In a comment on the blog, Santiago/Angela Wallace from Florida mentioned Bee Go. This is a fluid widely used in America to clear bees from supers so that the honey can be harvested without bees. It works but it stinks, persistently. I have a diminishing supply in it’s plastic dispensing bottle, in a coffee jar, in a sealed plastic bag. I can find it with my eyes closed!
I wouldn’t allow it anywhere near honey! I do use it, however in the swarming season. You can steer a swarm with it. Also it gets bees out of tight places. Once a swarm retreated into the recesses of a flat roof between the joists. A couple of drops of Bee Go on blob of cotton wool pushed behind them on a fishing rod soon persuaded them to come out into the fresh air where I could scoop them up.
I once had a call from a person who was afraid that bees were about to invade his house. I went to see and, sure enough, scouts were investigating a hole in the brickwork giving access to his cavity wall. I applied a few drops as described and they soon dropped the idea and, instead, sought a new home elsewhere for the swarm. The householder got a whiff of the Bee Go and noticed that it smelt like the Parmesan cheese that he was sprinkling on his children’s pasta.
I have, for some years, been unable to renew my supply of Bee Go. It is an American product and they aren’t allowed to ship it abroad by air and they seem to have forgotten how to ship things by ship. Having just paused to apply a nose to a tub of powdered Parmesan, I think that, if I remember, I might experiment with it on bees when the year is more advanced. Can somebody remind me please?
