rot
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Good for you

..

Good for you. At this point, and in the middle of winter, I would think compost would have to take a back seat to bees.

Any chance you could start another compost pile or bin? Eventually the bees will have to move on as the current compost pile rots into nothing.

I myself would like few things more than to have more polinators around here.

I hope you can make room for your guests. I wish I had a better suggestion.

to sense

..

Toil
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Can you identify the species for sure?

For native bees, I might even abandon a bin for a time. Even in spring. But European bees I would personally treat as a nuisance. I might even hit them with mint, and steal their honey.

Most would disagree with me, I suspect. Take it easy on me guys!

TZ -OH6
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It would be very very rare for honey bees to take up residence in a compost pile. They need rock crevices or hollow trees, a solid surface to attach the wax combs.


It would be very common for yellow jacket wasps to build a nest in a compost pile. They dig their hives out of the ground. Yellow jackets do not pollinate flowers, although they might prey on some of the harmfull insects. They are aggressive and have a very painful sting so it can be very dangerous to people and pets to have them around. I would suit up in heavy winter clothes and quickly dig up the nest and then run (it will look like gray paper). Once a nest is broken up they tend to look for a safer spot.

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applestar
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I was going to say the same thing. Yellow Jackets are apparently very similar looking to honey bees. I had a colony on my driveway (in a decomposing tree stump) that looked like honey bees to me after looking at pages of on-line comparison photos.

If you call your municipal pest control, agricultural extension, or bee keepers association, beekeepers are always willing to come out and take a look to see if it's a wild honeybee colony that they can remove for you (I gather it's good for the gene pool). In my case, the guy swung by to check it out and determined that they were yellow jackets. (They don't take those away -- you'll have to deal with them yourself).

All the reading I did though, did mention that yellow jackets are beneficial and should be left undisturbed IF they are in an out of the way location. The young are raised strictly on caterpillars and other mostly pest insects (though they are the BANE of butterfly gardeners). After around mid-July, the young raising is finished, and they can become nuisance around picnics, sport events, and barbecues because they love sugary drinks and other human food detritus. In my area, at least, most of the adults die off during the winter with only the Queen and a few drones surviving, and the colony population gets built back again -- more wee mouths to feed! :D

There are different kinds of yellow jackets too -- native Eastern and Western species as well as the imported European.

TZ -OH6
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On a tangent, I squash my big tomato hornworms on a big rock (sacrificial alter) next to the garedn and the yellow jackets remove the remains by the end of the day. I can't get them to eat the cabbage worms off of the Brussels sprouts though.

Toil
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Anyone ever watch yellow jackets feed off a piece of meat? They make these perfect little meat spheres and take them away...

hay
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Honeybees, groundbees, yellow jackets or whatever, they are still all of the chain of life. IMO, just leave them alone unless they attack and sting, and then use the most enviornmentally friendly solution you can find BEFORE resorting to manmade harsh chemicals. Any kind of chemical spray or granuales will affect the compost. If they are unfriendly insects, try to get a big plastic bag and a shovel and go on a COLD morning and GENTLY and very SLOWLY scoop them into it and spray the inside of the bag with ammonia and seal immediatly. WEAR PROTECTIVE CLOTHING AND FACE PROTECTION.

jason_mazzy
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Yellow jackets can become a detrimental problem quickly. I have 2 acres and while walking through my yard, or checking my plants or occaisionally mowing I may all of a sudden feel a *WHOMP as I am assaulted by yellow jackets. Yellow jackets will move in with ferociousness and build many underground hives, tree hives, wall hives and spread quickly. They do provide some benefit, but they can also cause alot of pain and attacke in mass. BTW a bee sting has nothing on a yellow jacket sting. A yellow jacket will hit you over and over and his friends will jump in. My advice is bag (seal completely) your compost pile forcing them to escape or turn to compost themselves. If you are not afraid of pesticides you may have to resort to it for your well being.

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Ozark Lady
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I would go for a positive ID before you take any action at all.

We had honeybees when I was a kid, and apparently they swarmed one year... they found a hole in the siding of our house...

We had wood panelling, the kind put on board by board both inside and out. Well, they were right outside the dining room table... they serenaded us at meal time... soon, we had honey running down the inside walls.

We let them remain for the winter, but come spring, they had to move to a proper hive, and it was a real mess to clean our walls and seal it all back up.

I wonder how different our yellow jackets are from others... It is easy to tell the difference... honey bees are hairy... yellow jackets are not. And here at least yellow jackets are thinner and more brightly colored.

Also, honeybees don't really want to sting, they die if they do... So honeybees visit my flowers and fly all around me... these are natives... wild ones, and never sting. Now the yellow jackets go after you if you are eating or drinking outside, they want it.

I want to find where these wild bees live, and see if it is possible to hive them up... but I am a novice, so better to let a knowledgeable person do that... if I can ever find where they live.

Toil
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if you do need to take them out, mint oil is instantly lethal for them.

SkyKero
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my 2 cents -- be very careful if they are yellow jackets -- I had bag of pine straw and they made their home there -- when I tried to move it I got stung about 10 times ---

It was truly terrible -- apparently I have become allergic-- and it was bad on my lungs.

Please be very cautious -- they can nasty little buggers if you disturb their home.

Silvia

Marsman
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Yellow Jackets! :x

My family was walking through the woods when the dogs stirred up a yellow jacket nest. Dogs where rolling on the ground and wiping their faces with their paws and then took off. My daughter and I got stung badly. The one on my daughter got under her sock and stung her repeatedly. I've never seen her cry so hard. And the sting lingers on for a good, long time. Nasty buggers.

If they are yellow jackets, be very careful.

