As I have mentioned in previous blogs, it is very important to check your home inside and outside monthly. If you have our service, we meet you at the front door with a giant broom. It is intended to make the techs look up and to dust down spiders webs etc. The bugs originate outside for the most part.
Gilbert Emergency Bee Service – Every once in awhile something happens that is a TRUE emergency. Not that you found a bug in the house, even if its a Bedbug, but something that really could cause problems. I can only think of a few:
Honeybees/Africanized Honeybees
Rat loose in the house
Gilbert Emergency Bee Service – Can you think of any others real emergencies? Send me a comment.
Anytime we think we are safe in the water, wait that was the Shark headline. Honeybees need water just like us and they will take it from anywhere they can find it. Water fountains aren’t the perfect place and neither are swimming pools. Swimming pools can be a sting of a place if you surface and the bee tags along she may decide to sting you and ouch.
This circumstance is difficult to adjust, the bees don’t want to move and generally speaking they won’t. I have tried placing a water dish with stones so they can get a drink, gradually moving it away from the other source.
Honeybees – There are many factors that play into a honeybee hive within your home. Determining whether you need to open up a wall to get to the hive. My very first question is “How long have they been there” “When did you first spot them” and of course where are they? So let’s answer these questions and why I want to know?
#1 & #2 “How long have they been there” – this is really important. Let’s say you just noticed them, and you are pretty sure about this because they are at your front door. Would you would have noticed them? See this gives me an idea that they haven’t build much honeycomb, and no reason to open up the wall. Opening up walls is expensive and I don’t like spending money yours or mine unless we have to.
#3 So as we ask question #1 and #2, we need to know where they are, if they are at the front door area what is in there – is it a bathroom or bedroom. I once had them at the front door under a bush and there was a bathroom, they had made there way under the tub area – plenty of room and that had been there a long time. No way to get them out and they were Africanized honeybees plus after we killed them the hive disintegrated and wax moths invaded. Now we have an issue, we had to open up the bathroom wall. But lets say there were under a shed in the very way back of your property, no access but they are again Africanized honeybees we only have to kill them and the hive will be destroyed by roaches and other pests.
Dog House, no dog so nobody noticed and water meter box (see the bee)? And the last one is within the block wall and honey dripping outside but never inside. SO IF ANYBODY SAYS YOU HAVE TO OPEN UP A WALL, THINK ABOUT IT FIRST AND YOU DECIDE!
Do you have a pool? Just like us, insects and critters need 3 things – water, food and shelter. The problem is that they don’t know the difference between a natural source of water or a swimming hole or fountain.
Here in Arizona there are many crevices from rock or cactus which may allow a swarm to take up residence close to your home. The water of your pool or fountain just becomes handy for them and they will come to your water source. So lets assume you live beside a mountain and there are bees coming there everyday, what do you do? So this becomes a bigger issue because you don’t have any idea where they are and you don’t have permission to deal with them, unless they are on your property.
I have seen people create a separate water device away from the pool, like a fountain or just a container that you replenish daily. This may be enough to pull them away from that water source to that dish or container. But to my knowledge there isn’t much I can do to keep them away from the water.
pool Photo by PPMA
Did you know Africanized Honeybees swarm 30 more often than the European Honeybees? Spring has sprung and we are getting calls, here are a few tips:
Laurel Hansen Ph. D. is an Instructor in Biology from Spokane Falls Community College and is in my opinion one of the USA top research experts on Carpenter ants or probably ants in general. Some new words from this last weeks PestWorld conference in Phoenix, AZ.
Polygyne – many Queens or describing a hive or colony (social insects) that has more than one active queen.
Polydomus – many homes or living in more than one nest, as certain ant colonies.
She presented a very instructional PowerPoint on Tramp Ants – a diverse group of invasive ant species which have become established widely across the globe. As we travel, move or just transport certain things across the country we may accidentally transport certain bugs or other stuff into an Eco-system which might not do to well with a new species. One of those species has created some real problems in various places in the U.S. like the Crazy ants or Rasberry crazy ants
To Bee or not to Bee? What was the question?
Usually after arriving at a home we discuss with the homeowner just how long the bees have been there. Sometimes they have no idea and sometimes they indicate just a recent event. The important issue is how long because if the hive is large the issue grows and can become a huge issue. OK small hive not a real problem, not much honey and not much by way of honeycomb = little to no bugs. But here is where the issue becomes a problem, big hive = lots of honey and honeycomb which equals a huge bug problem sometimes.
I hate to damage a wall or home just to get to the honeycomb, but sometimes it is just plain and simply something you must do! Today was this event, the homeowner noticed a lot of flying moth type critters and I quickly surmised that they were wax moths after she explained that we were just there a month or so ago. The Wax Moth is a very destructive insect pest in the beehive. The adult moth is a heavy bodied small moth about ½” to ¾” long, wings vary in color from grayish to brown and the underside is light gray. Often after a colony is killed the wax moths will invade and lay eggs and the larva will then start to demolish the honeycomb. This also happens within a bee hive if it succumbs to something that could weaken the colony.
So the question is – Do you have to open the wall or not? Sometimes and sometime not!
My point is that it isn’t always required to remove the old honeycomb depending on the age and numbers of bees involved. Sometimes it is also impossible to get to the left over colony and you may have to put up with the consequences.
Wasps can be nasty little flying stinging bugs. Their stingers can sting multiple time, no barbs. They also hand out in bushes, under eaves and places which may afford them some privacy but easy access to you and possible attacks. I even seen and had it happen to me where one blew into the car window and went down my shirt – stung a few times before I could pull over and get it out.
Have you ever thought that the bug was out to get you, have you thought to yourself I think that bug is watching me or making plans to attack me? Maybe it wasn’t to far from the truth, maybe the wasp recognized your face and remembered it. Any stories that relate to your opinion about the bugs that are out to get you!
Photo by PPMA
