Infestation of bees?

[morellid.per.a...@ohsu.edu]

I have never posted to your group before, but have long enjoyed reading it.
It occurred to me that someone who reads this group may have an answer for me,
as you seem to be experts on "infestations" of many types!

I recently noticed that the entire front of my house is inhabited by some type
of bee - they look a little like wasps, but they are black and shiny. They
don't have the elongated segmented body that wasps usually have - they are
built more like a yellow jacket.

They have found homes in the areas where my horizontal siding laps - if you
look closely, you can see little "caps" of mud at the end of each row of
siding. Some of them are completely plugged - others seem to have a little
hole in them for the critters to go in and out. They are clearly living in
the walls, but I'm not sure how many of them have moved in.

I really dislike using pesticides, but should I call an exterminator? Is this
a problem I can just ignore? Will they damage my house?

I live in the northwest, BTW - a semi-rural area in eastern Clark County,
WA. I'd really appreciate any thoughts on this - thanks in advance.

Karen Whitaker
whit...@ohsu.edu

[larry kollar]

Thus spake Karen Whitaker:

>I recently noticed that the entire front of my house is inhabited by some type

>of bee - they look a little like wasps, but they are black and shiny. [...]

>
>They have found homes in the areas where my horizontal siding laps - if you
>look closely, you can see little "caps" of mud at the end of each row of
>siding. Some of them are completely plugged - others seem to have a little
>hole in them for the critters to go in and out. They are clearly living in
>the walls, but I'm not sure how many of them have moved in.

Aha, the mud caps gave it away. They're a blue-ish black, right?

You have mud daubers (we call 'em "dirt daubers" here). They're a form
of wasp, very mellow though (I've never heard of anyone getting stung
by one). They won't hurt your house, either, unless they bring in enough
mud to pull it down. :-) However, they *do* plug up any hole they can
find that stays in one place for any length of time. Each spring, my
father-in-law has to clean a few mud plugs out of his boat. Ditto for
my motorcycle, unless I keep it covered (then the mice build nests in it).
If they can't find a convenient hole, they make tube-shaped adobe houses
in sheltered areas (near windows & such).

You can get rid of them the same way as any other bug. I keep hoping
that the dirt daubers & carpenter bees will go to war some day... but
carpenter bee holes seem to be the only kind dirt daubers won't plug
up. :-(
--
Larry Kollar, Dawsonville GA | *** Hatred is murder *** (1 Jn 3:15)
leko...@nyx.net | http://www.nyx.net/~lekollar/
"So don't try to turn my head away
Flirtin' with disaster every day"

[James Williams]

leko...@nyx10.cs.du.edu (larry kollar) wrote:

>Thus spake Karen Whitaker:

>>I recently noticed that the entire front of my house is inhabited by some type
>>of bee - they look a little like wasps, but they are black and shiny. [...]
>>

****snip****

>Aha, the mud caps gave it away. They're a blue-ish black, right?

>You have mud daubers (we call 'em "dirt daubers" here). They're a form
>of wasp, very mellow though (I've never heard of anyone getting stung
>by one). They won't hurt your house, either, unless they bring in enough
>mud to pull it down. :-) However, they *do* plug up any hole they can
>find that stays in one place for any length of time.

********snip*********

>Larry Kollar, Dawsonville GA

Yeah. They will also plug up the business end hole of a fire
extinguisher in your garage. Mine are now covered
(The extinguisher, not the wasps.) with a thin (easily torn) plastic
bag attached with a twist tie around the bottle neck!

--Years ago. My brother and I. Grass fire from bottle rocket.
Get the extinguisher!!
OH! *^%$#@!!!!!!!
GET THE GARDEN HOSE!!

James

James & Tina Williams
cj...@tyrell.net
Kansas City, MO
--

[wit...@sullivan.fidnet.com]

l

>You have mud daubers (we call 'em "dirt daubers" here). They're a form
>of wasp, very mellow though (I've never heard of anyone getting stung
>by one). They won't hurt your house, either, unless they bring in enough
>mud to pull it down. :-) However, they *do* plug up any hole they can

>find that stays in one place for any length of time. Each spring, my
>father-in-law has to clean a few mud plugs out of his boat. Ditto for
>my motorcycle, unless I keep it covered (then the mice build nests in it).
>If they can't find a convenient hole, they make tube-shaped adobe houses
>in sheltered areas (near windows & such).

WRONG!! They do sting people. They won't go after you in the same
sense as hornets, but they will sting if they feel threatened. I have
been stug several times by them around our house, which is no fun
because I am deathly allergic to wasps and bumblebees. I have to keep
a healthy supply of my medicated shot that the doctor gives me just so
I can make it to the hospital once I have been stung.

But, YES...they will sting!!

Elaine

[wit...@sullivan.fidnet.com]

[Doug & Rose Miller]

Had to share my own story of dealing with a bumblebee infestation.

We had a colony of bumblebees inhabiting the space above the insulated
ceiling in our well-house. Rose is the expert on pest control, and she said
to use Sevin powder. It is indeed quite deadly to bees -- but only on contact.
Now I could sprinkle some around the exits, and *eventually* they would all
come in contact with it. But Rose is allergic to bee stings, so a quicker method
was called for. Obviously, we must disperse the powder. But how to disperse
it in a quite small and inaccessible space?

Explosives, of course.

Now how to contain the powder until the charge goes off? Hmmm...aa-HAH!
Put two tablespoons of Sevin powder, and a small firecracker, in a tiny paper
bag. Wrapped it up good and tight to make a nice neat package. Drilled a hole
in the ceiling, inserted the package, lit the fuse, stepped outside, and waited....
thud. Nothing. Firecracker went off, but the bag muffled the explosion.

Must be too much paper wrapped around the package to enable the firecracker
to really do its job. What sort of container will hold the stuff, but rupture easily?
Hmmm...a balloon? Nope. Can't get the powder into it -- opening is too narrow.
On the right track, though. Need something similar, but with a wider opening.
Hmmm...aa-HAH! A CONDOM!! Assembled package, inserted it, lit fuse, waited...
BANG!

Looked inside the shed. White dust *everywhere*. Perfect. Bumblebee crawls
through hole. Covered with white powder. Looks like George Washington with
six legs. Can't fly -- sort of spiraled to the ground. Stepped on it.

Then out came another one. Same story. Stepped on it too. Then another.
Forty-two times. End of problem.