easily maneuvered under the cover of darkness.
So I release the weapon of buzz destruction. OMG!!! The sound from under the cover was incredible! You could hear it from three miles away easy. Then I ran like the clappers ... coming back a few minutes later to see the death toll.
It was at least a 20mm deep mass grave.
I continued to remove the cover and to light the B-B-Q to give it a clean when I noticed some fatty looking substance on the top of the side shelf thing. A bit weird ... I clean it before I put it away for winter and no way was there fat there, so I began to wonder ... No, it couldn't be ... could it? I slowly removed the rest of the cover, only to find the HQ.
We think the queen flew away ... either that, or a small child has wings and has been living in the hive, coz that thing was huge!
I'm amazed - first, at the size of the hive, and second, that no-one had noticed that number of bees coming and going over the months it must have taken them to build it! Anyone know how long bees would take to produce that much wax and honey? I can't believe they did it overnight, or even in a couple of weeks.
Around here, the problem isn't bees so much as wasps. Still, I'll be checking neglected areas of my property a bit more carefully after seeing those pictures!
Peter
5 comments:
Good GOD.
My Epipen was trembling at the sight of that thing.
It's a shame that all the honey was wasted as a result of the bug-bomb. But I can't help but shudder at the thought of what would have happened if one just pulled the cover off without killing the bees first.
"If they build a colony in your home they construct a honeycomb at an alarming rate. We have documented honeycombs being built at a rate of almost one (1) pound per day for several days in a row. The nest will eventually get up to around 30 pounds and maybe more! Yes that's right, all that in your walls! We have removed hundreds that size from people's walls."
I found this on a company website (http://www.aacutepestcontrol.com/honeybees.htm) near the bottom on how fast honeycomb can be build by bees.
Given that they could have built it up to a pound a day, depending on the weight of that honeycomb it might have only been a few days to a week.
Still, most people don't pay much attention to bees coming and going as they move in singles to a few. But yes, just yanking that cover off would have been a very bad thing...especially if those were "Killer" Bees....
For future reference, if you know there are honeybees in a place you don't want them, please, PLEASE call a beekeeper to come get them. The local ag extension service should be able to get you in touch with someone with the experience and interest in giving your bees a new home.
Too many wild hives are being lost because of mites and other, more mysterious causes. To kill a healthy hive is tragic.
[Yes, I do understand that you are entitled to do what you want with your property, and that some times it isn't possible to get someone to take the bees. But it's unlikely that the queen could have survived a direct hit from that bomb; there would have been no time for her to get out before the poison did her in]
Besides your home, you want to keep an eye on your RV or Camper. They will build nests inside their walls if they get a chance.
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