Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back here in the garden with Ron Wilson again
that toll free number eight hundred eight two three eight
two five five, talking to you yarding on this Memorial weekend.
And it's time to get another update from our queen Bee.
That would be are you ready, Barbe Blecher? Shut down?
(00:26):
You're kind of slow, still can't see. They can't see.
The lights are out here in the in the studio,
so they can't see very well. So's happy.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
The sun is out.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Not here yet, Well, yeah, I kind of see it
is coming up. Yes, well the sun's out. Yell. Yeah,
we can't see very well because you can't see anyway.
Talk about Barbie Butcher. Of course, she has been working
with us for years and years and years as our
queen Bee, our be expert, keeping us updated on what
we should do to keep those bees and pollinators happy
out there. And of course Barbie, the big story this
(00:58):
year so far has been the loss of millions and
millions of honeybees. And just thought we'd get twofold today.
One is an update of what you've heard so far
to date. And then secondly, it is swarm season and
how do we handle that? So let's start out First
of all, what have you found out so far with
(01:18):
a huge B loss.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
There's no news yet, but there's no more losses, so
I guess that's the good thing. So they're up to
one point six million is the official total losses. And
this is a commercial beekeepers who usually do not lose
a lot of colonies. I mean, they still lose colonies,
(01:41):
but this is significant. This is the worst recorded loss
even since the Conic collapse occurred back in the mid nineties.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
So the news, yeah, so the news of the fact
that there was the huge b loss, but since then
it's been recovery, recovery, recovery, and no losses. That's at
least a good sign that it's not something that's continuing
on causing problems.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
The bad part, I mean it's all bad, But the
bad part is that the loss has occurred before the
pollination of almonds. So the very time that we need
the most almonds, the most colonies to pollinate almonds, they
didn't have them. So instead of having you're supposed to
(02:32):
have two colonies of bees per acre of almond, they
only had one colony of bees per three acres of almonds.
So and then now we're going into blueberries and apples
our necks probably and they just don't have the bees,
so I mean, you can't. We can make splits. So
(02:55):
the problem with beekeepers were our own worst enemies because
we can make splits of our colonies. So instead of
you know, starting out with ten colonies in the spring
and making splits and increasing, we'll have ten in the fall,
five of them die and we can make splits to
go back up to ten or fifteen or whatever. But
(03:18):
we don't. We're not really making increases because we lose
so many colonies every year.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
So it's just much more difficult for beekeepers to be
able to catch up and actually get ahead because it
takes c really all season so season to get a
colony build up like it was in the fall, and
you've lost that pollination, you've lost your income from the pollination,
and you don't get a honey crop because it takes
(03:47):
pretty much all year for a colony to be strong
enough to bring in a lot of honey.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
So we need to keep this major b loss in
mind in the future when we're looking at all and
the availability and prices any bee products that you know,
obviously the honey and the pollen and things like that
that are produced from the bees if that's not available,
plus the pricing, remember again what happened, and it takes
(04:16):
a while for that to recover. So are you saying, like,
by the end of this year, will we have recovered
from the million be loss one point six million or
does does that happen over time?
Speaker 2 (04:28):
I don't think that commercial beekeepers will ever really recover
from that, okay, because they've lost a year of income. Right,
So there are stories that you know, a beekeeper, a
commercial beekeeper took a truckload of bees down in the pollination.
By the time we got down there the cold call,
the whole truck was full of dead hives. So you know,
(04:50):
hopefully they have enough collateral that they can build back
up again. But they've lost a year of income. So
you know, some some and make up for that. Some
of them probably can't.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Wow, what a hit. Talking with Barb, we'll let your
she is our queen Bee, and she's our retired state
APRS by the way, and an entomologist as well, so
she knows her bees. Thus the name Barb B and
our Queen Bee. So a lot of folks are scrambling
so and it just take for instance, in the state
of Ohio, we wound up, what did you say our
(05:26):
losses were for this year reported losses, we're.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
About sixty percent loss. Maybe maybe a little less than that,
maybe a fifty percent loss. We're not as bad as
some of the other states. We do have some commercial
beekeepers who lost significant number of colonies.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Wow, and again, and that's and of course these numbers
come from commercial producers, so that because you're actually able
to see your hives and count them and et cetera,
et cetera. So that's where these numbers come from. So again,
a normal loss, if refreshed my memory, thirty percent.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Yeah, ideally, you know, back back before we had all
these past before we had the vermite and all that
we had, a ten percent loss was was normal. Then
it went up to about a thirty percent loss. We
can probably tolerate even a forty percent loss, but when
(06:26):
it gets up to fifty sixty percent, you know we're
going backwards. So we're not we're not able to keep
up and grow. We all we're doing is making up
for losses.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Did you buy a chance? He where the reply? I
saw the report last week, gentlemen, I guess it was
in Texas, was stung to death by he's it was
a bee keeper. Of course, I got two or three
emails about you know, is ask Barbie, is that again?
