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You've heard of bats in the belfry; well, we've got bees in the birdhouse. The bees are taking over our birdhouse!!!
We just noticed this today... Not sure what to do about it. The pic doesn't do it justice. I took these pics from inside the house from our garden window. There are SO MANY bees flying around it and around the side area of our house.
We're thinking, wait until dark, put on hat, thick jacket and gloves and run out, paste a chunk of duct tape over the hole and then run back inside.
I don't wanna spray it with any bug killer (I've got the shooting wasp killer in a can) b/c then it might be harmful to the birds who will be moving in in the spring...
well last night I put a chunk of duct tape over the hole. All the bees must have been inside, as there was no activity outside.
Only one bee crawling on the birdhouse this morning... seems to have worked. Looks like it was trying to get in, looking for a crack in the roof shingles. But maybe they're busy chewing through the tape from the inside, we'll see...
If you know of a local beekeeper, you could just have them come in and remove the queen. The nest would be deserted within a day. Also, since that's a birdhouse, I'm assuming there are aeration holes somewhere on it. They can also use those holes to fly in and out. That's weird that they'd take up shop in such a small space.
I would just leave them alone and let them set up housekeeping. Right now beekeepers are having a lot of problems with hive dieoff. No one seems to know why or what is going on. It is apparently widespread because we have heard of it happening on the west coast and several nights ago saw a segment of news from New Jersey about hive dieoff there.
Did you know that if the bees in the world die off, then humans will cease to exist in about 5 - 10 yrs. As soon as food reserves ran out that would be the end of things. Without bees food crops are not pollinated and without food crops we cease to exist. Something to think about. Pls. see if you can find a local beekeeper. Contact your county extension agent and they should be able to give you the names of several. LIZ
We just put a piece of duct tape over the hole at night when there were no bees around and it solved the problem. The bees came back the next few days, but within four days they were all gone.
Scary thought about the bees dying off like that. Wouldn't that be weird if they did? Here we all are worrying about global warming (Pres. Bush not withstanding) and in the end it would be the bees... Go figure.
When we took the tape off, there was nothing in there. Just some seeds in the bottom. So there was never a Queen in there... As they say in Texas, they were "fixin'" to set up shop in there but I think the tape worked well. No harm, no foul.
How about birds then?
I've got birds nesting all over the place, wherever I DON'T want them, like under the garage eaves, but they have shunned every birdhouse I've ever hung!
