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Friday, March 30, 2012

I Have Bees and Wasps in My Pool - What is Water Foraging?


I Have Bees and Wasps in My Pool – What is Water Foraging?

The summer months bring hundreds of calls from people throughout Arizona and other southwestern states experiencing an increased number of African honeybees and wasps at their fountains, swimming pools, bird baths, ponds, pet water bowls, leaky sprinkler heads, and irrigation systems, etc. Large numbers of bees and wasps taking water from a swimming pool can virtually make the pool un-useable during the hot summer months.

 These water foraging bees typically settle and drink water for 30 or 45 seconds at the water source and then fly away. These bees are taking water back to their established colonies to keep the beeswax that makes up the honeycomb from melting. Honeybees store their nectar, honey, pollen (bee bread), eggs and developing babies (brood) in the cells of the beeswax based honeycomb. If the temperature exceeds 86F to 92F the wax will begin to melt, causing the bees to lose the structure that contains their food stores and offspring. For these reasons, honeybees will send out a lot of water foragers to bring back water to pour on the honeycomb, and then the bees will line up facing the same direction and fan their wings to cause evaporation of the water and keep the honeycomb cool, like an evaporative cooler.

African honeybees, commonly called “killer bees” are now pervasive in the southwestern United States. Their colonies tend to be more aggressive during the hot summer months and are more irritable because of the constant struggle to maintain their honeycomb and the large numbers of workers that are sent out to forage for water accomplish this task. If you are in the proximity of a known established bee colony, expect it to be in a much more aggressive and irritable state. If you are aware of an established bee colony in proximity, it should be exterminated immediately by a licensed bee removal specialist to prevent harm to humans, pets or livestock. If you are unsure of the colonies location, you may wish to have your property inspected by a licensed bee removal specialist to eliminate the possibility of any direct or indirect threat. In fact, we strongly advise that you do so.

Most commonly, you will see more water foraging bees and wasps in the morning and evening with fewer being present during the hottest part of the day, depending on how hot it is. Bees and wasps do not gather water after dark. Water foraging bees may be individually aggressive, protecting their water site, but will not attack in mass. They are simply gathering water and have no reason to try to defend the water source as they would the area around their home colonies. Additionally, you may have water foraging bees and wasps from many different bee colonies and wasp nests at the same water source.

There is no perfect bee removal or wasp removal solution for water foraging bees and wasps other than to eliminate the water, or the access to the water source. Generally, in most states, the use of pesticides around any water source is forbidden. Most insecticides, even if they are approved for use on bees or wasps, are water soluble and thereof not safe to use. Otherwise, there are a few things you can try, working with bee and wasp behaviors, none of which are known to be 100% successful. They are not listed in order of effectiveness below:



1. As stated above, you can either eliminate the water or eliminate the access to the water for at least 4 days to a week. This may require multiple attempts over a period of time. Swimming pool covers may be helpful if they totally restrict access to the water.

2. Change the alkalinity of the water with baking soda. You can get an alkalinity test kit and chart from any pool supply store in your local area. Consult your local pool service or supplier for information on the effects of this procedure on your particular type of pool and its structural surfaces.

3. Purchase a light colored, plastic pan, such as a dish pan or kitty litter pan; place some clean, rough, fist-sized rocks in the pan. Place the pan as close to the area where the bees are currently foraging as possible. Put water, flavored with honey (1-2 tablespoons to 1 gallon of water), into the pan. You must continue to keep this honey-laced water in the pan until the bees begin using it preferentially. Once you see that more bees are using the pan with the honey-laced water than the pool, fountain, etc., you can slowly move the pan away from the original water source at a rate of about 1' per hour, until you get the pan to a less intrusive spot on your property. Once the bees are trained to use the pan, you can use plain water, but you MUST KEEP WATER IN THE PAN, all the time or the bees will go back to using the original water source. Make sure you don’t cover the rocks with water. The bees have to have a place to land and hold on to so they can get their mouth parts to the water, but keep their bodies dry and out of the water.

4. Nightly, scrub the hard surfaces of the site where the bees are landing with a very mild solution of vinegar & water. This will reduce the pheromone the bees have individually applied to the site that helps them find their way back to this specific area. After drinking, each individual bee will deposit a pheromone scent marker at the spot before it leaves and will generally return to the same spot. Nightly scrubbing may help confuse the water foragers.

5. In a hand-held spray bottle with about a one quart capacity, mix in a couple ounces of “liquid smoke” with water. Liquid smoke, a food additive, can be commonly found in grocery stores. You can add glycerin to make it last longer on the surface, if it won’t damage or stain the area to which you are applying it. A couple of hours before you are going to be in your pool or spa, etc., begin spraying this smoky smelling solution around the dry areas, as close to the area where the bees are gathering to forage for water, as possible. You will have to re-apply this as the smoky smell diminishes, but this will help deter the bees from using your water source while you are trying to be in the area. You may have to adjust the ratio of liquid smoke to water until you find the most effective concentration. Avoid direct contact with the water. Again, it is not necessary to do this after dark. The bees will be back in their colonies for the night.

None of these suggestions really works for water foraging wasps. Wasps can float on the surface of the water to drink. Your pool maintenance person can put an additive in your pool that lessens the surface tension of the water so the wasps aren’t able to land on the surface without drowning. Consult your local pool service provider. Other than that, the best solution is to locate where the wasps are nesting, usually nearby, and have them exterminated.

These suggestions may be helpful, we hope so. Unfortunately, whether or not there are natural water sources like mud puddles, ponds, etc. available to them, the bees still need water when it’s hot and will go to un-natural sources if they are forced to do so. You may have the only suitable water source for miles and if that is the case, none of the above suggestions will be very helpful, except restricting or preventing access to the water source.  As the temperature decreases or the availability of natural water sources increases, such as during the monsoon season, you will experience a decrease in the amount of water foraging bees and wasps.

1 comment:

  1. This is great information! Thank you. I live in Michigan and regular (I think) honeybees love my birdbath so much the birds now avoid it. I have installed other birdbaths for the birds - the bees seem to prefer the original, and unfortunately, that seemed to be the birds' favorite, as well. I do not want to harm the bees because of the delicacy of their situation, but watching birds bathing is a joy. I will try the sweetened water idea and see if I can't get the bees to change preference.

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