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Author Topic: Help with bald faced hornet!!!  (Read 8749 times)

Offline annette

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Help with bald faced hornet!!!
« on: August 10, 2007, 11:08:11 pm »
The bald faced hornets are lurking around my beehives lately. The girls are out early in the morning hanging off the entrance and watching for these hornets which have been flying around lately. I found one dead hornet on the ground in front of one hive and watched another hornet being attacked by my girls on the entrance. It seems to be just one hornet at a time right now.

I also watched this evening as a hornet harrassed my bees at the drinking pond.

So how bad is this??? Will it always be just one hornet at a time??? Will the hornets come back with an army??

What do I need to do??? I have read about the use of beer, but where do you place it and what do you place it in???

Help Please!!! How serious is this. I do not remember this happening last year at all.
Annette

Offline abejaruco

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Re: Help with bald faced hornet!!!
« Reply #1 on: August 11, 2007, 02:42:14 am »
I think that is a tolerable sacrifice.
Hornest will not come back with an army. Your wasps are not from Japan, I suppouse.

Offline tillie

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Re: Help with bald faced hornet!!!
« Reply #2 on: August 11, 2007, 09:50:58 am »
They feed on my bees daily.  I wish I could do something about it but it's part of the circle of life.  I do hate to see them swoop down, grab a bee and carry her off.  They do only come one at a time, so I don't fear an army and don't think that will happen to you either.  The good news is that they feed on yellow jackets and other insects as well so they are not only eating bees.

Linda T in Atlanta

Offline Understudy

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Re: Help with bald faced hornet!!!
« Reply #3 on: August 11, 2007, 10:45:40 am »
Unless you know where the nest is there is not much you can do. As mentioned earlier this is part of the circle of life.


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Brendhan
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Offline Cindi

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Re: Help with bald faced hornet!!!
« Reply #4 on: August 11, 2007, 01:12:46 pm »
Annette.  I have a war with the bald faced hornets and the yellowjackets, I cannot stand either of these, and they afflict the hive.  I have made a few posts on issues with these.  I am not going to retype stuff, but if you want to read more, do a search on our forum, there has been quite a lot of talk.

I have in place around my apiary "wasp traps".  Yes, I use beer, the cheapest beer that I can find.  The wasps (and flies) do not have discerning tastebuds like I do  :).  The beer traps work.  I have killed many of the hideous and enormous bald faced hornets already, along with many yellow jackets.  I know they go to the traps before they head into my colonies.

I would go out and spend a few dollars on wasp traps, they are a little bit costly, but honestly, the peace of mind that they bring to me is worth every penny.  I know that my bees are not getting killed by these predators, they get too drunk  :evil:.  Actually, they drown in the beer, but have a good time in the last moments of their lives.

I will not tolerate these predators around my colonies.  I know that they have uses in the gardens, eat lots of bad bugs and I appreciate this, but any that venture close to my girls is going to have the death by drown, and I don't have one little problem with that whatsoever.  Check out the threads that talk about the yellowjackets.  Have a wonderful day, good luck, protect your girls.  Cindi
There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold.  The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold.  The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee.  Robert Service

Offline annette

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Re: Help with bald faced hornet!!!
« Reply #5 on: August 11, 2007, 11:28:31 pm »
Thank you, I feel better already. The attacks have been mostly intermittent and I think it will be ok.

Annette
« Last Edit: August 13, 2007, 11:44:09 am by annette »

Offline reinbeau

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Re: Help with bald faced hornet!!!
« Reply #6 on: August 12, 2007, 09:57:24 pm »
Our club president lost four hives to yellowjackets.  Nasty little bastages!  :roll:

Offline abejaruco

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Re: Help with bald faced hornet!!!
« Reply #7 on: August 14, 2007, 07:05:08 pm »
My wasps, the european wasp, is nearly domestic. I usually make juice with them, but this year I am magnanimous and don´t kill, and they are in front of my hives.



I am like the UNO, I want to be the pacificator, but those insects are like jews and arabs.


