Balvenieman wrote:
General Schvantzkoph wrote:

In other good news, I have a concord grape arbor in my yard. This
morning
I noticed that it was swarming with honey bees.
In what way is that "good" news? You have a problem: Because of
their herding behavior that leads to total domination of food sources,
AWA their spreading of diseases and infestations (mites) against which
native populations have no defenses, European honeybees are decimating
native solitary bee (such as bumblebee) populations; how, one might
well
ask, is that a "good" thing?

How do they dominate food sources?

Do honeybees spread diseases where the other bees do not?

What proof do you have that it is the honeybee decimating the native
bees?
Are you sure other factors at work, like pesticides, herbicides and
GMO,s are not responsible for the decimation of native bees, bee
inbreeding?


The very behavior patterns that make "tame" European honeybees so
highly valuable to commercial, mono-cropping, Earth-damaging
"AGRICULTUREmoneymoneymoney" are the same behavior patterns that,
along
with their diseases and parasites, make them so devastating to native
insect populations. The presence of honeybees in the "woodlands" is
always --100% the fault of negligent beekeepers--. Allowing
honeybees
to roam freely in the "native" or "undeveloped" bush has exactly the
same deleterious effect as does allowing cattle, goats, and sheep
(also
alien species) to do so, the scale is just different and we don't
_see_
it happening, and the perpetrators deserve jail time, IMO, because
it's
absolutely preventable. In my view, herders of domestic beasts do not
have a "right" to inflict them on the native ecosystem but, instead,
have a duty to that system to contain and control their animals.

What makes you the law giver that determine "what is right"?
Are you going to remove what is not native?
Or is it natural selection?

I start most of my days killing honey bee scouts in order to
prevent them carrying the news of my garden to their pestiferous
fellows. Not only do I consider bee-killing to be an essential home
gardening activity, I believe it should be a priority of any gardener
who wants to minimize his impact on the native ecosystem and do his
little part in preserving native insect species.
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.

Honeybees do not travel much more that one mile from their hive. if a
swarm escaped, honeybees typically will not survive a cold winter
without a hive. My guess there is a local beekeeper nearby. A swarm of
bees is worth about $80 US, if the queen is in the swarm. A local
beekeeper would love to have it!

The honeybees arrived in North America the day after the horse arrived
hundreds of years ago. If following your rational, do you believe that
all humans should be exterminated that are not native as well?

Where there humans, their favorite food sources will be there also!

--
Enjoy Life... Dan Using an iPad