Ground bees

Just discovered today a single nest of ground bees in my lawn. Appearance wise they look much like smaller bumble bees.

Would like some recommendations on what to treat the nest with before they send out invitations to all their relatives.

Reply to
Jim
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Unless they are aggressive (bumble bees are not) and/or causing you some problem, just leave them alone.

They're great pollinators and bees are having a heckuva time now with colony collapse disorder and such.

I've got a borage plant in the corner of my lawn that bumble bees just love and I have no trouble mowing around it when there are numerous bumble bees on it -- they're slow and mellow bees. They don't get the name "bumble" for nothing.

Reply to
Ermalina

I had some a number of years back in my backyard. Didn't bother anything until I mowed over them, at which time I got six good sized wallops about my face before I made it back into the house. Didn't even go back out to turn off the mower, just let it run until it was dry.

I went out the next night with the garden hose and a pint of very soapy water. Threw the soap in first as a "wetting agent" and then pushed in the garden hose.

Went to bed leaving the water running, and woke up to a puddle and no more beehive.

Jon

Reply to
Jon Danniken

Could be yellow jackets. I hit nest opening with hornet/wasp knockdown spray then pour in a gallon of malathion mix and finally put some dirt over hole.

Reply to
Frank

If they are hornets, they can be very dangerous to anyone walking or mowing nearby .. hornets give chase and a child or elderly person can get major numbers of stings from hornets.

Reply to
Norminn

I agree with the others, leave them alone if they're bumblebees. Bumblebees are very very mellow. Unless of course the nest is in a place it shouldnt be.

Yellow Jackets however, are a whole different matter. The simplest way to get rid of Yellow Jackets (it'd probably work for Bumblebees too) is to put a glass bowl or jar over the entrance hole to the nest. The bees can see sunlight coming through the bowl so they think everything is fine and they never try to dig a new entrance. It has to be pretty sealed to the ground, dont want any exits under the bowl. After about a week, they're all dead.

-dickm

Reply to
dicko

This is real simple and real cheap to remedy. First, if they are bees, leave them alone as they're docile and beneficial. If they are wasps, such as yellow jackets, approach the nest opening at night, place a clear plastic bowl over the opening, pressed down tightly to the ground and place a weight on it to keep it down. As long as the wasps can see daylight, they just try to fly through the plastic and make no attempts to dig around or under it. In a few days they will all starve and die.

Reply to
RBM

Sometimes you'll come across a bumble bee crawling along the ground on a cool morning when there's lots of dew on the grass. Bumble bees aren't very good at 'cold starts' and need the heat of the sun to get the old circulation going so they can take off.

There's nothing more satisfying than picking it up and breathing on it a few times then watching it take off from the palm of your hand to start another busy day at work.

I LOVE bumble bees :-)

Reply to
Aardvark

lay a stick pointing to the hole to mark it and wait till night,,, then pour a quart of gasoline into the hole.lucas

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Reply to
ds549

I'm a layperson, but unless they are a pest to you and your family, they help the trees and flowers.

I had a yellow jacket nest right outside my door, and I found much success with a injecting an insecticidal power.

tom @

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Reply to
Just Joshin

My favorite way is to take a high speed fan (sometimes called a muffin fan) and place it right next to the hole. As they come out or in they get sucked into the fan and chopped to pieces. Only run it during the day. In two or 3 three days the nest is empty. Gotta watch out for pets though.,,,,maybe the inverted bowl is better

Otherwise the pest people will tell you to get a powdered insecticide (sevin or Drione) and puff it down the holes. Like pollen, the powder will stick to their legs and get dragged deeper into the nest where it is ingested.

Liquid sprays usually just get the entrance and miss the main hive.

Reply to
jmagerl

I've got a lifetime of experience with yellow jackets. These are different.

Reply to
Jim

I'll try a variation on that. I have a "gun" style hose attachment for washing the car. As sunset approaches I'll set it on the soapy solution and stick the wand down the hole. Sometime later I'll follow that up with just water.

