Honeybees and Pool Water

[sunlove]

Good idea! I wonder if this works with yellow jackets also. Usually I just try to drown them in the net, but they take forever to drown. I think the yellow jackets have scared off all our honey bees because I don't see them any more

[PBLsQuad450]

I mostly use my flat net and I scoop out yellow jackets, turn it upside down over top of them and step on them (unless I am barefoot, then I use the edge of my always near badminton raquet). They don't seem to come in the constant numbers the honeybees do. And, it was the talk around here that honeybees were nearly gone, then they just all of a sudden came back in healthy numbers? Cool.

[aylad]

This method works pretty well with horseflies, too--and they're easier to hit

[Watermom]

This method works pretty well with horseflies, too--and they're easier to hit

I HATE horseflies! Thankfully, we seldom see any but when we do, it makes me not want to be in my pool. Those suckers bite!!

[aylad]

Those suckers bite!!

Not after you hit them with a badminton racquet!!

Jan

[kjh9835]

Well I have them in droves. I killed a few at first thinking they'd get the idea not to come back. I hold them under water for 90 seconds and flip them out dead. In the last 3 days, I've killed more than 200!!!! I can't even enjoy my pool for fear of getting stung. Read online about spearmint, thyme, eucalyptus (sp?). Too late to plant anything, it would die anyway without waterering everyday and I doubt pool water would be acceptable. I now spend an hour a day just trying to keep my landscaping alive so next year I guess I'll plant some and see what happens, another 15 mins watering with the hose is no big deal if I can use my pool afterwards.

With nothing else on hand, I rubbed the top edge of my AG pool with Vicks Liquid/Oil (like you put in vaporizers). It worked for an hour then I had to wet it down. Of course its now IN the pool also but very diluted. I don't care if it ruins my liner as I plan to go bigger/better next year (this is 3rd yr for this one). Today I sprayed it mixed with water just around the outside edge of the pool, didn't do anything. I also tried furniture polish made with orange oil just on the metal parts, nothing.

I have no trouble with wasps as I hung my own homemade "waspinator" on the edge of the garage. It looks like a nest and they are territorial so they left early in the Spring and haven't returned.

My neighbor is a quarter mile away, bigger AG pool with newly added deck this year. He has not had any bees using his pool as a watering hole so why mine? Alternative source didn't help either. I am way out in the country and the river is not even 1/2 mile away. I have no idea where the nest/hive might be as we are surrounded by trees.

Any suggestions?

kjh9835

[CarlD]

Yellow jackets can respond to their members being killed by swarming. I wouldn't recommend the racket method for them. Instead, spray their nest. If it's overhead a spray liquid is best, if in the ground, foaming spray works great. Or, for a natural solution, invite a skunk to dig up the nest. Skunks' opinion of yellow jackets is the same of a kid's about ice cream on a hot day! They love to eat them!

Then you have to deal with skunk removal, but, Hey! no solution's perfect....