Offline Mici

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Re: Help with bald faced hornet!!!
« Reply #8 on: August 14, 2007, 07:08:40 pm »
heeeey, they're after your dinner (snails) get them buggers!!!!!
i know of at least 10 wasp nest and 1 giant hornet nest but...beh they're part of the ecosystem. i see them all the time scavaging in front of the hives for diseased or dead bees, rearely do they really bother a hive, let alone do any real damage to it.

Offline Cindi

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Re: Help with bald faced hornet!!!
« Reply #9 on: August 15, 2007, 11:35:09 am »
abejaruco.  What.....you can't honestly be kidding, making juices out of the wasps.   Eeeks, tell us more.  Have a wonderful day, great life.  Cindi
There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold.  The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold.  The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee.  Robert Service

Offline abejaruco

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Re: Help with bald faced hornet!!!
« Reply #10 on: August 16, 2007, 03:24:11 am »
No, Cindi, definitivaly no. I don´t drink the juice. It is the Micimagination. He dotes on the snails. :)

Offline Cindi

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Re: Help with bald faced hornet!!!
« Reply #11 on: August 16, 2007, 01:57:33 pm »
abejaruco, ha, ha, ha, man I gotta laugh sometimes on this forum.  Have a wonderful day, best of life.  Cindi
There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold.  The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold.  The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee.  Robert Service

Offline annette

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Re: Help with bald faced hornet!!!
« Reply #12 on: August 19, 2007, 04:37:13 pm »

I would go out and spend a few dollars on wasp traps, they are a little bit costly, but honestly, the peace of mind that they bring to me is worth every penny.  I know that my bees are not getting killed by these predators, they get too drunk  :evil:.  Actually, they drown in the beer, but have a good time in the last moments of their lives.

I will not tolerate these predators around my colonies.  I know that they have uses in the gardens, eat lots of bad bugs and I appreciate this, but any that venture close to my girls is going to have the death by drown, and I don't have one little problem with that whatsoever.  Check out the threads that talk about the yellowjackets.  Have a wonderful day, good luck, protect your girls.  Cindi

Cindi

I wanted to purchase a wasp trap today. They have these glass ones in a store near me. I guess I will just fill it with beer and hang it near the beehives?????  The hornets are harassing the hives every evening now and there is a constant war. The bees seem to always win, but I want my hives to have peace.

Thanks
Annette

Offline Michael Bush

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Re: Help with bald faced hornet!!!
« Reply #13 on: August 19, 2007, 10:15:20 pm »
Try a sugar water, vinegar, banana peel and a piece of lunch meat.
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Offline annette

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Re: Help with bald faced hornet!!!
« Reply #14 on: August 19, 2007, 11:21:47 pm »
OK I can do this Michael!!!!

Sincerely,
Annette

Offline Cindi

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Re: Help with bald faced hornet!!!
« Reply #15 on: August 20, 2007, 01:38:22 am »
Michael, I am going to give this one a shot.  It sounds good.  I had a "recipe" from a wasp trap that I had purchased that was a different design than the ones that I usually use.  It said to use some juice made from fruit and some canned cat food, preferably fish.  I went to a lot of effort to save the pulp junk from the strawberry hulls, along with the bought cat food.  The yellowjackets paid no mind.  But when I spent some good dollars on beer, they went for it totally.  So, I am still strong on the beer, but it is so darned expensive, I dilute it down of course, but regardless, lots of bucks.  I am going to give this concoction a good shot, and I will report what my predators in my climate prefer  :).  Have this wonderful night and day, enjoy our lives we're livin'.  Cindi
There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold.  The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold.  The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee.  Robert Service

Offline annette

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Re: Help with bald faced hornet!!!
« Reply #16 on: August 20, 2007, 04:17:57 pm »
What sort of trap do you use?  I wanted to purchase  a glass one I saw in a store near me, but they are out so do not know what to put the beer in to. Doesn't it have to be like a trap of some sort so they cannot get back out???

Annette