Welcome back dear readers. Thanks for stopping by! It’s time again to keep you up to date with what is happening in the world of Bee Removal in San Diego.
One thing that seems to be happening a lot this year are bee problems that are super difficult to resolve. Sometimes, the only solution to a bee problem is an unrealistic solution.
Take for example restaurants and large companies that serve soda pop. These restaurants usually have recycling dumpsters for cans and bottles. One problem: bees are attracted to liquid sugar. I had a call the other day from a big casino that wanted us to come out and remove the bees that were congregating around their dumpsters. Workers were scared to throw away trash because of the dozens of bees that were foraging in the dumpster.
Q: So what can you do in this situation? Can you remove them live?
A: In this specific situation, the hive was probably somewhere on another property nearby. The bees from the adjacent property were traveling over for the soda pop. Live removal in this case, is not an option (unless you want to pay a bee removal technician to stand at the dumpster for 12 hours a day…every day…with a vacuum). Even then, the colony nearby will continue to lay eggs and produce more bees. It’s just not possible to remove them live unless you capture the majority of the colony.
Q: “So what about spraying them” you may ask. “Can’t you just kill them?”
A: Nope. No can do. It is illegal to kill bees if there isn’t a swarm or hive. For more on that, check out our previous blog about when it is illegal to kill bees.
OK. So you can’t remove them live, and you can’t spray them. What the heck can you do?
1: Clean out the dumpster. Yeah, that’s right. I said it. Empty the whole darn thing and scrub it down till its clean.
2: Rinse and clean out all the cans and bottles before throwing them back in the dumpster or recycling bin.
By now you can see how unrealistic this solution is. Can you imagine a casino or restaurant that required their customers to rinse out their cups, bottles, and cans before disposing them? Equally unrealistic is the thought of the employees having to do it. Think of all the water that would be wasted on rinsing out the containers!
The only sane advise we are able to offer in situations like this are for the company or restaurant to do the following:
- Ensure the dumpster has a lid with a tight seal that is kept closed. This is often difficult as most dumpsters are warped and have slight openings along the lid.
- Tightly knot all rubbish in thick bags that are difficult for bees to get into. This too is often tough for most restaurants to accomplish. Either the bags are easily torn, or they are overfilled to the point where they cant be tied off properly.
I suppose another option would be to house the dumpsters indoors. But how realistic is that for most restaurants?
So yeah, there you have it. One of the big conundrums of the bee removal profession.
Got a better solution? We would love to hear it! Share your thoughts below.
