Subject: Bee Deterrent

From: [email-masked] (Dr David Lauckner)
Date: Wed, 4 May 1994 11:08:39 +0000

I need a bee deterrent!!......strange words from a beekeeper maybe but ...
How can I stop swarming bees coming back to the same place year after year.
The place is my roof and the simple answer is better swarm control...
but nature is a bitch and in each of the last three years I have had the
same problem.  Swarm control for me is based on a divide in May/ unite in July
to go with strong colonies to heather moors in August.
{Potential FAQ entry: Swarm control}
However the season is forced by oilseed rape in early May; so keep colony 
together to maximise harvest, then split before they swarm, having broken
down Q cells during the rape nectar flow. A some point the weather intervenes
preventing the crucial control move. Next fine day and they are on the move at 
just the time you are ready to deal with them. Next thing divorce looms as they move into the roof with exploratory sorties to bedrooms etc. 
I have removed them from the roof space using various spelaeological manoeuvres
and toxins and a vacuum cleaner but the dumb beasts never learn and back they
come next year. (Yes I know that is an illogical statement but so what). 
It has been suggested that I spray the roof space that they go to with creosote
to mask the "bee smell" .  There must be a way to dissuade the scouts from 
believing my roof is the place to go.
Any other suggestions ? Is there a commercially available preparation ?
David 

P.S. Paul, feel free to reply but please remember that many of us are not
organic chemist with laboratory facilities. E-mail may be more fire-resistant !!

--
Dr David Lauckner                        Phone: 0670-521212
Wansbeck General Hospital                Fax:   0670-529778
ASHINGTON, Northumberland        e-mail: [email-masked]
United Kingdom.

---

From: [email-masked] (Myron A. Calhoun)
Date: 4 May 94 14:01:27 GMT

[email-masked] (Dr David Lauckner) writes:
>The place is my roof....

Buy a can of "insulating foam" at your local hardware store and use it
to seal the entrances to your attic spaces.  That stuff foams up something
fierce and can be used to plug small and large cracks in houses, holes in
hollow trees, etc.

--Myron.
-- 
# Five boxes preserve our freedoms:  soap, ballot, jury, witness, and cartridge.
# Myron A. Calhoun, PhD EE; Assoc. Professor  (913) 539-4448 home
# INTERNET: [email-masked]                         532-6350 work, 532-7353 fax
#     UUCP: ...rutgers!depot!mac      Packet radio: W0PBV@N0ARY.#NOCAL.CA.USA.NA