Speaker 3 (06:53):
You know?
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Is that possibly that's going to happen, you know here
in Ohio? And I guess from what I was under
that that they weren't regular or bees, right.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Well, these stories get so exaggerated. We had a case
a couple of years ago where a kid climbed a
tree and he cut off a limb that was full
of bees and he was really badly stung. And they said, well,
they're Africanized bees, and they weren't. He just he tied
himself to the tree so he couldn't fall, you know,
(07:25):
get away, and he had all those bees that he
just cut their limb off. So I think I think
it might be something like that.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
And you don't want to mess with a bee, right,
I mean, you know, I'm joking when I say that.
But they're they're they're they're protecting their home, their their hives.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Yeah, and I didn't find out what the real story was.
I was gonna contact the state apeurist, and I don't know,
time got away from me. But I think there's more
to the story than what we what we read, because
it just doesn't it doesn't sound right.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Yeah, and that's that's why I was That's why I
wouldn't bring it because usually it's there's there's two sides
and there's or more to the story. But that always gets,
you know, folks get into a panic. Because after we
take a break here, we're going to talk about swarming bees,
which can really put folks into a panic, and why
they should not and what they should do and what
about do you if you see that bee flying in
(08:19):
the side of your foundation of your home, should you
be concerned about that as well? Well, Barb Bletcher has
all of our answers after the break here in the
garden with Ron Wilson.
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Speaker 1 (09:52):
Welcome back. You're in the garden with Ron Wilson's special
guests this morning. Barb, we'll let your are Queen Bee
talking about the big b law from this spring and
fortunately it hasn't continued on so that's a good thing.
Whatever it was just happened over the winter, they need.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
To find out so that it doesn't happen, doesn't happen again.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Absolutely, but do keep that in mind. When you can't
find as many almonds out there that you're looking for,
prices go up, or maybe even honey products in the area,
because that's a that is a major hit both for
crop productionerries. They're all going to go up right crop production,
all the beet products. And also do keep that in mind.
(10:34):
It just shows you how important they are to what
we do our daily lives. And that's why it's so
important even more so now for all of us to
be more friendly and pollinator polite in our gardens as well.
So you're looking out in your yard and all of
a sudden, they swarm shows up and your tree, and
you just saw the story on the news from Texas
(10:56):
and now you're scared to death, or maybe you're sitting
at the pad and you see an occasional honeybee go
in the wall of your house and back out again.
Should you panic, Barbie Bletcher.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Don't panic now, do not panic. So if you see
a swarm move into a tree or hopefully not the
side of your house. As soon as they move in,
or preferably before, call a beekeeper and they will gladly
try to get them out. The sooner the better because
once bees have set up housekeeping, you know, and they
(11:32):
are making honey, it's going to be very difficult to
get them out. But when you see those first couple
handfuls of bees, they're exploring a hole. Patch up that hole.
Don't think, well, I'll get to that. Do go out
that minute and patch up that hole. Because those are
what we call scout bees. And so when the colony,
(11:54):
you know, honeybee colonies swarm in the spring, that's a
natural thing that they do to reproduce, just like anse
will swarm in the spring. So they're swarming in the spring.
Basically their house is full and they need to find
a new colony in split. So the old queen is
going to leave with some of her loyal workers and
(12:16):
start a new house somewhere. But before that happens, there
are scalp bees that are looking around trying to find
that new home. So it may be in the grill
of an old car, it could be in the wall
of a building, but they have they're gonna check it
out first. They're check it out to see how big
the hole is, if it's a good size and smell
(12:38):
and all that. Those first bees they go back to
the colony. They tell their sisters and say, come on,
you got to check this out. Then more bees come,
and so there's kind of like a contest going on
in the colony where the different scalt bees all checking
out different places and saying this is the best place,
this is the best place. So the scalp bees that
(13:00):
have the best story, they're the best sales bees. They're
the ones that kind of win that contest. So then
all that that whole swarm will follow those scalp best
because they don't even know where it is. It's just
that first handful of scalp beasts that know where they're going.
