Underground bee nest

[Barbara Muller]

I have a serious problem with underground hives of very agressive bees.  I sprayed the original hive and now they have moved to a nearby spot which is much too close to the house for my liking.  Tonight I went out after dark to spray the hive and found the area dug up and pieces of beehive all over the dug area.  I need help getting rid of these nasty stingers and keeping them from starting up again.  I also would like to know why my lawn is all dug up where the hives were.  Is it possible that a bear may have done it?  In 17 years this is the first time I have had anything like this and I really do need help with this problem.

[Sarah E Vowles]

Dear Barb,

You know the old question about what is a mosquito for? Well, one thing SKUNKS are for, is digging up and eating underground beehives in your lawn.

One old-time solution to underground bees was to "salt" the hive entrances with honeycomb, to encourage a skunk to dig it up  and scatter it.

I don't know if it was a skunk or not that did the job for you, but the old-timers thought that once the nest was exposed the little critters would hie themselves elsewhere.

I hope they do vacate the area - and just hope that their  "elsewhere" doesn't turn out to be even closer to your house!

- have a good one - Sal

[Henry]

Barb,

I actually had never heard of underground bees, so decided to look it up on the Internet.  One of the first articles that came up was a forum where someone was having a problem.  There are about 15 pages of comments and conversations.  Of course the one thing that concerned me the most was the fact that in this discussion, I read where sometimes these underground bees take over abandoned tunnels.  Now, you have heard my story on the Moles and I believe I have gotten them to move on to other areas, however, I know I have a lot of abandoned tunnels in my lawn.  I also received a note from one of my daughters and it would appear that these underground bees are indeed very difficult to get rid of.  There is no solution that I could find in the article, however, if you are interested you can read some of the things that individual tried along with a number of suggestions at:

http://www.frontpagewebmaster.com/m_158722/tm.htm

Good luck Barb and hopefully someone will have a solution.

Henry