Yellow Jacket
[img]https://i956.photobucket.com/albums/ae50/marsman61/Holding/YellowJacketTop-734429.jpg[/img]

Honey Bee
[img]https://i956.photobucket.com/albums/ae50/marsman61/Holding/honey-bee.jpg[/img]

[url=https://beeremoversinsc.com/bee_removal_id_your_bees.htm]Good slide show on this site[/url].

My suggestion for your little problem?

[img]https://i956.photobucket.com/albums/ae50/marsman61/GWJ/633673088039538329-nukethemfromorbi.jpg[/img]

Sharpy
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I have an acquaintance who does pest control here in our tiny town, he will remove yellow jacket nests for free.

He then sells the frozen yellow jackets for some sort of medical research, possibly having to do with allergies to them.

rot
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..
Yellow Jackets are wasps. If you end up with a nest they'll clean up all the pests in your yard for about two weeks. After that the food's gone and they get mean.

I can't decide if I'd want to suffer them or the pests they'd keep out.

to sense
..

Marsman
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You answered your question. Give then two weeks to work their magic, then nuke'm!

Toil
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rot wrote:..
Yellow Jackets are wasps. If you end up with a nest they'll clean up all the pests in your yard for about two weeks. After that the food's gone and they get mean.

I can't decide if I'd want to suffer them or the pests they'd keep out.

to sense
..
ok this is cool:
Adult yellow jackets feed only on nectar and fruit juices using their long tongues, while animal tissues (mostly insects and other arthropods, but occasionally carrion) are fed to larvae. Larvae jiggle around in their cells alerting nearby workers that they are hungry. A worker will then proceed to go out and capture a prey item. She then cuts the prey item into manageable pieces and carries it back to the nest piece by piece. Once the prey item is in the nest the worker masticates (chews) a piece of the prey into a paste with her mandibles. The workers then feed the larvae by tickling them. This tickling causes the larvae to secrete a liquid from their salivary glands. The worker feeds on the liquid, and while she is drinking she transfer the chewed up paste to the larvae. This process is termed malaxation. (Andrews, 1969; Duncan, 1939; Ross and Matthews, 1991)

beekpr
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Hello everyone, I found this forum while cooped up inside planning my garden and I'm glad I did. I Like to read and learn from others.

I keep bees and I agree that it would bee just short of impossible for these to be honey bees. Most likely wasp, yellow jackets or bumble bees.

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rainbowgardener
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Welcome to the forum beekpr! Very glad to have you with us.

Agree with your comment, except possibly also mason bees, carpenter bees, ground bees....

SkyKero
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So .. the Yellow Jackets are back -- decided to make a nest/hive in my compost pile .. ... got stung on friday .. OUCH .. many big welts...

I want to be able to use that compost ---
My Choices as I see them

1) Use soapy water
2) Mint Oil?? -- I assume I can buy easily?

Does anyone else have any suggestions -- maybe I am in the wrong subject??

Thank you everyone!

Silvia

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gixxerific
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They must not be honey bees, on e in you compost pile and two they don't usually attack this early in the season and not multiple times either.

We stirred up several nest at our job site today in our scaffolding. I can tell you that in a pinch WD-40 and a lighter is very effective. We were being swarmed by them every time we turned around. so it was them or us.

ccar2000
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Bees will get minerals from the compost. Not a good place for a successful hive so they won't build one there.
Can you just cave in the yellow jacket nest? They probably will not dig out. Try a yellow jacket trap. Like a fly trap, just use a piece of meat for bait.

kirvls
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I don't know what one may do, but I wish to make it clear that the bees that I found are definitely honey bees: cute, buzzing and busy -- in my 4'x4'x4' plastic compost container. At first I thought they were yellow jackets. A close and very careful but prolonged inspection proved them to be honey bees.
I live in Colorado about 50 miles east of Denver in hay, wheat, sorghum, corn and millet country.
It was surprising to find them in the middle of winter after many snowfalls and a multitude of sub-zero nights.

imafan26
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There actually are such things as ground nesting bees, but it may welll be wasps. Ground nesting bees are usually very docile and are pollinators. Wasps on th other hand are not so friendly. Neither one likes to live in the damp and prefer to nest in dry ground. Getting a positive id would be helpful in figuring out how to control or induce them to go somewhere else. It is easier to move them before they become established. They probably like the compost pile because it is warm and dry.

https://www.about-bees.com/ground-bees.html
https://www.extension.umn.edu/garden/ins ... e-control/

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applestar
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This was an old thread from 2010 -- but I guess a new post was made because exactly the same question came up? If after reading the earlier posts, you are pretty sure they are honey bees, then I think the thing to do would be to contact your local honeybee keepers association and see if someone could come and see.

I assume you wand to have your compost pile back? Do you want the bees to be removed? Do you want to set up your own beehive?

As mentioned earlier in the thread, for removal, my local bee hotline contacted a willing bee keeper in the area who will come out and verify if they are honeybees and remove them for free if they are. If they are not, as in our case, he didn't charge for the house call, but said we were on our own for their removal. But I understand everyone has different rates for these kinds of services.

If they are yellow jackets or other non-honeybees that don't need to be saved, time to eliminate them is now while it's cold and they are sluggish. I would avoid exterminators who would spray them down with poison especially if you want to use your compost for growing edibles.

If you want to set up your own hive, I think first step would be to check local regulations and to attend workshops and take some lessons. I have a friend who teaches beekeeping and she said a percentage of her students find out that they can't after getting to the hands-on part of the lessons.

We had a honeybee swarm on the weeping cherry some years earlier, but I didn't know about contacting the bee keepers and we left them alone -- the swarm took off after a day or so but if it ever happens again, I would definitely call and see if any bee keepers in the area would want to collect them.



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