So they all follow those scalp bees to that new hole.
So if you see bees flying around, check it out
(13:24):
a hole, plug it up, because that may be a
future home for those bees.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Right, So it's twofold here. First of all, they go
back and tell the story. How are they telling the story?
Speaker 2 (13:36):
They do a waggle dance.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
That's the waggle dance.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Yes, they get all excited, buzz around and tell them
what direction it is compared to the direction of the sun.
And yeah, they do a waggle dance and tell them
where that place is.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
So, if you're playing charades you want a honeybee.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
As your partner, that would definitely be a honey bee
and a partner.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Yeah, I bet you're really good at charades.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Yep, yeah, yeah, I can.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
I can imagine. Seriously, I bet you can. So they
so they do the waggle dance and everybody agrees, uh,
and they say, okay, so we follow them and we
go there, and that's what we make our new nest.
Now what now? And that's if I'm seeing this happening
right now, how do I know there isn't already a nest,
(14:23):
that they were there over the winter and that I
didn't notice it. I mean, is there a point where
I don't plug up that hole because now there's a
chance there could be a nest inside, because once you
get that nest in the wall, that's bad news.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
That's a great that's one hundred thousand dollars question. That's
a great question. So the best way to tell is
just the activity. If you had bees coming and going.
Especially if they're bringing in pollen, you have an established
colony because they're only going to be bringing in pollen
if they have children's feed. So if they're and pollen
(15:00):
on their little crediculous, their little hind legs, you've got
an established colony.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
So now I've got to get a need to get
a little more serious as far as watching them, just
to see what and they're not going to hurt you, don't,
don't worry about don't worry about that. Just stand back
and observe. If you've got a really good cell phone,
like Nina Bagley diesel Pets, some of the pictures she
sends sometimes I can't. I mean, I could count the
(15:27):
amount of pollen that's on the legs of some of
her bees.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
You could count the hairs on their little firm That's unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
That's that's one of the best cell phone cameras I've
ever seen. But anyway, so you know, watch and if
they're actually bringing pollen in, that's a different story. Now,
if they're just going in, checking it out, coming back out, yeah,
then you you've got time to plug that up. But
if they're not, then you probably have a problem. And
if you do suspect that that is the issue, I
(15:55):
need to get a hold of a beekeeper. Correct.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Yeah, Now, if they're in a tree, keep in mind
that the only way to get them out of that
tree is to cut the tree down. So if they're
up high, you know, twelve twenty feet up, just leave
them alone. They're not gonna hurt anybody. They can live
up there in harmony with nature and they're not gonna
bother anybody.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Yes, those you just let them do their thing.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Yeah. In a house, we can take you know, boards
off and potentially get them out, especially if they just
moved in. But a tree, we can't do that. We
would have to cut the tree down.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
You know, I told you and I think I sent
you the emails too of the young lady who was
listening to our show two years ago and had the
bees in the wall, and she went to the I
think it was Central Ohio beekeepers and they recommended her
to the beekeeper who was also a construction guy. Did
the handyman. He was able to take the drywall out,
(16:54):
extract the hive, clean it all out, and then put
the drywall back and paint it over like nothing ever happened.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Yeah, we use a bee back. It's a special vacuum
cleaner that sucks up the bees. But then you have
to cut all that comb out because they've got you know,
you can have a whole foundation, a whole wall of honeycomb.
And if you don't, if you decide to plug up
that hole and not take the bees out, all that
(17:20):
wax is gonna melt, and the honey's gonna melt, and
you're gonna have honey soaked walls, and then you'll have
ants and everybody else that loves honey. So if it's
in your home or a building, you do not want
to just plug up the hole and hope they go away,
because then you have a bigger problem.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
So catch that. If you suspect you have them in
the wall, somebody else needs to take care of it,
because if you plug that up and that just stays there.
