But somehow, I am Responsible.
James E. Tew
Time stands still
Sixteen years ago, in the October 2005, Bee Culture magazine, I wrote an article in which I described how beekeepers unintentionally become insect pest exterminators during the Fall of the year. It’s a job most honey bee keepers do not and should not want. The old article title still works nicely so I used it again – sixteen years later. Nothing has changed. “They are not my bees,” but most people are not burdened by that fact.
Guilty by association
If I were not an entomologist, I probably would not have much interest in typical stinging insects. As such, I feel your mild distaste when spending educational time on wasps and hornets. Insects like these are not our passion. Yeah, they’re interesting, but let’s get back to honey bees. But reader, one way or another – to a greater or lesser extent – you will need to know at the least the basics about stinging insects that are not our beloved honey bees. If nothing else, you will need this information to defend your honey bees when autumn yellowjackets begin to disrupt a picnic outing and honey bees are blamed.
Not because I am special
I am not unique, but I have done the honey bee thing for a long time. As have you, I have acquired many stories that involve stinging insects. For instance, a neighbor phoned and said, “Your bees are coming out of a hole in the ground near play equipment so my kids can’t play there.” Clearly these were not honey bees. I patiently explained that honey bees did not nest in the ground and that these were yellowjackets, and as such, were not my responsibility. My neighbor responded, “Jim, my father was a USDA forester. I know honey bees when I see them!” Well, okay – wow… a USDA forester. (I never really knew why that mattered.)
At this point, reader, you must decide. Are you going to help neighbors with these yellowjackets or are you going to leave them feeling that my bees have threatened their children’s safety? I went to the scene to find yellowjackets – not honey bees – flying from a ground burrow entrance. I sprayed the entrance with a common insect spray and very, very luckily, the colony died. I didn’t try to change my neighbor’s mind.
Dealing with neighbors’ yellowjacket problems
On September 2, 2021, Kim Flottum, former editor of Bee Culture and now Honey Bee Obscura co-host podcaster and I did a segment entitled, Dealing with Neighbors’ Yellowjacket Problems (segment number 37). In this segment, Kim and I were classic Yin and Yang components.
In Ancient Chinese philosophy, yin and yang1 is a concept of dualism, describing how obviously opposite or contrary forces may actually be complementary, interconnected, and interdependent in the natural world, and how they may give rise to each other as they interrelate to one another. I felt that, in general, when one arose, I probably would help my neighbors and family with their stinging insect issue, but Kim was firm in that this was a job for a professional – yin and yang. Though it sounds contrary, as I got my protective gear together for a particular extermination job, I admitted to myself that I completely agreed with Kim. This was actually a job for a trained exterminator. An explanation is needed.
When family calls
Of my three daughters, Robyn, the middle one, gave me a somewhat frantic call during July just passed. Large black bees – but not Bumble bees – had invaded a climbing vine on their front porch. They were vicious bees. My son-in-law, Doug, had already been stung several times. He was in a foul mood. This was clearly an emergency and a job for Super Bee Dad. Honestly, I wasn’t sure what my plan would be for removing this nest. It was in the balustrade around the front porch and near the front door. The nest was entangled in vine branches and twigs, and my daughter was correct. They were big “bees” that buzzed around me with an ominous hum. Need I say that the bees were Bald-faced hornets and not bees at all?
It is important that you know that my daughter’s house is in a new sub-division composed of modern houses positioned very near each other. No secrets in this close community. If a guy is standing in the front yard wearing strange clothes with a hood and probing around the vines, something is clearly ongoing. Kids, adults, and pets all took positions on various front porches or leaning against fence posts to watch the unfolding drama.
While I know a lot about honey bees, I don’t routinely work with hornets – plus now I have an audience. I tried to look authoritative – you know – like I was trying to decide which one of several plans I would employ to save this community from pending danger. (Actually, I was trying to be sure that I would take the fewest number of stings possible and not make a spectacle of myself while doing it.) “After dark,” I decided. “This has to be an after-dark task.” The hornets will all in inside the paper nest. I will gently trim branches and twigs; put the entire nest into a plastic garbage bag and then I will be off to dispose of the nest.
As dusk approached, my family and selected neighbors positioned themselves before the large living room picture window of my daughter’s house where they had an unobstructed view of the playing field. I suited up but decided that a smoker would have limited value. I would frontally attack the nest and be gone.
At this point with stories like this, I should describe some hideous turn of events – some disaster – something that the community would discuss for months to come; yet all went fine. Can you believe it? There were a few anxious moments. When I ever-so-gently touched a branch, the nest immediately hummed, and a few marauders came out to attack. Annoyingly, they seemed to instinctively go for my throat where my veil ties down. I felt like a new beekeeper trying to stay right in the middle of my protective gear and nervously watching the crevice just below my chin. Would they figure out that they could squeeze in at that point? Remember, everyone is watching Robyn’s Dad.
Snip, snip, snip and the nest was free of the vine. Into the bag it went and away I went. Now what? I had previously decided to put the relocated nest in my old abandoned dog house. I mean after all they are hornets – what would bother them? Having never moved a hornet nest before, I went out early the next morning to the hornet dog house only to find hornet death and destruction everywhere. I suppose the assassins were raccoons. The nest didn’t make it one night before being destroyed, but never-the-less, I was still a hero with my daughter. Her porch was once again safe for human habitation. She should have called an exterminator, but I wanted to help.
