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Originally Posted by sorceror
You need to submit this story...
Thank you for the great writting!
I am stil LMFAO.
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Thanks. It's been blogged already.
During my initial bee-sucking venture, I used a length of two-inch PVC pipe as a vacuum extension.
There's another story I can tell about bees - perhaps less humorous, but still interesting:
I once had rather large bee hive take up residence on a wooden sawhorse. It seems an unlikely location, but who knows how their planning committees work. Anyway, the nest was uncomfortably close to where I was working, and during August, bees become quite ornery. I attempted to lasso the sawhorse with a long rope and drag it away. My lasso came loose after I'd moved the nest only about five feet. Of course, a cloud of bees immediately filled the air, but I was at a safe distance. Several hours later, the same cloud of bees was still hovering about. That surprised me, but the next morning was even more surprising. There were no bees at all!
I didn't understand why they all left, but from my perspective the issue had been resolved, so I put the sawhorse back. ...and within a few hours, the hive was active again. Beesnest as usual. Again, I moved the nest. Again, a swarm that lasted until the next day. And then, again nothing. This time I moved the nest half way back - only about two feet. The bees returned, though more slowly this time. That got me curious.
I crept out that night, well after dark and I simply picked up the sawhorse and set it on a sheet of plywood with a rope tied around it. I was quick, and got out of there promptly, but it was easy to do without getting attacked - successfully anyway. (It's hard to tell what's going on at night.) The next day, I slowly drug the sawhorse across the yard about a hundred feet. The sawhorse moved, but the big swarm of bees didn't. The next day, the nest was empty. ...and again, I moved it back and activity resumed.
So bees appear to have pretty good navigation systems. I eventually managed to migrate the entire colony to the other side of my yard, but only at about three feet per day. Very strange.
As for my bee solutions, I like the violent ones. I've simply held garbage bags below a nest and knocked the whole thing into it in the middle of the night. A few manage to escape, but if you're quick, you can trap the majority of them. The dark really seems to slow them down. I've never been stung at night, nor during my daylight capers, but my late night assaults are considerably more brazen.
I thought about simply placing a fan near the opening of a hive to see if I could keep them from getting back in. I've sealed the openings shut before, but they just make new ones. The larger nests often have multiple openings anyway. I've also thought about asphyxiating them with bottled gasses or just car exhaust. Perhaps simply placing an open container of something with noxious and volatile vapors near the opening of the nest would have an effect. I want to try placing a glass container over a nest to see if they can figure out how to go around it. Windows seem to stump them, so I figure they'll keep bumping up against a pane of glass as long as it obstructs the shortest distance between point A and point B.
On another note, I've adopted the term "chemical warfare" to refer to the use of mosquito repellent.