Swarm died on side of house

[Shawn]

I got 4 calls today for swarms. 2 of them are actually in the exterior walls of two different houses. 1 swarm we were able to collect. The last swarm I called the lady and she was telling me some very strange things. She said the bees actually landed on her house last night. SHe told me she took a can of spray to spray the bees and when she approached the swarm she noticed things falling off the wall. The lady thought the bees were digging out the wall. The lady said she looked better and sall the clumps falling off were actually dead bees. SHe said most of the bees fell off the wall to the ground and were dead. SHe told me she sprayed the remaining bees and but today there were more flying around.

My question is if she did not spray them first and the bees were falling off in clumps what would cause this?

[JP]

Someone most likely sprayed them: a neighbor, a relative, the lawn guy, the mail man...


...JP

[Shawn]

Thanks Jp. Someone told the lady the bees "exploded" from not off loading the honey. They told her the bees eat all the honey from the old hive and only have some much time to get rid of the honey before they explode. Its amazing how many people out there know little about bees. The lady did want to know more about bees so I answered all her questions. She said next time she'll call me before she calls anyone else.

[JP]

If they did get a hold of fermented honey that could kill them.


...JP

[hardwood]

Sounds like they were sprayed to me too. You'd be surprised at how many calls I've gotten recently where the bees had obviously been sprayed but the people (feeling guilty about it) denied everything.

Scott

[Rebel Rose Apiary]

YEs, I know what you mean....those good folks tyy spraying first and then usually panic afterwards, since there are still live KILLER bees flying around and then want us to clean up their big messes.

I had one nice lady that had swarms in four of her wondows at one time.....that is what she told me anyways....as I never got to see them....her big, macho son come to see her, sprayed the bees and then had the 'whatever' to have her call me back and say that he had 'done most of the work for me already' and wanted me to remove the rest of the bees......

The other one was a swarm at a school ball field and the big burly know it all coach sprayed the bees before I got there....I got another call and they said that the bees were not in a swarm cluster anymore, but they were now crawling all over the place and could I still remove all of them before they had a ball game....?????

Brenda

[AllenF]

Tell them you can vac up the dead bees, but the price is going to be real high, and it has to be cash.  You could use a new shop vac right?