40' container and bee hives underneath

Bought this to shift wifes crap/craft stuff into so I can hopefully get the shed back, but it underneath 2 huge big bees nests/hives whatever. 1 would be about 600mm long.

Now If spent a few nights going out when all settled and surface spray and trays of petrol, multi layers of dead in the morning but very angry relatives. So borrowed a bee keepers outfit and last night ventured out and those sods can do serious damage through a pair of leather gloves, but the fork & spade made a mess of both nests and did that get them in a mood.

So tonight full gear, 2 pairs gloves including welding gloves and we made a right mess of their habitation.

But heres the but.... the rest of the nest appears to be between rails or part of the framework, but cant get my head under enough to have a squizz.

So how to I find the layout of chassis?
what can you recommend/suggest to remove the rest of the 'family?'

I could dig a couple of indentations in the ground a use big car jacks and blocks to till it up one side.

You cant set fire to the hive as then the flooring would go as well.

Might have been better to contact a local bee keeper before you started stirring them up! Ahh well, too late now. :rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by aldav

Might have been better to contact a local bee keeper before you started stirring them up!

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:whs:

either get an apiarist to take them away, or nuke them with something nasty and most likely irresponsible when it comes to bees

Are they bees as in honey bees or are they euro wasps? bees don't often go underground nests but wasps do. With the decline in bee numbers world wide I would have attempted to call an apiarist first.
Pete

Have spent time with 2 local aperists and both have visited.....
these are honey bees.
not underground, just under a container that sits 100mm off the ground, so VERY limited access.

Spray petrol on them.
That fixes ants, even bull ants.
Cheers
John T

In my distant past as a ‘bee expert’ I frequently dealt with enquiries about bees in chimneys, cavity walls and other inaccessible spots. Despite the universal belief that beekeepers are disparate to get bees, there are far easier ways to start a new hive by splitting rather than hacking them out of inaccessible places.

I was also chastised severely the first time I sent a beekeeper out to look at a hive that turned out to be a European Wasp nest (they arrived in NSW in the mid 70s.

But for both I usually recommended the yellow pest strips that you could buy from a certain petroleum company. They were very effective in confined spaces. The active chemical in those strips would also be absorbed by the beeswax in the colony and make it somewhat repellant to future nests.

Another good solution used more with wasps was an insecticide dust, which I saw recently in a gardening isle.

I also used to recommend professional pest controllers who had access to gassing options.


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Originally Posted by Tonto

Have spent time with 2 local aperists and both have visited.....
these are honey bees.
not underground, just under a container that sits 100mm off the ground, so VERY limited access.

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OK if destruction is the recommended option ...

I suggest you dig some shallow holes at about the 1/3 points of the container. The holes need to be about 300 mm deep.
Place a plastic skirt around the container that contacts the ground everywhere. If necessary weight the skirt to keep it on the ground.
set off 3 or 4 cockroach bombs under the container. They can be angled at about 60 degrees.

The insecticide should knock off whatever bees or insects are living under the container.
(There are more effective "extermination" agents, but they are difficult to come by or very dangerous to manufacture at home.)

As Ian suggests but a few buckets with a box of baking soda and a bottle of white distilled vinegar. This will make carbon dioxide which is heavier than air. Weighting down the bottom of the plastic barrier and sealing it is more important than sealing the top of the plastic. After a couple of days the bees should be expired.

Like others, I am a registered beekeeper (not that that means much) and would use phosphine tablets.

These tablet/pellets are used to gas rabbit warrens with success and cost circa $30 for a re-sealable container. They are activated by moisture.

The advantage is that the tablets/pellets can be thrown anywhere you desire and can be bought at local farm supplies stores.

They are very effective, and I have used them on occasion to fumigate my timber supplies.

You could cut a hole in the container floor between supporting members.
And patch the floor later.
The container floors are usually 30 mm ply

Cheers Matt.

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Originally Posted by cava

Like others, I am a registered beekeeper (not that that means much) and would use phosphine tablets.

These tablet/pellets are used to gas rabbit warrens with success and cost circa $30 for a re-sealable container. They are activated by moisture.

The advantage is that the tablets/pellets can be thrown anywhere you desire and can be bought at local farm supplies stores.

They are very effective, and I have used them on occasion to fumigate my timber supplies.

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It has also been suggested that I seal between the container and ground with plastic sheeting. then let off cockroach baits & bombs, would the same idea be useful, using your suggestion

Quote:

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Originally Posted by cava

Like others, I am a registered beekeeper (not that that means much) and would use phosphine tablets.

These tablet/pellets are used to gas rabbit warrens with success and cost circa $30 for a re-sealable container. They are activated by moisture.

The advantage is that the tablets/pellets can be thrown anywhere you desire and can be bought at local farm supplies stores.

They are very effective, and I have used them on occasion to fumigate my timber supplies.

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from https://www.pestsmart.org.au/pestsma...abbit-control/ via Dr Google

Phosphine: Phosphine is a colourless, flammable, toxic gas that is lethal to almost all animals. For warren fumigation, phosphine gas is produced when metal (eg aluminium or magnesium) phosphide tablets or pellets are exposed to moisture.
Aluminium phosphide is classified as a Schedule 7 poison and a dangerous good and is registered for use as a pesticide in Australia.

Perhaps not a route for the untrained ?

Being that Honey Bees are under threat, I'd try to lift the container and get in a Bee Keeper to remove the hive even if it's in sections. If it can't be done that way then use the Phosphine solution.
Kryn

Success. firstly to those who were concerned about destroying bees...tough :D, seriously we looked at various options including bringing semi trailer back again and lifting the container up in air and removing bees that way, but both truck company and apiarists wouldnt have a bar of that.. no thrills in their lives.

So with grandkids visiting all time only option was to destroy bees.
Raid 3 month surface spray rattles their cages
metal trays with thin layer of petrol really gets them agro.
but get a bee keepers uniform on and then put a spade/fork through the middle of hive... wousers man did that upset the apple cart. I started with full outfit except for leather workman gloves on, although they didnt get through I could feel them attacking the gloves, counted over 180 stings on one glove, so back tracked and correct gloves.
Then more trays of petrol.
Then sealed up with painters trim plastic around container and 3 cockroach bombs.

The biggest mistake I made was not putting plastic or cardboard underneath to collect all the honeycomb, its taken some time to scrap that off the compacted gravel.

There were a few lost bees stayed around but they were easily transferred to another life.

So IF you need to remove bees from very difficult places outside a house, surface spray and petrol fumes are the answer. I will continue to monitor site and repeat surface spray for next 12 months.

140 plus stings would hurt! I remember reading somewhere that a fatal dose was something like 500 stings, but someone who works with bees all the time could probably take a lot more than that.

I remember in my youth when I worked with bees almost every day and sometimes copped a caning. One day I kept count while I worked through 20 hives and I was averaging about 5 stings per hive. I worked through over 100 hives that day. My hands were a bit puffy, but no other ill effects that I can recall.

Bruce


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