We used to have an old mobile home on the farm. It was okay for getting out of a thunderstorm when it all broke loose in McClellanville, a frequent event.We also had a beehive that became infested with hive beetle. One day, all the bees were gone. At least I thought so. I had an old fridge in the home that was alittle on the loud side, so I didn’t notice the extra hum. Yup. They were in the walls of the home. I noticed the sweet smell before I noticed the humming, but I didn’t realize what the sweet smell was. Duh. The county made us move the mobile home and so the bees left too.
A couple of weeks ago, a friend pointed out to me that a huge number of bees were scooting in and out of the trunk of the massive old willow tree by the pond. “Are they honeybees?” I asked. We wondered for a while and moved on. Only a day or so ago, we stood watching the bees fly purposefully in and out, until we noticed that they were going in and out of a dirt entrance. “Yellowjackets!” we said in one breath. I will be avoiding the pond in future.
Destroy the yellow jackets without pesticides by dumping a wheelbarrow of ice over the hole and covering the ice with heavy plastic weighted down on all edges with lots of dirt Do this at dusk so everyone is inside the nest and resting for the night. This way, you will not be stung. The bees will cook under the melted ice and plastic!