The bees!

Pantshandshake

Long story long:

I live across the road from a very steep hill. To prevent rainwater from entering my home, there's a storm drain which feeds to a... drainage pit, I guess, which is in my yard. From this pit, a foot diameter plastic pipe runs to a cistern type thing in my yard, which then runs to the pond on the other side of my house.

I was clearing brush from the drainage pit today, as I began to get concerned about roots invading the pipe. I found an underground bee nest. I left the area, because my philosophy is if you can hear the bees 30 feet away, that's too many bees.

Any ideas on how to get rid of this nest without damaging the pipe? I mean, usually for this, kill it with fire would be my recourse, but I think maybe I don't want to do that.

Deadfall

Call a beekeeper. They will remove the hive without destroying it (I know killitwithfirelol but bees are our friends!)

Pantshandshake

I don't know that these are the kind of bees that can be kept/saved. (or even if they are bees. Could be wasps. I don't think hornets usually nest in the ground, right?)

If someone's just going to come here and kill them, then charge me money, I'd rather know if I can do it myself.

ceres

Can you get a picture? There are a number of people floating around who can tell you exactly what they are from a clear picture. It will be much easier to glean from that if this is a "they can/should be saved" situation.

Pantshandshake

Ah, thanks for the tip. I'll see what I can do later on.

EWom

Do you mean underground as in they burrowed underground, or underground as in they took refuge in the drain pipe? Both wasps and hornets/yellowjackets will burrow for nests. I've never heard of honey bees burrowing underground, they typically look for a preexisting cavity to build their hive in.

If it's not honey bees, they sell wasp/hornet sprays at your local Lowes/HomeDepot/Ace etc. that should come with about a 20 foot spray. Though in my experience the 20 foot spray lasts about half the can then it gets shorter and shorter. For a decent sized nest you'll probably need a couple cans. Should be about 4-5 dollars per can, if not a little cheaper. From my experience working in that sector of retail, they should all have the same exact active ingredient, so name brand isn't a concern, and IIRC they all are about the same % wise. Don't be fooled into getting the Commercial grade wasp spray, people think that means it kills better, it's about twice as expensive, and all it is a different formula that doesn't conduct electricity, so you can spray around power boxes and such. It doesn't kill things any better.

If is is too dangerous to get close to the nest, your best bet is to call a pest control professional. They'll most likely just walk up and spray the shit out of whatever it is and call it good. But at least then, it's them getting stung, not you.

schuss

Yeah, they're probably yellowjackets, who deserve to die for being sons-of-bitches. Honestly the easiest thing to do is locate the nest, then wait until after nightfall (I'm talking full darkness here). At that point, take a can of gas and pour it in, the fumes will kill everything in the nest. It shouldn't take much.

Pantshandshake

They definitely have a burrow, it just happens to be right above the drain pipe. And I was unable to get a clear picture of them, I can't really get close enough without having a good exit strategy as this is at the bottom of a large pit.

A 20 foot spray would do it, but I was under the impression these things tended to have multiple exit/entrance holes. Are they smart enough to start using a different hole if the one I spray is killing them?

ceres

You don't need to get a picture of the burrow, just one of the bees.

tynic

yes, unequivocally. Hymenoptera are very smart. But how many exit/entrances they have depends entirely on what species you're dealing with. Also they tend to be clustered together, this isn't like rabbits where you might have metres and metres of tunnels.

It frankly doesn't sound like bees, neither european nor north american hive bees are particularly keen on earth holes or drain pipes. But it would be good to get a photo - not only to verify you're not about to slaughter a bunch of benign cross-pollinators, but also to decide on a strategy.

MichaelLC

Any chance they're cicada wasps?

tynic

Those are solitary, you wouldn't hear a whole bunch buzzing around

ceres

tynic wrote: »

Those are solitary, you wouldn't hear a whole bunch buzzing around

They're also nonaggressive to humans and possibly good for your trees.

Pantshandshake

Oh, no, I meant that getting close enough to the burrow to get a picture of the insects (I'll stop saying bees...) wasn't really in the cards today. They aren't a nuisance as of yet, so I'll give it a shot again tomorrow when I have some free time and daylight.

tinwhiskers

tinwhiskers was warned for this.

Okay so here's what you need.

1 40oz bottle of Mickey's or Old English.
Approx 35oz of gasoline.
1 old Tshirt
A knife
A zippo or cigar lighter.

God has blessed you with a perfectly valid excuse to throw a Molotov cocktail at something. Do not waste it, make your 13 year old self proud of future you.

mts

yea, if its a burrow, it is most likely yellowjackets

they are a bitch, but if you can hear it that far away, its probably a huge nest and you might want to let a pro handle it

bowen

Chiming in on the burrow thing, that's pretty much a wasp trait. You don't see that much in bees. There are Mining bees, but once you get a good look at the actual insect that'll be a good indication of what it is.

