> The discussion about  Bob's experiments with the dropped Bee Quick
> formula and Sucracide made me wonder if the dropped formula could be
> used to clear a feral hive in a tree?

You could, and lots of folks have sent me e-mail saying that
they have driven bees from trees, walls, what-have-you with
the current "production" Bee-Quick formula, but the problem
is that one needs to realize that there is simply no way to
afford product liability insurance premiums to cover such
applications, moreso in areas where AHB are present, and that
anyone in their right mind would say what I must say below:

  <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
  <> WARNING!!   MULTIPLE RISKS OF INJURY OR DEATH!   <>
  <> NEVER USE BEE-QUICK ANYWHERE EXCEPT A BEEHIVE!   <>
  <> ANY OTHER USE IS AT YOUR OWN RISK AND LIABILITY! <>
  <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

Now that I've made my legal beagles happy, let's assume that
you are perfectly confident in your own bee-wrangling, climbing,
high-wire hoisting, destruction, and construction abilities,
and have signed a very thick set of documents absolving
Fischer Alchemy, The James and Laura Fischer World Domination Fund,
Fungi Fun Guys LLC, and me personally of any and all liability for
even suggesting that you do something so silly as even climb a
stepladder in pursuit of a feral bee colony or swarm.

I can at least pretend to summarize what I might have heard in
a presentation given at EAS 2004 on the subject of doing bee
removals, with the understanding that I am not offering advise,
but simply summarizing and commenting on the what might have
been suggested by one who does this for money.  (As an aside,
this fellow described himself as the "Indiana Jones of Beekeepers",
which is somewhat like being the "Batman of Actuarial Accountants".)

You need a few things to use a purely hypothetical repellent
to remove those highly hypothetical bees from that equally
hypothetical tree or wall:

a) Bees in an enclosed space (which means perhaps you
   are wrapping the tree with some of the giant rolls
   of "saran wrap" used to wrap pallets of boxes)

b) An SINGLE entrance/exit for the bees (which means
   that you are blocking all secondary exits)

c) An opening that you make (using hole saw, drill,
   small-scale explosives, whatever is handy) at
   the opposite end of the hive (several small holes
   may have to be drilled in the tree/wall to find the actual
   "top" or "bottom" of the hive.)

One could then cover the hole with a thin cloth, soak
the cloth with repellent, and plug a shop-vac hose into
the shop-vac's exhaust vent to blow air through the cloth,
and hence, into the hive, herding the bees toward (and out)
the entrance.

That's the theory.
In theory, theory is the same as practice, but not in practice.
In practice, your mileage may vary, and you may get nothing
but a very funny story out of the experience.

Driving bees off brood is very difficult, but if one thinks
about the situation, one need not drive ALL the bees out.

One only needs the queen to leave, and then duct-tape or staple
a plastic queen excluder over the entrance to keep her from
re-entering.  From that point on, one can hive the queen, and
with her, most of the colony in a nuc box or hive with yet
another queen excluder over the entrance, and let the colony rob
out its former home, raise the brood in the former home, and
generally do most of the cleaning up for you.

If one has a tree, one can then seal the entrances, or try to
use a power washer and some hot water to remove the comb
left behind.  Another approach would be to cover the entrance(s)
with 8-mesh, and let the wax moths take care of it for you.

In a residential setting, one might want to physically remove
all traces of the hive, but sealing entrances with 8-mesh and
dropping a few wax moth larvae in might be a less destructive
option to consider.


       jim (If you talk about fishing to a
            starving man, you're a consultant)

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
-- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/BEE-L for rules, FAQ and  other info ---
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::