It was a very personal request
But that long story just recalled was in support of my daughter. It is commonly not family but rather neighbors and friends who request help. Last month in my Bee Culture article, in beleaguered detail, I told you about the passing of my two nearest neighbors – one on each side of my home – two people who had tolerated my bees and me for decades. For all those years, my bees had visited their bird feeders and bird waters, I had retrieved my swarms from their property, and worst of all, my bees – at different times – had stung one of my neighbors as he mowed his lawn. And don’t even go into the topic discussion of fecal spots that plastered their cars. My neighbors have been tolerant of me and my bees – for years.
After my neighbor’s death, in a personal effort to be good, concerned neighbors, my wife and I offered to help the widow in any way possible. Her request was that I do something about the yellowjackets in the wall of her house. She was having frequent visitors, and due to the flight path, she could not have guests on her deck without fear of a sting.
Yes, due to litigious and safety reasons, I should have suggested she contact a pest control operator. That would have been the correct thing to do. The emotional thing to do was for me to try to eliminate the nest. I had offered to help, so help.
The perpetual problem
The predictable problem is that the nest, itself, is not near the entrance. I was just plain lucky when I sprayed the nest for my neighbor whose dad was a USDA forester. However, I was not lucky when I sprayed the nest at the widow’s home. I tried five times. I used an air blower. I changed pesticides. I tried everything I knew, but clearly, I was not getting the pesticide to the nest, but only to the nest entrance. The nest was damaged but survived.
The heart of what I am trying to say
Rarely, should beekeepers be stinging insect pest exterminators, but even so, we beekeepers are frequently asked to do the job. In some instances, even exterminators do not want the work. The saddest part of this explanation is that so many times, the nest does not even need to be killed. It needs to be left alone. But we all know the public’s perception of stinging insects. Even in quiet retirement, I estimate that once a week, I get notice from someone describing their insect sting allergy. Once the nest is found, much like finding a snake or a spider, something must be done. It’s urgent. I’m allergic.
I have reluctantly killed beautiful hornet’s nests that could just barely be reached from a tall ladder – stinging insects that would – most likely – have never been a problem, but the Fall leaves had dropped, and the nest was suddenly exposed. It had to go. It’s perceived danger.
The beekeeper is in a community-minded quandary. I know that some people are just a click away from complaining or being concerned about honey bee stings. Anything that I can do as a beekeeper to forestall that complaint would be a good thing. The beekeeper wants to be appreciated as a community/family asset.
So, after dark, I have fallen from ladders – twice – while trying to remove hornet nests that had not been a problem to anyone. I have been stung by bumble bees coming from the wall of a neighbor house as I tried to find their entrance. I have been stung by yellowjackets and paper wasps too many times to count. (Oddly, I have never been stung by a carpenter bee – an insect neighbors love to hate.) Even after all of this, it can really get complicated.
In still another extermination instance, after trying – and failing – to kill yellowjackets, I got a call from the homeowner that the insects were now in the house. The situation had escalated from annoying to urgent. The season changes and the temperature drops, the insects pull back farther into the wall cavity as they follow streams of household heat. The population is large and now deep into the house cavity. They find an entrance to the inside by following both heat and light streams. Boom! They are in the house and are disoriented – as are the human residents. It was not a result of me trying to kill the nest from the outside, but from the seasonal change, that caused them to move inside. But now, the stinging insects in the house have become my problem.
Once the insects are inside, the solution is simple. Turn off all lights and allow light to come in a closed window. When the insects go the window pane to escape, whack them with a flyswatter. Easy call, but time consuming. Messy.
I warned you
In the opening paragraph to this article, I said, “…sixteen years later. Nothing has changed.” When it comes to exterminating stinging insects, as a beekeeper, you have the necessary protective gear, and you have familiarity with stinging honey bees. But now you are using insecticides and possibly you are on a ladder. You are agitating stinging insects while bystanders depend on you to finish the job safely. You want to the be good guy, but each extermination job is unique. Some are easy while some are never won.
Bluntly, when we kill these insects, we are frequently killing insects that would normally be considered beneficial. The seasonal change will naturally kill the insects. The problem will resolve itself, but – and it’s a big but – the homeowner or the family member or a church associate – whomever – they want it done now. There will be pleas to help. You must decide what are you going to do? It will be your call, and you won’t make the same call every time. If you keep honey bees long enough, a call will come.
Stinging insect information
There is a copious amount of information on the web concerning stinging insects – much of it from pest control companies. Even so, I came across two pretty good general sources at:
https://camp-joy.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Bees-and-Wasps-of-Ohio-Guide.pdf
https://www.maine.gov/dacf/php/gotpests/bugs/factsheets/wasps-bees-col.pdf
Dr. James E. Tew, Emeritus Faculty, Entomology, The Ohio State University and One Tew Bee, LLC
tewbee2@gmail.com
http://www.honeybeeobscura.com
https://youtu.be/GA-VI-6xOtU
