Outdoor Pest Control - Bees!!

Hey all,
Bees have built a home recently between those two pipes in the picture. Twice now I have been stung trying to mow the area.
How the heck can I get rid of the hive?
Thanx.
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a320/usaalways/bees.jpg

If there is any way you can avoid mowing the area for about a month, they should be done nesting by then. Bees are very valuable for our food supply, and with the demise of so many recently, it's best to leave them alone of you possibly can. This site will help you to id the type of bee you have and what to do. I do not use and would not use the pesticides they recommend.
http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2143.html

Newt

If there is any way you can avoid mowing the area for about a month, they should be done nesting by then. Bees are very valuable for our food supply, and with the demise of so many recently, it's best to leave them alone of you possibly can. This site will help you to id the type of bee you have and what to do. I do not use and would not use the pesticides they recommend.
http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2143.html

Newt

I can appreciate your concern on the importance to our food chain, but I have been stung twice, and I have a 4 yr old.
As there is a "clause" in the article you provided, which is "However, when nests are located in areas such as yards, gardens, flower beds or playgrounds, control may be justified to prevent the chance of being stung." I need to go this route. I am surrounded by open and farm land, so the this chain will only be interrupted on a microscopic scale.
From the advice I got today I sprayed the hole with an insecticide at dusk.

What isn't clear here is what kind of "bee" you have.If these are yellow jackets which commonly nest in areas like what you have then killing them doesn't really impact anybody's food supply except the yellow jackets'.

Can you describe the "bees"?

I'm with SPdavid. If they are wasps, spray them. Wasps are not pollinators. The pictures you posted are typical yellow jacket nesting areas. Bees should never be killed though.

I'm with SPdavid. If they are wasps, spray them. Wasps are not pollinators. The pictures you posted are typical yellow jacket nesting areas. Bees should never be killed though.

Just a FYI here. Some selected info from this academic site:
http://academic.evergreen.edu/projects/ants/TESCBiota/kingdom/animalia/phylum/arthropoda/class/insecta/order/hymenoptera/family/Vespidae/Kweskin97/SYSTEMATICS.HTM#foraging

The bold is mine for ease of reference.
General yellowjacket biology

The yellowjackets and hornets are prominent insects in temperate regions. The use of the term yellowjacket can have different regional interpretations. I use "yellowjacket" for the genera Vespula and Dolichovespula, and "hornet" for the genus Vespa, following Greene and Caron (1980).

Yellowjackets and hornets are in the subfamily Vespinae of the hymenopteran family Vespidae.

Foraging (Akre et al., 1980)

The workers of vespine colonies do all of the foraging for food. Arthropod prey is used as a protein source which is fed to larvae. Some species only take live prey, whereas other species (especially those of the Vespula vulgaris group) will also scavenge for dead organisms. Vespines also feed on nectar at flowers as a carbohydrate source. Therefore, it is common to collect vespines at flowers.

Social parasitism

There are several vespine species in North America that exhibit social parasitism.

Systematics and Classification of the Vespoidea and Vespidae

The Masarinae are unique among the Vespidae in that they provision their cells with a mixture of pollen and nectar rather than arthropod prey. Euparagiinae is a rare nearctic group which is the sister group to all other vespids (Carpenter, 1982). Species of the genus Euparagia, the single genus in Euparagiinae, have retained many primitive characters. Some Euparagiinae make ground nests which they provision with beetle larvae (Brothers and Finnamore, 1993). They are found only in the western United States (Borror et al., 1989).

This doesn't mean a person should allow a wasp or bee to sting a human or pet, it's Just so you know what some of these insects do.

Newt

YELLOW JACKETS are what stung me.
Again I will say that I do respect all concerns here, but I had to do it for safety.
I must mow..and it's an area where me and my 4 yr old must travel to get to his bus 3 days a week.
And like I also said I am surrounded by much open land, and Im sure many in-ground hives exist which allow for my actions that make it a minimal loss. Im sure Nature has what I had to do already pre-calculated and continue with prosperous growth.

Yellow jackets are not significant enough to preserve especially when that preservation creates it's own dangers and problems.

Using sprays does not work well with underground nested yellow jackets as you will only kill those you hit which is a small percentage of the population below.Also the main objective is to eliminate the queen or else the nest will remain and the queen is far below and well protected.

The time of day to approach a nest is at dusk or after as the insects return to the nest and become relatively dormant.During daylight hours the nest will be heavily defended and you will be attacked if you approach.

One of the most effective techniques my customers have used is to purchase a small bottle of concentrated insecticide at a hardware store.One of the more effective products is Sevin (Carbaryl) which is extremely deadly to all species of wasps etc.you then take an average household bucket (generally around 2 gallons) and pour at least 8 ounces or so of the Sevin in the bucket then fill with water.Again after dusk when it's dark,go to the nest entrance and pour the mixture in.Try to aim the stream as carefully as you can down into the hole.Flooding the nest with this mixture will kill off the nest and reach far enough to kill off the queen or at least block access.

I'm sure others will post other way to deal with this.And yes this is not,in some ways,the most environmentally friendly way to deal with this.This works best when the entrance is easily poured into.Yours looks like it is.

Again spray is a waste of time and money.Sevin dust isn't that good either though better than spray and better if you can't pour into the entrance.And don't do it the old fashioned gasoline way......

Yellow jackets are not significant enough to preserve especially when that preservation creates it's own dangers and problems.

Using sprays does not work well with underground nested yellow jackets as you will only kill those you hit which is a small percentage of the population below.Also the main objective is to eliminate the queen or else the nest will remain and the queen is far below and well protected.

The time of day to approach a nest is at dusk or after as the insects return to the nest and become relatively dormant.During daylight hours the nest will be heavily defended and you will be attacked if you approach.

One of the most effective techniques my customers have used is to purchase a small bottle of concentrated insecticide at a hardware store.One of the more effective products is Sevin (Carbaryl) which is extremely deadly to all species of wasps etc.you then take an average household bucket (generally around 2 gallons) and pour at least 8 ounces or so of the Sevin in the bucket then fill with water.Again after dusk when it's dark,go to the nest entrance and pour the mixture in.Try to aim the stream as carefully as you can down into the hole.Flooding the nest with this mixture will kill off the nest and reach far enough to kill off the queen or at least block access.

I'm sure others will post other way to deal with this.And yes this is not,in some ways,the most environmentally friendly way to deal with this.This works best when the entrance is easily poured into.Yours looks like it is.

Again spray is a waste of time and money.Sevin dust isn't that good either though better than spray and better if you can't pour into the entrance.And don't do it the old fashioned gasoline way......

What I did was spray WD-40 in the hole at dusk. Stood there(with no retaliation from bees) for minutes as I sprayed. Probably used half the can. After 2 days I see no activity. I guess I took care of the nest

You probably did not kill the queen.It is possible you contaminated the pathway enough to stop movement but I'm not sure long term you ended the problem.I'd keep a close eye on the nest for awhile.Eventually the WD-40 will evaporate.You may have a return after that.