It wouldn't hurt to call pest control if you're concerned.

schuss

tinwhiskers wrote: »

Okay so here's what you need.

1 40oz bottle of Mickey's or Old English.
Approx 35oz of gasoline.
1 old Tshirt
A knife
A zippo or cigar lighter.

God has blessed you with a perfectly valid excuse to throw a Molotov cocktail at something. Do not waste it, make your 13 year old self proud of future you.

It's actually more effective to not light the gas, as it's the fumes that kill them.

bowen

Also, gasoline vapor is super explosive, don't make a molotov out of gasoline. That's a great way to maim or kill yourself.

Pantshandshake

I'm preeeetty sure a molotov would damage the pipe, which is what I was trying to prevent in the first place. Also... I don't know that making and using one of those, even on your property, is legal.

mts

keep in mind you need to worry about soil contamination with the gas, especially need to know wher ethe drain goes to

L Ron Howard

L Ron Howard was warned for this.

You know what must be done.

ceres

Hey guys

Let's stop suggesting he set other people's property on fire

,
The Management

bowen

Smoke is a legitimate way to rid yourselves of these guys though! But getting smoke/fire into a pipe without damaging it is crazy.

I'd say get some wasp spray at the hardware store and lay into it at night time. Make sure to get a mask, that shit is toxic as fuck. Seems to be the best course. I doubt it's honey bees in a pipe, that's not really the greatest place to build a nest, and wasps love to burrow into holes like that.

Kick_04

I prefer to kill wasps in the early morning, when it is nice and cool out and they are inactive.

You can get some of those sprays that will do up to 10 feet, so you can stand on the ground and spray a nest in a tree. The ones at my work is like a foam (forget name atm) and it is suppose to help kill any bee's that enter or leave the nest/burrow.

I am not sure, but the ones I have dealt with that burrow typically only have 1 or 2 exits and tend to be in close proximity of each other.

zepherin

bowen wrote: »

Smoke is a legitimate way to rid yourselves of these guys though! But getting smoke/fire into a pipe without damaging it is crazy.

I'd say get some wasp spray at the hardware store and lay into it at night time. Make sure to get a mask, that shit is toxic as fuck. Seems to be the best course. I doubt it's honey bees in a pipe, that's not really the greatest place to build a nest, and wasps love to burrow into holes like that.

For a pipe I would probably use a fogger. Drop one or two of the wasp "bombs" down there and walk away. They are usually useless, except for confined spaces. And depending on the size of the pipe it may be pretty confined.

bowen

zepherin wrote: »

bowen wrote: »

Smoke is a legitimate way to rid yourselves of these guys though! But getting smoke/fire into a pipe without damaging it is crazy.

I'd say get some wasp spray at the hardware store and lay into it at night time. Make sure to get a mask, that shit is toxic as fuck. Seems to be the best course. I doubt it's honey bees in a pipe, that's not really the greatest place to build a nest, and wasps love to burrow into holes like that.

For a pipe I would probably use a fogger. Drop one or two of the wasp "bombs" down there and walk away. They are usually useless, except for confined spaces. And depending on the size of the pipe it may be pretty confined.

Plug up one end, drop fogger in the other end, wait, remove the plug after a day. I like this idea, way easier than a spray in a pipe.

Kick_04

Unless I am reading something wrong or pictureing it different. The burrow is not inside the pipe, it is next to the pipe.

Inside or next, the gasoline/fire would still cause problems. Not sure how much help a smoker will be if the bees are not inside the pipe.

Quid

If they're still around after you spray get a professional.

Second best thing to do in dealing with wasps next to nuking from orbit.

mts

when i had a burrow nest i basically unloaded a can f spray into it thne covered it with a heavy bowl so they couldnt get out. worked decntly well and didnt have any issues after that

just do it when its cool out and have an escape plan

Pantshandshake

2 pieces of good news:
1. They are absolutely some kind of wasp. I *may* have been stung.
2. I'm fairly certain they're dead.

And no damage to the pipe, and hopefully it doesn't rain soon so I won't be dumping poisons into the pond.

Caedwyr

One thing you can do for a non-chemical way to attack a wasp/bee nest is to use a water filter vacuum (if you have one) with the longest wand attachment you can safely control. Stick the wand near the entrance/exit to the nest and let them attack it, get sucked up, and drowned in the vacuum. This will take a while and isn't as 100% as using poison, but it doesn't use poison. I would not recommend this if you do not have a water filter vacuum as the bees/wasps may survive.