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Any honey bee people here?
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drscope
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 13, 2014 5:33 pm    Post subject: Any honey bee people here? Reply with quote

I live in the Mid Atlantic area and its been a pretty difficult winter. Lots of snow and prolonged temps near or below freezing.

Yesterday was very mild and it was actually warm outside, but in the late afternoon another front moved in and it got really windy and temps dropped back below freezing.

This afternoon I spent a couple hours in the kitchen baking bread and preparing dinner. It got a little warmer in there then the rest of the house.

When the wife got home we had dinner in the kitchen. During our meal we had a small honey bee flying around in the kitchen. He wasn’t navigating too well and would drop and disappear for a few minutes before showing up again. This got us to thinking about where the heck he came from.

Then we noticed we had two. Then three. And after about 30 minutes or so we had nearly a dozen of these guys walking and flying around in the kitchen.

So where did they come from? And how did they get to where ever they came from?

I’ve always been under the impression that they build a hive and lay their eggs in the hive during the summer months. But these guys look as if they are small and very young. So where and how do they survive the cold winter months? And where do multiple bees come from?

Are these newly hatched? Or are they simply immature bees that have been sleeping all winter?

And what do I do with these guys now? I’m not real happy about having them in the house and it probably isn’t a good place for them to be but its below freezing outside and I don’t think that’s a good place for them right now either.
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Lidpainter
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 13, 2014 5:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

When I lived in Maine I had a similar experience. I brought in some firewood that was piled outside and piled it in the mudroom to thaw and dry. Later that night I had several bees flying around in there. Did you bring anything into the house that day like a box or whatever?
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 13, 2014 7:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

We live a little SW of Baltimore, so have seen the same weather pattern.

In earlier years we have gotten bees-nests in our house, where they find small gaps in the cedar siding near the foundation... From one of the nests, we'd find stragglers in the basement. If they got that lost, they generally died off on their own - they were pretty dusty/dirty when I found them... So it was probably a long path to get into the house, from the place in the framing where the nest was.

We like bees, if they're nesting in the fences or trees or whatever... But draw the line at bees nesting in the house, or carpenter bees in any structures I built... So chemical attack, applied from the outside, in those cases... And then that awful-sticky expanding foam (Great Stuff?) to re-seal, so they don't re-establish a colony.

Your bees probably thought it was a good time to come out of hibernation, and inside seemed like a better choice than outside when given that choice.

One thought: We've also found wasps-nests in the oven fan vent - those little springs to close the door when the fan isn't on, aren't too effective... Put a coarse screen over the vent exit (cut-out piece of gutter screen) to keep them from re-establishing a nest there... When we don't use the vent (winter), I put some aluminum foil under the screen above the range, also. Another likely point of entry would be wall penetrations around the cabinets - for instance, under the sink.

No good suggestions from us, though, for what to do in the current weather pattern. Will ultimately be correctable when you see where they emerge from on the outside, but that may not be for a little while...
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drscope
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 13, 2014 7:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Lidpainter wrote:
When I lived in Maine I had a similar experience. I brought in some firewood that was piled outside and piled it in the mudroom to thaw and dry. Later that night I had several bees flying around in there. Did you bring anything into the house that day like a box or whatever?


Only the cat. I worked at home and didn't go out all day - its cold! And the wife didn't bring anything in when she came home.
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drscope
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 22, 2014 5:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Nobody? We're still getting about a dozen of these little guys every afternoon/evening.

And still no idea where they are coming from. Don't seem to have them anyplace else in the house, just the kitchen.

Fortunately the weather has warmed up a bunch so I don't feel so bad about tossing them outside. (felt kind of guilty when there was a foot of snow on the ground last week)

Just thought maybe someone would know more about the life cycle of the honey bee and why we are getting these little guys now.
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 23, 2014 5:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

drscope wrote:
Nobody? We're still getting about a dozen of these little guys every afternoon/evening.

And still no idea where they are coming from. Don't seem to have them anyplace else in the house, just the kitchen.

Fortunately the weather has warmed up a bunch so I don't feel so bad about tossing them outside. (felt kind of guilty when there was a foot of snow on the ground last week)

Just thought maybe someone would know more about the life cycle of the honey bee and why we are getting these little guys now.



I'd say they've already got a nest established, since this wasn't a one time event. Weather permitting, start checking the exterior walls of the kitchen, there has to be an access point-from last summer. Moderating temps and more sunshine, plus the furnace, etc. being on is warming them up. Does one of your kitchen walls get more sunshine than the rest? I'd start there. Plug the hole and keep "booting" the intruders.


