Subject: that hive in the roof....

From: [email-masked] (Adrian Graham DENT - Rodent)
Date: Mon, 10 Oct 1994 06:53:25 GMT

I don't know if anyone here remembers, but I posted a while ago about a 
feral hive in the roof of the t.v. room here.  Well, I sent several messages 
to the administration, saying that they should remove it, and that I was 
quite happy to do so (for those of you who recall the original post I 
mention above will know that I was told that I was not allowed to help them 
out, as students are not allowed on the roof) and that I would do it free.  
If they had let me do it, it would have been done probably four or five 
months ago, and would have cost them nothing.  Now they have called and 
told me to stop putting in maintenance cards, because they have the pest 
controllers coming at the end of the week. PEST CONTROLLERS!!!!!! If it was 
another beekeeper, I wouldn't mind, but pest controllers!!!??!!!
It is probably going to cost them hundreds of dollars, involve toxic fumes, 
take a while, and generally endanger peoples lives with angry bees and  
pesticides.  I guess beuracracy is just stupid.
Any one have any ideas about Australian laws concerning the spraying of 
bees??
And would I have any chance with a  restraint of trade suit????
Hmmmm....maybe I should call the R.S.C.P.A.
Adrian.

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From: [email-masked] (Mike Jaquet, SM2, Auburn, CA)
Date: 12 Oct 94 13:32:30 -0800

> pesticides.  I guess beuracracy is just stupid.

Rather than complaining to the administration, perhaps instead you could
educate them.  Write a paper on the proper way of bee removal from a building,
explaining about the brood cycle, how a pesticide only usually works on bees
currently moving about in the hive, how the brood will be hatching out over the
next several weeks necessitating many followup visits from the "pest control"
company, and how the field bees are in the field and mainly unaffected by the
pesticide in the hive because they were in the field at the time.  Also explain
how the residual smell or aroma of the wax and brood and honey and pollen will
continue to attract feral colonies or swarms for some time to come until it is
totally removed.  And then possibly inform them of how an allergic sting
reaction affects some people and how, since they are an institution of higher
education, they should have taken the steps to "properly" eradicate the
"problem".  Then offer to present them with a waiver of liability if they let
you take care of the bees and properly remove them.  And possibly, since you
are "just a lowly student"  in the minds of the administrators, contact a 
local professional beekeeper to supervise your removal of the feral colony.

Either that, or go to work part-time for the pest removal people as their
in-house bee expert.

mike_j2     amateur, hobbiest, small time beekeeper