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Bees are BACK!
I wrote in my blog that I had a bee problem, the bees were removed ecologically, and I was waiting for the bee control people to come back out to my house to put a fine mesh over the vent holes under my eaves to prevent future nesting. Well, nary two days went by and the bees are back!
Date: 4/13/2007 6:32:29 PM ( 17 y ) ... viewed 3379 times The bees were building a third nest at the same site as the first two nests--in the rafters under the roof of my house. Again, they flew into the vent holes under the eaves of my house. This new nest is very tiny as it was only 2 days old. Apparently the queen wasn't caught the first time the bee control people tried removing the bees; she must still be hiding out in one of the other little nests.
On the second visit, the bee control people came to the house and scared away as many bees as they could by poking a stick at them (literally!). I asked them to vacuum up the bees again, but they said that they only captured some bees last time by doing this, and many had merely fled farther into the rafters to avoid the suction. They tried to convince me to have pesticide applied, but I told them that this would go against everything I believed in.
After much debate, phone calls back and forth to their boss, and my calling a friend who is a "bee lady"--she knows a lot about bees and has a strong emotional/spiritual connection to them--we all agreed the best thing in this situation was to spray the bees directly with soap and water, then put the fine mesh up over the vent holes. The soap kills the bees by dissolving their exoskeleton; the problem with this method is it only kills the bees the soap has contact with, while the bees that flee farther back into the rafters are unaffected. After they sprayed the reachable bees with soap, the controllers meshed over the vent holes--all they did was use a staple gun to attach the mesh. They also used some kind of foaming agent to seal cracks--they went around the whole house checking for cracks and found lots of 'em around the brick fireplace on the outside of the house. They'll be back next week to mesh around the chimney vent on the roof (This can only be done if the fireplace is not used; otherwise it presents a fire hazard.)
The awful part of this is that the unsprayed bees are trapped behind the mesh and will die eventually--but it may take weeks! It's gross and so very sad... the bees are clustered at the vent holes, a few still trying to get back in from the outside, while many more are trying to get out. The bees quiet as sundown approaches; for the past two nights I took my own soap solution, climbed up on a ladder, and sprayed the still-alive bees that clustered under the mesh at the vent holes--it's awful but better than having them starve to death.
The bees on the inside of the mesh have pushed the dead bees out of the vent holes; the little dead carcasses pile up under the mesh and stick there. Last night I couldn't stand letting the bodies hang there, so I climbed up on a ladder and pried up the mesh with a screwdriver and the dead bodies fell out, and some of the trapped bees were able to fly away--they're very weak and didn't bother trying to sting me (of course I wore layers of clothes and had a hat on and goggles and gloves and a face mask). I have a staple gun so I sealed up the mesh again, preventing the released bees from being able to get back in.
So now I'm the bee "angel of mercy"--killing those that are right up against the vent hole mesh with soap spray, then letting out the dead bodies. Gross and awful, let me tell you I feel awful about it. I'm hearing buzzing bees in my ears all day long, and even at night when they're quiet--like Poe's "The Tell-Tale heart".
I swear-to-god I'm gonna be crazy by the time they all die. gross. and awful.
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Original blog: Bee Problem!
http://curezone.com/blogs/m.asp?f=309&i=387
Honey Bees nested in the rafters under my roof! I didn't want to have them killed or use pesticides, and called around until I found an environmentally friendly pest control company.
Dying Bees
http://curezone.com/blogs/m.asp?f=309&i=391
The bees are still here, but dying, and I'm slowly going mad.
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