Charles write about some straggler bees:
>They seemed to have nothing better
>to do than attack.
>  These are the most hostile bees I have encountered to date.

Yes, it is impossible to reason with a bee that is set on attack.  I
recommend that you should at least be seen as sorting the problem, in the
interests of public relations. If there are sufficient stragglers to
maintain warmth through the night, they could well live for a week or two.

Two suggestions:

The bees will certainly cluster overnight.  If this is visible, an
insecticide spray over the cluster should solve the problem that night.  As
the bees will not fly at night, as long as a torch is not actually shone on
them, it should be possible to give them a lethal dose without retaliation.

You could place an empty nucleus or hive body in the original position.  I
have done this when I have inadvertently moved hives when foragers had not
finished for the night.  The bees will enter the hive which can then be shut
up when it is dark and the box moved.  If moved to an isolated apiary, the
instinctive aggression pattern will be no longer operating, and the bees
could either be shaken out in front of another hive or united directly
without endangering members of the public.

Betty McAdam
HOG BAY APIARY
Penneshaw, Kangaroo Island
J.H. & E. McAdam<[log in to unmask]
http://kigateway.kin.on.net/hogbay/hogbay1.htm

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