6 weeks old AS has been overrun with wasps....help please!

[BabyBee]

i think they may be too far gone to save them but i can try

i so wish i hadnt just assumed that sunday was nothing more than my neighbours mating flights.....maybe there would have been more bees to save.....

we live and learn, and i got to them as soon as i could, i suppose if they had been elsewhere other than on our property it might have been several more days before i'd found them and by this time there would definalty be nobody left.

surely i dont want to go back in again looking for the Q? would this not just attract the wasps all over again?

 

[susbees]

ermmm, not sure what you mean by this? dont know what bruised stores are....sorry?

as to how much space do i have...lots - 10 frames in total and only about 4 in use!! (

Quote from mid-April. And these were the overwintered bees in the same hive?

Wasp attacks on weak colonies are distressing indeed. Being blunt but not intentionally hurtful, have you ever had a normal hive of bees as in a laying queen laying strongly and a full brood nest (at least eight frames of brood)? If I remember rightly you started with a queen cell last year and a colony that struggled? And now an AS off a neighbour as a replacement which has struggled too?

A good strong nuc or a healthy prime swarm could have saved a load of heartache either last season or this. Anyone who might be able to help you populate the hive strongly? AS is a mis-nomer....neither half is as it would be in nature and they don't build up as fast. Or at all if mating's as poor as it seems to have been.

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

Just found the post from last year I was looking for.
Posted by member Norton:

Here we go again!
For the umpteenth time!
1. Go to your local supermarket.
2. Buy a tube of rat glue.
3. Spread this glue on board about 60cm x 60cm and place bait in middle of board. (Bait should be early season protein and late season carbohydrates: I guess at this time of the year in the UK that strawberry jam would go down well)
4. Sit back and watch the action!!!!!
How many times do we have to write about this?

Best regards
Norton.

The rat glue (with jam) works a treat (available online at http://www.rat-x.co.uk ) but beware that the board isn't left in a place where birds may alight, it will snare everything.

 

[BabyBee]

Quote from mid-April. And these were the overwintered bees in the same hive?

Wasp attacks on weak colonies are distressing indeed. Being blunt but not intentionally hurtful, have you ever had a normal hive of bees as in a laying queen laying strongly and a full brood nest (at least eight frames of brood)? If I remember rightly you started with a queen cell last year and a colony that struggled? And now an AS off a neighbour as a replacement which has struggled too?

A good strong nuc or a healthy prime swarm could have saved a load of heartache either last season or this. Anyone who might be able to help you populate the hive strongly? AS is a mis-nomer....neither half is as it would be in nature and they don't build up as fast. Or at all if mating's as poor as it seems to have been.

susbees, no this isnt the same colony. that one is now doing really well and has brood on 8 frames and a honey super being filled nicely. i have no worries about that hive - i think she was just slow to get started but has got the hang of it all now. i was probably being over protective and comparing the hive to others i saw.

i can add some of my own frames from the other hive to this one, but reluctant to do so till i know the wasps are gone as my thoughts would be that i am just putting more of them at risk - am i wrong to think this?

my thoughts today are to leave what little are left alone for a few days then make the hive as small as poss (ie 5 frames max with dummy boards on either end) to keep them warm.

try and find the Q - if not add a new one?

and then add a couple of frames of brood - sealed and unsealed?

but i am thinking that today/tomorrow are not days that i should be meddling?

 

[oliver90owner]

Pretty well in agreement with susbees , although I haven't any idea of the initial circumstances. But this does not sound anything like an A/S. Just seems like split, to me, with a queen cell. If a lot of the bees went back to the original site there would be precious few looking after only three frames with brood on them (and not full frames of brood?).

No probs if you know what you are doing, but fraught with danger for an inexperienced beek looking to run before learning to walk properly.

That said those wasps are at work on your hive very early. I think you need to find them and exterminate the nest or you may have further difficulty with your other colonies when they are done and dusted with this one.

RAB

 

[Erichalfbee]

The rat glue (with jam) works a treat (available online at http://www.rat-x.co.uk ) but beware that the board isn't left in a place where birds may alight, it will snare everything.

I caught a blue tit with one last year

 

[BabyBee]

Rab, i would love to find the wasp nest......hunted high and low last night but no sign of one. Will look again today, but kinnd of have the feeling I'm looking for a needle in a haystack.....

and maybe it is a split - i'm not sure i know the difference!

 

[BabyBee]

The rat glue (with jam) works a treat (available online at http://www.rat-x.co.uk ) but beware that the board isn't left in a place where birds may alight, it will snare everything.

is it this Atrarat Glue Tube £6.69? it doesnt say anything aout insects, though other products do. just dont want to buy the wrong thing

 

[oliver90owner]

Dust your attacking wasps with icing sugar, flour, or whatever - and you can see their flight line away from your colony much more easily. Saves a 360 degree search, for a start. Follow flight line further, after dusting more wasps if necessary. Trouble is you may have more than one wasp colony ravaging your bees.

