African Bees got you down?

[Ted Allen]

Well, I know this is going to sound absolutly crazy, but I do not think I have ever lied to you before SOOOO, if you have a honey bee (african bee) problem at your home here is what you can do to save your self $500 bones.

Go to the Home Depot and get the best sprayer they have $35.00. Ok , you are good so far now get some "pure" ivory soap and add about 1 OZ to the gallon (more will not help) The reason for this is that Honey bees breath through little holes in ther abdomine (sp) and normal water molecules are to small to penetrate, but a little "pure" soap makes the molecules small enough to smother the bees and they wont even get mad, they just drop like flies.

Warning!!! If you **** up! Africanized bees will hunt you down so it is best to take some Benadryl berore you do this. However , the chances are that if you do this correctly and do not startle the hive before hand there will not be a problem. However, it is best done while dawning a bee suit as you never know how many of the ****ers you might be dealing with.

The last bee job I was at I was 150 feet from the hive and they were beeting the crap out of my truck as the tech. used "Delta dust " wich takes hours to kill the hive. It was unfortunate that he was not able to use the soap as they were contained in a soffit space.

Bee smart and bee carefull.

[Russel Ray]

Does it work for regular honey bees, too? Maybe that's what is happening to America's honey bees. They have been soaped!

[Blaine Wiley]

Don't they calm them down first with smoke? I wonder what kind of smoke that is??

Why only Ivory?

[wforsyth]

It's pure soap.

[Blaine Wiley]

Yeah, but Dawn would get the stains off the trusses/rafters too.....

[wforsyth]

Lol.

[Ted Allen]

Originally Posted by bwiley

Don't they calm them down first with smoke? I wonder what kind of smoke that is??

Why only Ivory?

The way it was splained to me is that soap with additives prevent the water
molacules from getting small enough to do the deed, but that could just be BS.

[Ted Allen]

Originally Posted by rray

Does it work for regular honey bees, too? Maybe that's what is happening to America's honey bees. They have been soaped!

I think that might be a big part of it. The first thing most people think when they see a hive is "Africanized" and it has been hyped up so much in the media that people freak out and want them killed instead of removed.

[Blaine Wiley]

I thought the idea was for the soap to clog their little breathing holes. Ooops!!

How many Africanized bees do you have in your area compared to the reglar ole honey bees?

[Ted Allen]

Originally Posted by bwiley

I thought the idea was for the soap to clog their little breathing holes. Ooops!!

How many Africanized bees do you have in your area compared to the reglar ole honey bees?

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/MG113

http://biology.usgs.gov/s+t/frame/x189.htm

http://www.stingshield.com/ahb-index.htm


Tucson, AZ --- BEES ATTACK SEVEN WORKERS ON ROOF --- Africanized bees stung seven workers at an eastside store at least a dozen times each yesterday, in the first major bee attack of the year. The attack marks the beginning of a prime season for encountering the super-defensive Africanized honeybees, some experts say. The laborers were working on the roof at the Albertson's supermarket at East 22nd Street and South Wilmot Road when the bees struck shortly after 10 a.m. "We're definitely in swarming season right now, especially for Africanized honeybees," said Tom Martin, owner and president of AAA Africanized Bee Removal Specialists in Tucson. The southeast side seems to have the largest local population of Africanized bees, he added. Two of the roofers were stung 50 times each, mostly on the face, neck and head, said Tucson Fire Department spokesman Capt. Joe Gulotta. Six of the seven workers, who ranged from 24 to 54 years old, were taken to St. Joseph's Hospital. All were expected to recover, fire officials said. "One minute I was tearing off the roof and the next it seemed like everywhere I looked there were bees," said 50-year-old Michael Barrett, who was stung about 20 times, mostly on his face, head and arms. Said Creighton Allen, 39, "One started attacking me and I didn't pay no mind. But then they covered me." He said he was so frightened by the attack that he jumped 20 feet from the roof to a lower ledge, and then jumped from the ledge to the ground to escape the bees. "I couldn't get down the ladder. I've never seen that many bees in my life. It was like out of a movie or something." As Allen spoke, another bee climbed out of his clothing and began flying around him. "I am not coming back to this job, that's for sure," Allen said, as he ran from the rogue bee. The six men and one woman who were stung are employed by Labor Express Inc., 3860 S. Palo Verde Road. "I'm still in pain," Barrett said later. Steven Thoenes, president of Beemaster Inc. in Tucson, identified the bees involved in yesterday's attack as Africanized. He estimated there were 30,000 to 35,000 bees in the colony. Firefighters found the bees' nest in a fenced-in area next to the grocery store, where the roofers had thrown some debris. A Bobcat tractor, operated by one of the workers, had been removing the debris from the nesting area. The Tucson Fire Department killed the bees with a foamy soap and water mixture and uncovered four large pallettes of honeycomb. "We don't want to go and arbitrarily kill bees, but when they are aggressively attacking people we need to take care of them, and this is certainly an aggressive hive," Gulotta said. Africanized bees, a tropical variety, migrated into the United States from Mexico in 1990. They hit Arizona in 1993 and have been blamed for the deaths of four people in the state, including one Pima County man, as well as the deaths of several pets. The bees become aggressive with much less provocation than their European honeybee cousins. "Typically at this time of year a European colony would not be aggressive," said Martin, a former commercial beekeeper and researcher at the federal Carl Hayden Bee Research Lab. "Research has shown that the (Africanized) venom is slightly more toxic, but the real threat in encountering them is that while the European bees send three or four guard bees to sting an intruder, an Africanized colony would send out 300 to 400 to sting," Martin said. "It happens very quickly - within a matter of seconds." While Tucson beekeepers continue to use European bees for honey production, more than 95 percent of the city's feral bee population is Africanized, according to bee removal specialists. Thoenes, who ran the state's now-defunct Africanized Bee Program in the early 1990s, said the number of Africanized bees here has ballooned since 1994. Paramedics tend workers Michael Barrett, left, and Creighton Allen. "We have thousands and thousands of colonies now in Tucson," he said. Thoenes said most serious Africanized bee attacks occur in April and October, when the colonies are at their peak size. The colonies build and then divide in half, he explained. He said Tucson now has 33 companies that specialize in bee removal. "We are doing more than 3,000 jobs per year and it's gone up to 97 or 98 percent Africanized," Thoenes said. "The reproduction is getting worse and worse. Every year we are getting further behind the bees." Thoenes stressed that Africanized bees attack only when they are disturbed. "Their evolutionary force is predators. Only the mean ones survived. But they don't search for targets," he said. Africanized bees flourish in tropical areas, and are rarely found in barren desert areas. But in the city, where plants from the southern hemisphere bloom and food and water are available, the bees have a high reproductive rate, he said. (Stephanie Innes, The Arizona Daily Star, 3/14/00).