I try not to kill them, since "good bees," populations have been declining in recent years, due to mites, pestisides, ect., but sometimes there is no other choice. One year we had them making nests in the entrances of lil mole holes (in the ground) near the house, sure caused an uproar whenever we mowed the grass! They also were getting in where a cable was strung into the house another year.


You might also check with a local bee keeper or exterminator, to ask your questions or see if there's a humane way to get them to move along.
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drscope
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 23, 2014 2:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

It seems as if these are new borns. They are small and the ones the cat plays with don't seem to know about stinging yet. But there are also some larger ones which may be a day or so older, still gentle.

If they were anything other then honey bees we would have been squashing them, but with the trouble the colonies are seeing these days I don't want to do that.

Unless it turns into a major problem I'm not interested in any sort of kill off to make them go away.

For now I just continue to take them outside and give them a push. Fortunately as far as I know we don't have Africanized bees up here yet.
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 23, 2014 2:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

drscope wrote:
It seems as if these are new borns. They are small and the ones the cat plays with don't seem to know about stinging yet. But there are also some larger ones which may be a day or so older, still gentle.

If they were anything other then honey bees we would have been squashing them, but with the trouble the colonies are seeing these days I don't want to do that.

Unless it turns into a major problem I'm not interested in any sort of kill off to make them go away.

For now I just continue to take them outside and give them a push. Fortunately as far as I know we don't have Africanized bees up here yet.



Yes, we generally do the catch and release with both the honey bees and the big ol' bumble bees as well. We, however, haven't had that problem in this kind of weather... The summer they were nesting in the mole holes near the house, made walking that path and mowing the area... interesting, but thankfully, they finally moved on. Too much hubbub for them, I think.


Hopefully you're not just playing "revolving door catch and release,"
where the ones you're setting free are simply finding their way back in.... and repeat. Wink That could get monotonous! Laughing


Good Luck!
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 23, 2014 4:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Can't tell you specific about honeybees, but like all insects and the like they are becoming active due to warmer weather/season changes. Due to it still being chilly, they may be acting clumsy/stupid, but you likely see them as the temperature rises during the day. Give it a few weeks and they'll be gone. With me its bumble bees and they come in through the dryer vent (backroom of the house) and are attracted to the warmth of the ceiling fan light in the same room see them around 10am. An annoyance, but unless you have swarms, they should be gone soon. Of course I will have to put up with wood bees shortly as well.
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 24, 2014 6:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I get wasp nests up in the attic of my garage each summer. There’s lots of places for them to get in up there and I guess they really like the heat.

Strange situation with them is it usually starts with 1 wasp who begins building the nest. Then as the nest starts to get a little bigger another wasp shows up to help. Once the nest is about 3” across it is full of eggs and is covered on the outside by 50 to 100 wasps.

If left alone, the eggs hatch and then after a couple days once all the babies have left home the rest of them move on and leave behind an empty nest.

But we never see the wasps in the late winter or early spring, we only start to see them in early summer. And again that usually starts with just one wasp.

So this daily dose of 10 or so honey bees this early is sort of unusual for us, but I don;t know anything about their life cycle.

Hopefully many of the ones we have sent outside will survive despite being put out in a foot of snow. It’s been nice here during the day for the last week, but today the temps are back below freezing.
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 24, 2014 7:11 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I had a similar thing only with flies. We had a warm snap a few weeks ago and I had a bunch of flies appear trapped between the window and the storm window. Drove the cats nuts swatting at these untouchable flies. I too wondered where they came from. Anyone remember in school learning about science and how people believed in 'spontaneous generation.' I can see how that makes more visual sense and why people believed that.
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 24, 2014 9:57 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I use WD-40 on the wasps outside when necessary & OFF! insect repellent for sugar ants in the kitchen. Twisted Evil
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drscope
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 24, 2014 11:02 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I don’t want to kill these things. At least not yet. They aren’t stinging or causing any problem other then annoying the cat that can’t reach them when they are way up high.

But Mike, for sugar ants in the kitchen I make up a syrup of sugar and water and then add in a little Boric Acid. I usually put a couple 2 inch squares of aluminum foil or waxed paper around where they frequent and then just a few drops of the syrup on the foil. Within 24 to 48 hours ALL your ants will be gone!

Once they find the stuff they all line up around the drop like cars on a used car lot! Next day you may have a few stragglers but after that the problem is solved until at least the following ant season.
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