Last year was an epic for us as we moved from our property in Turkey which we had lived for five years to start our new life here in BG. Several renovations have taken place including the removal of a chimney which to our surprise housed a family of bees and the queen bee of course, the local bee keeper came and took them all away for us. A year later and we have found that the bees are back and the queen bee appears to be in the middle of a dry lined wall which forms part of our kitchen.

So out I go with the bucket of cement yesterday and had nearly finished when one of the bees became agitated and decided to sting me, I have just come back from having another go at the wall and guess what . . . two stings this time. What do I do to keep them away and forget where the queen is living??

PS: My hand is in pain now!! Poor soul!! I'm a man, I can't take pain!!

Personally I think, apart from getting them removed/killed, you are going to have to remove the section of dry-lining to be able to remove all of the nest or/and any honey that they may have left behind.

I don't know what would happen if you just left it to rot, or maybe other creepy-crawlies inside the wall would take care of it for you.

OH dear me that stings. The bees need a new home they are attacking you as you are attacking them. Get the local bee man cut the wall and remove them Life will not exist for the world of nature with out those bees your wall can be replaced and to many stings on your hand or any where else could kill you.
Please do the best thing for every one and every thing remove the wall phone the bee man

chrissybg wrote:

OH dear me that stings. The bees need a new home they are attacking you as you are attacking them. Get the local bee man cut the wall and remove them Life will not exist for the world of nature with out those bees your wall can be replaced and to many stings on your hand or any where else could kill you.
Please do the best thing for every one and every thing remove the wall phone the bee man

Agree with Chrissby 'give him a buzz

oddball wrote:

chrissybg wrote:

OH dear me that stings. The bees need a new home they are attacking you as you are attacking them. Get the local bee man cut the wall and remove them Life will not exist for the world of nature with out those bees your wall can be replaced and to many stings on your hand or any where else could kill you.
Please do the best thing for every one and every thing remove the wall phone the bee man

Agree with Chrissby 'give him a buzz

Me too, the bees need all the help they can get, and we need the bees to pollinate our food.

We are very much like all of you, any insect that has entered our house and is sitting looking at us from the wall, the floor, the hand basin, the ceiling over our bed or in the toilet is shown the door with great kindness and deposited back into it's natural environment . . . the garden. But hang on a minute you lot, we took a chimney down to get rid of them last year and now you expect me to half demolish my precious kitchen to get them out.

Some things are possible, but my priorities, my energy, my agenda and my finances only go so far and knocking my wall apart with the kitchen in smitherines and then finding that they have entered the house again next year somewhere else is not something I would be looking forward to expecting.

Cement is a far easier alternative and much cheaper, sorry bees, the end is nigh, unless you can think of another way to get them out!!

OK i am sorry how about a 2 inch hole and smoke them out Please

Use smoke..it makes the bees very compliant whilst you are working to fill the gaps. Beekeepers use it when they are collecting the honeycomb..your local man will have a smoke puffer and tell you how to use it.

On a serious note and personally I have in the past used one of those aerosol cans of polystyrene when my mothers flat roof on her kitchen got invaded by wasps but the main problem was they started to find their way down the wall cavity and one or two of them came out from beneath the sink unit which was about 8 feet away, unfortunately taking of the flat roof was just not a option and even in years to follow the wasps that were not at home at the time flew elsewhere when they arrived back and found their passage blocked.

But,
How about maybe trying to drive them away back the way they came into the wall, maybe with something like some sort of motor vibrating badly against the wall.

Or some sort of smell which could be injected into the wall without making too much damage.

So the thing is to find out what the bees don't like!

Get them safely removed first, then block all the gaps and holes.

Many thanks for all your useful comments and as a result of such and a short consultation with Annette I have decided on the following:

Tomorrow will see me sitting in front of the said wall wearing a close fitting jacket with neck turned up and long tight fitting trousers, I will also be wearing one of Annette's old tights on my head and frantically smoking three Marlboro cigarettes at the same time whilst knocking a two inch hole in the wall. This will be quickly followed by a gentle squeezing of the aerosol can containing polystyrene into the wall and within seconds me running for cover to the safety of our front door!!

That should do nicely!!!

Itchy, we obviously know you are joking, but just a word of warning 'should you ever need it' DO NOT wear tight fitting clothes because if you do the sting can then still go through the clothing and you still get stung, so baggy clothes are the order of the day, even wearing a nice big jumper with your thumbs pushed through the cuffs to stop the sleeves riding up and to protect your wrists.

As for the 2"
hole, that would not be required, (so no over-dressing required) just a hole about 10mm or just the size of the tube that comes with the aerosol.

The dead of night is the time!! Yes, that is when it is done, Bernard has come to my aid yet again and advised on ridding myself of the bees. It has to be attempted after nught falls and lit tapers are placed within the wall through the gaps in the rocks. What happens to the bees is not known by us, but they are gone in the morning. So tonight will be interesting with Bernard directing operations!!

stay well clear of the bees, they will be angry. i have just had my first bee sting ever while watering and it hurts .

starlite wrote:

stay well clear of the bees, they will be angry. i have just had my first bee sting ever while watering and it hurts .

Good advice I had a bee sting last year. Luckily Dougie was driving something flew in the window and landed on my face and stung me it was so painful I was in tears I did not know what happened, never heard or saw it. My face came up like a balloon and I was in pain for ages too.