Reply to
Jim

On Jul 22, 6:17 pm, Jim wrote:

Greetings,

Id like to ask about some ground bees that I have. I found them on the south west side of my hous. The sunny, hot side. I live in the Northeast. I was drilling a hole in the side of my house and one flew up my pants and stug me on the leg. The sting was not terrilbly bad but lasted a week. Here is what I can tell you about the bees. They are smaller than a bumble bee, black and white (no yellow), they are not terribly aggressive. The (had) one hole in the ground directly against my foundation. There is lots of activity around the entrance. I have dones some searching and came up with a few possible solutions,l but with les than great results. The first night, I went out after dark. It was rather cold (60 degrees). I was able to zap the entrance with RAID wasp and hornet spray, then I poured 3 gallons of a mixture of hot water with lots of dish soap, and also mixed with a few tablespoons of 20 year old SEVIN liquid. The bee activity continued for 3 days, and then they moved about 5 feet away along the foundation and resumed their activity. I repeated my treatment, and they moved about a foot away. I repeated it again, anad they didn't even move. I called the local extension service and they told me to go to an agriculture type store and have them recommend a treatment. I went to my local Agway and they recommended BAYER ant killer. (It also kills 29 other types of insects). I applied this last night, watered it in, and I still have bee activity

24 hours later. Not only that, there is a new small entrance where the original one was several days ago. I am hoping for a 48-72 hour kill. I am not holding my breath.

Truthfully I am not sure what type of bee I am dealing with. I have looked on several ID pages and cant seem to find it. I am hoping to gather a dead one and bring it in to photgraph it, and send it off. They are very fast fliers and highly maneuverable. They are smaller than bumble bees, black and white, and are somewhat furry. Not as much fur as a bumble bee, and they don't hover near plants or grass. They fly off real fast and return real fast. I tried digging up the area directly around their entrance, and I found nothing underneath. That is when I sprinkled the BAYER ant killer on and wateredit in. Yet the next day there were new entrance holes in the same dirt I turned over.

If anyone has any suggestions on identifying them, or getting rid of them I would be very grateful. Thanks

Paul.../NH

Reply to
PW

Can you just leave them alone now that you know where they are?

If not, use an insecticide *dust*, and sprinkle a little at the entrance hole. You don't want anything too fast acting; 10% Sevin dust would be good. It won't take much. They will get in on their feet and track it inside and poison the whole nest.

Bob

Reply to
zxcvbob

When I was 12, me and a friend attacked a huge wasp nest with a CO2 fire extinguisher. It didn't kill them off, but it was really fun for about

15 seconds and we didn't get stung as much as you would think.

A few nights later we tried hitting it with bottle rockets. That didn't work either. Even when we hit close to the nest, the bottle rocket just bounced off before exploding.

So I would recommend either finding a Plan C, or making sure you have more than one fire extinguisher.

Reply to
BZ

Are they really causing a problem? Is it really necessary to kill them off? Shortages of healthy bees are causing pollination problems in both North America and Europe. As result crops are not reproducing as fully and some say cost of some foods may increase due to shortages! BTW even wasps do a good job of reducing the mosquito population. As humans we seem to feel that the moment we see any insect we must attack it with all kinds of chemicals. Chemicals that may later get into the human food chain, water supplies etc. And darn it; just as I type this a large mayfly dances up on the lighted monitor screen! Maybe in the morning I'll feed it to one of my friendly spiders outside?

Reply to
terry

I'd like to second the others...if the bees aren't bothering you, and it doesn't sound like they are very agressive, then leave them alone. They are probably busy pollinating all the plants in your neighborhood. Take a look at this web page...sounds like they might be digger bees, anthophorids.

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If they were yellow jackets, and aggresive, they are easy to get rid of without saturating the ground with chemicals that will eventually get into the water supply. I've done it many times.

jc

Reply to
jbclem

A real simple way to get rid of ground dwelling bees/wasps is to just invert a glass bowl over the nest entrance. There's usually only one entrance, and if the bees can see sunlight they dont bother to dig another one. they just keep bumping into this "invisible force field" that they cant figure out. After about a week, there's this ring of dead bugs around the base of the bowl and the nest is gone. So if there's room up against the foundation to fit the bowl over the hole, try it.

-dickm

Reply to
dicko

SEVIN!!!!! Yikes. Tht's the same agent used in some nerve gases eh????

Reply to
terry

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