Although honey lasts forever, right.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Sort of it does, but it gets hot without the bees, right.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
And so now it's not you keep it cool and
you've got that wax. Not a good thing. So again,
be patient, as Barbara is saying, they're not gonna bother
you just watch, observe and you know, don't panic. They're
not the swarms that are gonna come after you, like
in the news and all of that. Uh, And then
make a decision what needs to be done. But if
you can catch it early, you save yourself a lot
(18:11):
of money and you save the bees as well.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
And one last thing, if you use any kind of insecticide,
just plug up the hole and don't call beekeeper because
it will contamulate our beekeeping equipment. And then you have
other bees that will come in there and take that
insecticide back to their nest. So don't use it insecticide.
But if you do, just plug up the hole, you'll
(18:36):
still have to have somebody come and cut all that
stuff out. But don't take a chance in killing other
people's hives.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
To good, good point, Can I ask you a question
about carpenter bees? Oh yeah, does the queen you know,
obviously the queen has to or the female has to
overwinter somewhere. The males don't overwinter, right, they.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Die the poor man, always have they.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Always they're useless besides mating, and then that's it. Yeah,
buzzing around your face a few times and then taking
up space. So the queen does she would she actually
overwin her in that hole, or does she go somewhere
else and find it.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
So the new queens will overwinter in those holes. The
old queens unfortunately won't make it usually, so.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
They'll stay in the holes that they so they'll stay
in that hole they drilled in your deck over the
winter and then come out. So that's what I'm seeing
come out in very early spring.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Yeah, so you could plug those up with some brillo
steel wall and some cocking compound and they all stay
in hopefully stay in the hole and die, but sometimes they'll.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
Dig another way out liquid nail. I think that's still
one of the best ways to put structure back in
the wood and seals it up at the same time.
Barbie Bletcher, always a pleasure. Great information. We'll get back
with you next month so we've got any more updates
and more b Ee information. Appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
Ron.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
All right, take care Barb, but let you our queen Bee.
And there you go. Another reason why we need to
just really double triple down and do as much as
we can to take care of those bees and those pollinators.
Eight hundred eight two three eight two five five. That's
a number here in the garden with Ron Wilson.
Speaker 4 (20:25):
Landscaping made easier with your personal yard boy. He's in
the garden and he's Ron Wilson.
Welcome back here in the garden with Ron Wilson again
that toll free number eight hundred eight two three eight
two five five, talking to you yarding on this Memorial weekend.
And it's time to get another update from our queen Bee.
That would be are you ready, Barbe Blecher? Shut down?
(00:26):
You're kind of slow, still can't see. They can't see.
The lights are out here in the in the studio,
so they can't see very well. So's happy.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
The sun is out.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Not here yet, Well, yeah, I kind of see it
is coming up. Yes, well the sun's out. Yell. Yeah,
we can't see very well because you can't see anyway.
Talk about Barbie Butcher. Of course, she has been working
with us for years and years and years as our
queen Bee, our be expert, keeping us updated on what
we should do to keep those bees and pollinators happy
out there. And of course Barbie, the big story this
(00:58):
year so far has been the loss of millions and
millions of honeybees. And just thought we'd get twofold today.
One is an update of what you've heard so far
to date. And then secondly, it is swarm season and
how do we handle that? So let's start out First
of all, what have you found out so far with
(01:18):
a huge B loss.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
There's no news yet, but there's no more losses, so
I guess that's the good thing. So they're up to
one point six million is the official total losses. And
this is a commercial beekeepers who usually do not lose
a lot of colonies. I mean, they still lose colonies,
(01:41):
but this is significant. This is the worst recorded loss
even since the Conic collapse occurred back in the mid nineties.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
So the news, yeah, so the news of the fact
that there was the huge b loss, but since then
it's been recovery, recovery, recovery, and no losses. That's at
least a good sign that it's not something that's continuing
on causing problems.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
The bad part, I mean it's all bad, But the
bad part is that the loss has occurred before the
pollination of almonds. So the very time that we need
the most almonds, the most colonies to pollinate almonds, they
didn't have them. So instead of having you're supposed to
(02:32):
have two colonies of bees per acre of almond, they
only had one colony of bees per three acres of almonds.
