Likewise, I'm too far away, but Cedar Falls is a lovely city to visit.  It's home to the annual Iowa State ATA Trapshoot.for you shotgun enthusiasts.
   
  I always like to ask a host of questions when I get swarm calls and your e-mail sends up a couple of thoughts.  You state that she said the swarm "has taken up residence" and is "basketball sized."
   
  I often find size and height lose their true perspective when describing a swarm.  The swarm becomes much smaller in reality and is often much higher than described, often much higher than my ladder (or my common sense) will reach.  Nonetheless, I'm often expected to sprout wings and fly as their hysteria grows to "I don't care.  Just get those bees out of here!"
   
  I also try to explain that swarms do not take up residence,  If I can't retrieve them, I explain how they'll move on to some other location.  Unless, of course, they have, in deed, taken up physical residence in a hollow tree or the soffet of their house.  Then you don't have a swarm, you have a colony.  When I ask about the size, I'll get a description, but when they say this giant swarm is coming in and out of a small hole in the tree, then I know it's a colony and there is little I can do with exception of tout the benefits of bees in the neighborhood for pollination, etc.
   
  Grant
  Jackson, MO

       
---------------------------------
Get the Yahoo! toolbar and be alerted to new email wherever you're surfing. 

******************************************************
* Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at:          *
* http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm  *
******************************************************