RAB

You may find it useful to reveiw your previous posts. This thread might be a useful start (firstcouple of pages).

http://beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4861

 

[plumberman]

is it this Atrarat Glue Tube £6.69? it doesnt say anything aout insects, though other products do. just dont want to buy the wrong thing

Thats the one.

 

[Chris Luck]

Dare I put forward the idea that your colony was actually overcome by bees robbing it in the first instance and that the wasps only moved in as it succumbed? It's June and here in France there are no wasp colonies strong enough yet to take out even the smallest bee colony.

Chris

 

[BabyBee]

hi Chris, no idea I'm afraid just know there are thousands of them

 

[Chris Luck]

Not having a bash, but thousands? Must be climate change.

The below basic info would be "normal" and is my experience as well. I have several wasp, (and hornet), nests in the immediate locality including a wasp nest in the middle of an apiary and they are no more than a minor irritant to my bees. Always makes good sense to keep the entrance really small on weak colonies.

In spring and early summer, the workers go out to sting caterpillars, flies and other insects which they bring back to the nest as food for the developing larvae. The larvae in turn produce a sweet saliva which the adults drink.

By the end of summer the wasp larvae will have transformed into adult males and queens. The queen stops laying eggs, and usually dies. Without larvae, the other wasps have no food, and so they leave the nest in search of alternatives, such as fruit and nectar.

I still suspect the other bees in the area that will have transported the nectar and honey back to their own colonies very, very quickly once they got going in numbers.

Certainly wasps are opportunistic and will go for honey, but they don't store it and so it is only what they can consume in energy requirements which is not a lot.

Chris

 

[fredbloggs]

Hi BB

Good luck in your search for the wasp nest. Dont (like me) make the assumption they are in the classic "barn roof" scenario home. I spent ages looking for the pillaging swine who decimated my double 14 x 12 hive. They were underground behind the apiary gate !! Propane torch sorted them and gave some moral recompense.

Regards

FB

 

[BabyBee]

Hi BB

Good luck in your search for the wasp nest. Dont (like me) make the assumption they are in the classic "barn roof" scenario home. I spent ages looking for the pillaging swine who decimated my double 14 x 12 hive. They were underground behind the apiary gate !! Propane torch sorted them and gave some moral recompense.

Regards

FB

"pillaging swine"..I love that cheered me up no end.

pouring with rain here today so not much of anybody out and about. saw a few wasps in the traps so pleased about that - not nearly enough though!

next sunny day will be more telling i expect.

and re numbers...ok maybe not thousands.....but certainyl felt like it!

and i think someone has sealed up a nearby wasps nest - would they be coming from that? well not that exactly as it's sealed but the ones that cant get in maybe?

 

[Erichalfbee]

In spring and early summer, the workers go out to sting caterpillars, flies and other insects which they bring back to the nest as food for the developing larvae. The larvae in turn produce a sweet saliva which the adults drink.


Chris

I have a small cotoneaster tree just outside my back door which,last week, was covered in bees. This week it appears to be covered in wasps!
I have tried to see which way they fly away but they seem to spend all day, even in the rain, on the tree.
There are some 200 now in my Dyson

 

[Flatters]

Last year when my contact feeder leaked and the syrup made its way to the edge of the crown board I had hundreds of wasps around, which I vacuumed up, then a quick blast of fly spray. I was told I was bonkers, but it would seem I am not alone.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I had hundreds of wasps around, which I vacuumed up,I was told I was bonkers, but it would seem I am not alone.

Nope............you are not and I bet there are a few secret vacuumers
I love the sound of them rocketing down the hose.............ahhhhhhh simple pleasures.........one of many

 

[Chris Luck]

I have a small cotoneaster tree just outside my back door which,last week, was covered in bees. This week it appears to be covered in wasps!

Are you sure they are wasps? Would be more than a little odd to be on a Cotoneaster unless there are some aphids or similar they are taking back to the nest. There are lot's of other insects that imitate wasps, such as hoverflies and solitary bees.

Chris

 

[beestie]

Rat glue with jam on makes a very satisfying trap for the b***ers.
Get it from a farm supplies shop; often comes in the form of sheets with the glue on; which just needs a dollop of jam and they don't take long to find it. Bees don't bother.

Also, try trapping a wasp and shaking it in a jar with some icing sugar. The worried wasp will hot-foot it back to the nest in a straight line and can be followed!

I lost a weak nuc once to wasps and it was terrible to see them attacking the bees - by then it was too late to do much about it, but I don't have much sympathy for them at this time of year...