So and then now we're going into blueberries and apples
our necks probably and they just don't have the bees,
so I mean, you can't. We can make splits. So
(02:55):
the problem with beekeepers were our own worst enemies because
we can make splits of our colonies. So instead of
you know, starting out with ten colonies in the spring
and making splits and increasing, we'll have ten in the fall,
five of them die and we can make splits to
go back up to ten or fifteen or whatever. But
(03:18):
we don't. We're not really making increases because we lose
so many colonies every year.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
So it's just much more difficult for beekeepers to be
able to catch up and actually get ahead because it
takes c really all season so season to get a
colony build up like it was in the fall, and
you've lost that pollination, you've lost your income from the pollination,
and you don't get a honey crop because it takes
(03:47):
pretty much all year for a colony to be strong
enough to bring in a lot of honey.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
So we need to keep this major b loss in
mind in the future when we're looking at all and
the availability and prices any bee products that you know,
obviously the honey and the pollen and things like that
that are produced from the bees if that's not available,
plus the pricing, remember again what happened, and it takes
(04:16):
a while for that to recover. So are you saying, like,
by the end of this year, will we have recovered
from the million be loss one point six million or
does does that happen over time?
Speaker 2 (04:28):
I don't think that commercial beekeepers will ever really recover
from that, okay, because they've lost a year of income. Right,
So there are stories that you know, a beekeeper, a
commercial beekeeper took a truckload of bees down in the pollination.
By the time we got down there the cold call,
the whole truck was full of dead hives. So you know,
(04:50):
hopefully they have enough collateral that they can build back
up again. But they've lost a year of income. So
you know, some some and make up for that. Some
of them probably can't.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Wow, what a hit. Talking with Barb, we'll let your
she is our queen Bee, and she's our retired state
APRS by the way, and an entomologist as well, so
she knows her bees. Thus the name Barb B and
our Queen Bee. So a lot of folks are scrambling
so and it just take for instance, in the state
of Ohio, we wound up, what did you say our
(05:26):
losses were for this year reported losses, we're.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
About sixty percent loss. Maybe maybe a little less than that,
maybe a fifty percent loss. We're not as bad as
some of the other states. We do have some commercial
beekeepers who lost significant number of colonies.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Wow, and again, and that's and of course these numbers
come from commercial producers, so that because you're actually able
to see your hives and count them and et cetera,
et cetera. So that's where these numbers come from. So again,
a normal loss, if refreshed my memory, thirty percent.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Yeah, ideally, you know, back back before we had all
these past before we had the vermite and all that
we had, a ten percent loss was was normal. Then
it went up to about a thirty percent loss. We
can probably tolerate even a forty percent loss, but when
(06:26):
it gets up to fifty sixty percent, you know we're
going backwards. So we're not we're not able to keep
up and grow. We all we're doing is making up
for losses.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Did you buy a chance? He where the reply? I
saw the report last week, gentlemen, I guess it was
in Texas, was stung to death by he's it was
a bee keeper. Of course, I got two or three
emails about you know, is ask Barbie, is that again?
Speaker 3 (06:53):
You know?
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Is that possibly that's going to happen, you know here
in Ohio? And I guess from what I was under
that that they weren't regular or bees, right.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Well, these stories get so exaggerated. We had a case
a couple of years ago where a kid climbed a
tree and he cut off a limb that was full
of bees and he was really badly stung. And they said, well,
they're Africanized bees, and they weren't. He just he tied
himself to the tree so he couldn't fall, you know,
(07:25):
get away, and he had all those bees that he
just cut their limb off. So I think I think
it might be something like that.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
And you don't want to mess with a bee, right,
I mean, you know, I'm joking when I say that.
But they're they're they're they're protecting their home, their their hives.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Yeah, and I didn't find out what the real story was.
I was gonna contact the state apeurist, and I don't know,
time got away from me. But I think there's more
to the story than what we what we read, because
it just doesn't it doesn't sound right.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Yeah, and that's that's why I was That's why I
wouldn't bring it because usually it's there's there's two sides
and there's or more to the story. But that always gets,
you know, folks get into a panic. Because after we
take a break here, we're going to talk about swarming bees,
which can really put folks into a panic, and why
they should not and what they should do and what
about do you if you see that bee flying in
(08:19):
the side of your foundation of your home, should you
be concerned about that as well? Well, Barb Bletcher has
all of our answers after the break here in the
garden with Ron Wilson.
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Speaker 1 (09:52):
Welcome back. You're in the garden with Ron Wilson's special
guests this morning. Barb, we'll let your are Queen Bee
talking about the big b law from this spring and
fortunately it hasn't continued on so that's a good thing.
