I went to check it out and they had just moved into the chimney of her house. She had removed some heavy ivy from the bricks last fall and the ivy had pulled some of the mortar out from between the bricks.
That's all the room the girls needed. I have no idea how big of a cavity is behind the bricks.
There were several openings up the wall. All with bee activity.
We had her turn on her gas fireplace and leave it on. Our hope is that the chimney will heat up and make it uncomfortable for the bees so they will move out. If they just showed up this morning there should be no comb/eggs/honey. If we can get them to move out, I think that's our only shot at saving them.
We'll go back after work this evening and send some smoke up through the holes to see if we can drive them out that way.
I checked back after work this evening and the bees were all gone. In 20 minutes I might have seen 5 bees fly by and check out the holes in the chimney, then fly off. I poked sticks in there. The 3 upper holes were quite deep. I got 3 feet of stick in. I slapped the bricks. I blew into the holes. I could not hear or see a bee.
ReplyDeleteThe homeowner told me she had turned the gas fire off after a while. The temp in the house hit 90 degrees (with the AC on high) and the thermostat kept shutting off the fire.
That must have done the trick. We scouted the neighborhood looking for a cluster in the trees or some activity somewhere to indicate where they might have gone. Nothing. We sealed up the holes for her with some expanding foam and left.