3000 jobs per year at $150-$500 dollars a whack.

[Russel Ray]

Originally Posted by tallen

super-defensive Africanized honeybees

I thought they were super offensive and aggressive. I guess they are offensively, aggressively super-defensively defending their hives?

[wforsyth]

Do you have a pic of the africanized bees?

We have some honey bee types here right now that are about an inch or more long and very bulky. Scary. Not at all like normal honeybees.

[jhugenroth]

Originally Posted by tallen

3000 jobs per year at $150-$500 dollars a whack.

I hope they come here.

[jbreazeale]

Wendy, it will be quite a while before Africanized bees hit the Seattle area. One thing I read that is happening is that they are genetically the same as the European bee, and that domestic and Acrican bees are interbreeding. The resulting offspring take on the aggressive instincts. They are making their way along the southern band, and will reach us (too) soon here in Mis'sip'i, if they aren't here already. They tend to like the warmer weather.

[rhumphries]

Originally Posted by wforsyth

Do you have a pic of the africanized bees?

We have some honey bee types here right now that are about an inch or more long and very bulky. Scary. Not at all like normal honeybees.

Africanized bees don't look any different than Euro/American (common) honey bees because they are honey bees. Some bee farmers even use Africanized bees to produce commercial honey. As for their venom toxicity, it's really not all that different than common honey bees. There are, in fact, varieties of honey bees whose venom is more toxic than the Africanized varieties. Nonetheless, the primary factor that distinguished the Africanized variety from its common cousin is the size of the swarm. The larger the swarm, the more "guard bees". The more "guard bees", the greater the tendancy for attacks. Also, the "alarm zone" of an Africanized colony is much larger because it is proportionate to the size of the nest/hive. Because the alarm zone is so much greater than that of a common honey bee nest/hive, it is commonly believed that Africanized bees seek out people to attack when, in truth, people just get too close to a very large nest/hive that has a huge alarm zone.

Big, bulky bees that look like honey bees are often "bumble bees". This class could include carpenter bees, too, though the "carpenter" variety claims more black colorization than yellow.

True Bumble Bee:
http://www.warleambees.org/Images/bumble%20bee.jpeg

Carpenter Bee:
http://www.oznet.k-state.edu/hfrr/Ho...%20Bee%202.jpg

Africanized Bees:
http://www.uni.uiuc.edu/~stone2/africanbee1%202.jpg

Common Honey Bee:
http://www.physorg.com/newman/gfx/news/1-bee.jpg


And if you are attacked by Africanized bees, don't run and swat at them. They will follow the smell of your breath, and flailing arms make for an easy visual target. If you can submerge yourself in water, do it because bees can drown, too. If you can't, then drop to the ground and begin rolling back-and-forth to crush as many as you can. Believe it or not, crushed bees produce a "death odor" that warns other bees of danger (its a chemical signal that they produce when alive, but rolling over them will force the chemical out). The more aggressive of your attackers may stick around to finish the fight, but most will leave you alone after getting a whiff of their dead comrades.


-R-

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