Whatever it was just happened over the winter, they need.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
To find out so that it doesn't happen, doesn't happen again.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Absolutely, but do keep that in mind. When you can't
find as many almonds out there that you're looking for,
prices go up, or maybe even honey products in the area,
because that's a that is a major hit both for
crop productionerries. They're all going to go up right crop production,
all the beet products. And also do keep that in mind.
(10:34):
It just shows you how important they are to what
we do our daily lives. And that's why it's so
important even more so now for all of us to
be more friendly and pollinator polite in our gardens as well.
So you're looking out in your yard and all of
a sudden, they swarm shows up and your tree, and
you just saw the story on the news from Texas
(10:56):
and now you're scared to death, or maybe you're sitting
at the pad and you see an occasional honeybee go
in the wall of your house and back out again.
Should you panic, Barbie Bletcher.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Don't panic now, do not panic. So if you see
a swarm move into a tree or hopefully not the
side of your house. As soon as they move in,
or preferably before, call a beekeeper and they will gladly
try to get them out. The sooner the better because
once bees have set up housekeeping, you know, and they
(11:32):
are making honey, it's going to be very difficult to
get them out. But when you see those first couple
handfuls of bees, they're exploring a hole. Patch up that hole.
Don't think, well, I'll get to that. Do go out
that minute and patch up that hole. Because those are
what we call scout bees. And so when the colony,
(11:54):
you know, honeybee colonies swarm in the spring, that's a
natural thing that they do to reproduce, just like anse
will swarm in the spring. So they're swarming in the spring.
Basically their house is full and they need to find
a new colony in split. So the old queen is
going to leave with some of her loyal workers and
(12:16):
start a new house somewhere. But before that happens, there
are scalp bees that are looking around trying to find
that new home. So it may be in the grill
of an old car, it could be in the wall
of a building, but they have they're gonna check it
out first. They're check it out to see how big
the hole is, if it's a good size and smell
(12:38):
and all that. Those first bees they go back to
the colony. They tell their sisters and say, come on,
you got to check this out. Then more bees come,
and so there's kind of like a contest going on
in the colony where the different scalt bees all checking
out different places and saying this is the best place,
this is the best place. So the scalp bees that
(13:00):
have the best story, they're the best sales bees. They're
the ones that kind of win that contest. So then
all that that whole swarm will follow those scalp best
because they don't even know where it is. It's just
that first handful of scalp beasts that know where they're going.
So they all follow those scalp bees to that new hole.
So if you see bees flying around, check it out
(13:24):
a hole, plug it up, because that may be a
future home for those bees.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Right, So it's twofold here. First of all, they go
back and tell the story. How are they telling the story?
Speaker 2 (13:36):
They do a waggle dance.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
That's the waggle dance.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Yes, they get all excited, buzz around and tell them
what direction it is compared to the direction of the sun.
And yeah, they do a waggle dance and tell them
where that place is.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
So, if you're playing charades you want a honeybee.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
As your partner, that would definitely be a honey bee
and a partner.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Yeah, I bet you're really good at charades.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Yep, yeah, yeah, I can.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
I can imagine. Seriously, I bet you can. So they
so they do the waggle dance and everybody agrees, uh,
and they say, okay, so we follow them and we
go there, and that's what we make our new nest.
Now what now? And that's if I'm seeing this happening
right now, how do I know there isn't already a nest,
(14:23):
that they were there over the winter and that I
didn't notice it. I mean, is there a point where
I don't plug up that hole because now there's a
chance there could be a nest inside, because once you
get that nest in the wall, that's bad news.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
That's a great that's one hundred thousand dollars question. That's
a great question. So the best way to tell is
just the activity. If you had bees coming and going.
