GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post

phorbin · 19-08-2010, 06:22 PM posted to rec.gardens.edible

In article ,
says...

With an early start each morning, it is easy enough to intercept
and kill the scout bees in order to prevent them from bringing the rest
of the herd to a truck garden but I don't know about grape vine; depends
on how aerial it is, I suppose. As a rule, I certainly don't recommend
any insexticide but, in your case, the thing to do might be to locate
the honeybees' nest and take out the entire hive at night when most of
its inhabitants are present and lethargic or occupied with domestic
duties. The few stragglers that spent the night away from the hive are
not likely to be of sufficient number to maintain it.

You have to be expert enough to tell the difference between honeybees
and many other species. -- There are a lot of look-enough-alikes on the
flowers in great enough numbers to confuse just about anyone, let alone
the experts who sometimes say that you can't tell some species apart
until you get them under a scope.

Whatever your opinion of escaped millifera, this djinn has left the
bottle and can't be stuffed back in. Apis mellifera in the wild is there
to stay ...and might become part of the solution to CCD.

It seems good practice to call a local beekeeper and try to save a
colony before someone with more fear than good sense wastes it.

The up-front assumption that these bees are from a wild colony is a big
leap into a dark hole. A neighbour could have taken up beekeeping.