Especially if they're bringing in pollen, you have an established
colony because they're only going to be bringing in pollen
if they have children's feed. So if they're and pollen
(15:00):
on their little crediculous, their little hind legs, you've got
an established colony.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
So now I've got to get a need to get
a little more serious as far as watching them, just
to see what and they're not going to hurt you, don't,
don't worry about don't worry about that. Just stand back
and observe. If you've got a really good cell phone,
like Nina Bagley diesel Pets, some of the pictures she
sends sometimes I can't. I mean, I could count the
(15:27):
amount of pollen that's on the legs of some of
her bees.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
You could count the hairs on their little firm That's unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
That's that's one of the best cell phone cameras I've
ever seen. But anyway, so you know, watch and if
they're actually bringing pollen in, that's a different story. Now,
if they're just going in, checking it out, coming back out, yeah,
then you you've got time to plug that up. But
if they're not, then you probably have a problem. And
if you do suspect that that is the issue, I
(15:55):
need to get a hold of a beekeeper. Correct.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Yeah, Now, if they're in a tree, keep in mind
that the only way to get them out of that
tree is to cut the tree down. So if they're
up high, you know, twelve twenty feet up, just leave
them alone. They're not gonna hurt anybody. They can live
up there in harmony with nature and they're not gonna
bother anybody.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Yes, those you just let them do their thing.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Yeah. In a house, we can take you know, boards
off and potentially get them out, especially if they just
moved in. But a tree, we can't do that. We
would have to cut the tree down.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
You know, I told you and I think I sent
you the emails too of the young lady who was
listening to our show two years ago and had the
bees in the wall, and she went to the I
think it was Central Ohio beekeepers and they recommended her
to the beekeeper who was also a construction guy. Did
the handyman. He was able to take the drywall out,
(16:54):
extract the hive, clean it all out, and then put
the drywall back and paint it over like nothing ever happened.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Yeah, we use a bee back. It's a special vacuum
cleaner that sucks up the bees. But then you have
to cut all that comb out because they've got you know,
you can have a whole foundation, a whole wall of honeycomb.
And if you don't, if you decide to plug up
that hole and not take the bees out, all that
(17:20):
wax is gonna melt, and the honey's gonna melt, and
you're gonna have honey soaked walls, and then you'll have
ants and everybody else that loves honey. So if it's
in your home or a building, you do not want
to just plug up the hole and hope they go away,
because then you have a bigger problem.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
So catch that. If you suspect you have them in
the wall, somebody else needs to take care of it,
because if you plug that up and that just stays there.
Although honey lasts forever, right.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Sort of it does, but it gets hot without the bees, right.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
And so now it's not you keep it cool and
you've got that wax. Not a good thing. So again,
be patient, as Barbara is saying, they're not gonna bother
you just watch, observe and you know, don't panic. They're
not the swarms that are gonna come after you, like
in the news and all of that. Uh, And then
make a decision what needs to be done. But if
you can catch it early, you save yourself a lot
(18:11):
of money and you save the bees as well.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
And one last thing, if you use any kind of insecticide,
just plug up the hole and don't call beekeeper because
it will contamulate our beekeeping equipment. And then you have
other bees that will come in there and take that
insecticide back to their nest. So don't use it insecticide.
But if you do, just plug up the hole, you'll
(18:36):
still have to have somebody come and cut all that
stuff out. But don't take a chance in killing other
people's hives.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
To good, good point, Can I ask you a question
about carpenter bees? Oh yeah, does the queen you know,
obviously the queen has to or the female has to
overwinter somewhere. The males don't overwinter, right, they.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Die the poor man, always have they.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Always they're useless besides mating, and then that's it. Yeah,
buzzing around your face a few times and then taking
up space. So the queen does she would she actually
overwin her in that hole, or does she go somewhere
else and find it.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
So the new queens will overwinter in those holes. The
old queens unfortunately won't make it usually, so.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
They'll stay in the holes that they so they'll stay
in that hole they drilled in your deck over the
winter and then come out. So that's what I'm seeing
come out in very early spring.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Yeah, so you could plug those up with some brillo
steel wall and some cocking compound and they all stay
in hopefully stay in the hole and die, but sometimes they'll.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
Dig another way out liquid nail. I think that's still
one of the best ways to put structure back in
the wood and seals it up at the same time.
Barbie Bletcher, always a pleasure. Great information. We'll get back
with you next month so we've got any more updates
and more b Ee information. Appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
Ron.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
All right, take care Barb, but let you our queen Bee.
And there you go. Another reason why we need to
just really double triple down and do as much as
we can to take care of those bees and those pollinators.
Eight hundred eight two three eight two five five. That's
a number here in the garden with Ron Wilson.
Speaker 4 (20:25):
Landscaping made easier with your personal yard boy. He's in
the garden and he's Ron Wilson.
In The Garden with Ron Wilson News
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