Bumblebees in my house! Help!

 Hello, I am looking for a few answers that I was hopign you could help
me with.

I live in Ontario, Canada, and have discovered that I have a nest of
bumblebees living in the wall of my house.  I am sure they are
bumblebees (not honeybees, carpentar bees, etc.).  I am guessing they
are living in the insulation on the inside of of the brick wall where
the basement was finished ( I can hear them buzzing).

Unfortunately, many of them were making their way into the house.  I
have a dog, cat, and pregant wife who have never been stung so I had
to call an exterminator.

The exterminator used a white powder called Ficom D and sprayed it
into the hole in the bricks (from the outside) where the bees were
going.  After a few hours most of the bees that were outside of the
nest gave up and moved on.

The exterminator (who was not too helpful in the advice department)
used a misting bottle and sprayed something a little bit inside, close
to where we thought the nest is but not right on it.  We have a bunch
of openings in the wall for access to the hot water pipes etc.   The
exterminator told me to get some screen door mesh and put it over
these openings so the bees can't get out.

Well,  I got half way putting up the mesh (about an hour after the
exterminator left) when about a dozen bees came dropping out of the
openings (about 1 every 5 minutes for about an hour).  I killed them
and eventually got the mesh up.

Just when I thought the worst was over, I went out for a few hours
this afternoon and found 2 in the kitchen, 6 on the stairwell from the
basement to the kitchen (near the door with a window in it), and
another 5 in the basement.
I opened the door and let the ones by the door fly out, and killed the
other 10 or so.  I reinspected the basement and put more mesh up and
plugged a few other possible holes, but I can't be sure where they are
coming from.

In summary I killed about 15 of them before the exterminator came, and
about 30 of them since.  Obviously, their hole to the outside is
plugged with poison dust so they are trying to find another way out
and making their way into my house even faster than before, when the
odd straggler came in.  It's nighttime now so they are not very
active.  Fortunately none of us have been stung.

Here are my questions:

1) It's been about 36 hours since the exterminator left.  Have I seen
the worst of the bees inside?  How long should it take for them to
die?

2) Is this a normal exterminator experience?  I've spent $150 getting
some dust sprayed in the wall, and have had to contend with a bunch of
angry bees in my house, a ruined long weekend.  Did I get the shaft?
What does someone have to do or pay to get something done right?

Any thoughts or suggestions??

P.S.  I know bees are very beneficial to the environment and are not
aggressive uless provoked, but like I said I had no choice given that
many were coming into my house, and with a pregant wife plus a curious
dog and cat I had to do something.  I hate killing them.

Thanks!

 On 6 Sep 2004 19:42:12 -0700, dirk_puslich@hotmail.com (Dirk Puslich)
wrote:


I had a yellowjacket nest that I couldn't reach with instruments or
chemicals.  What I did eventually was to use an old badminton racquet
to kill them as they flew into or out of their nest.  Kill enough
workers and the nest won't be able to survive.  It took only three
days of effort, with each session taking about 20 minutes because by
20 minutes there wouldn't be any insects to kill.  A dead nest seems
to be a deterrent against future nest building.

Using a badminton racquet was very effective because of the large
striking surface.  It had the right reach whereby hitting the insect
was pretty much instinctive and unlikely to miss.  I was able to hit
two or three with one stroke and often strike another one on the
recovery stroke.  The insect was cut cleanly and never had the chance
to send any alarm or chemical signals to the nestmates.  There wasn't
an instance where a yellowjacket tried to sting me or was aware of the
killer racquet being used.  Because they were cut so cleanly they were
easy to clean up.

Like you said, anywhere else but in the house I would have gladly left
them alone as some of God's creatures.

 On 6 Sep 2004 19:42:12 -0700, dirk_puslich@hotmail.com (Dirk Puslich)
wrote:

:)   1) It's been about 36 hours since the exterminator left.  Have I seen
:)   the worst of the bees inside?  How long should it take for them to
:)   die?
 
It can be hit or miss dealing with bees inside a wall. Ficam is very
effective treatment with bees, but if it didn't get to the heart of
the nest it may be possible for them to just abandon the area they
were using as an exit and exit somwhere else...sometimes the interior
of the house.  Even if the nest will die out on the first application,
a number of the bees or in a protected cell turning into an adult...as
they emerge they may continue to be seen until they die...might last a
couple of weeks.

:)   2) Is this a normal exterminator experience?  I've spent $150 getting
:)   some dust sprayed in the wall, and have had to contend with a bunch of
:)   angry bees in my house, a ruined long weekend.  Did I get the shaft?
:)   What does someone have to do or pay to get something done right?

The surest way to know you got to the nest would be to have the wall
opened up and to remove/treat the nest.  You may pay over $400 for
that...treating as you have done probably averages $100-$150, but if
he used Ficam D, he used what is most thought of being the best to use
in the PC industry and just treating by that method is probably the
more common way to treat.




Lar. (to e-mail, get rid of the BUGS!!


It is said that the early bird gets the worm,
 but it is the second mouse that gets the cheese.

 

 I have heard of people putting a powered up mower over a wasp nest in the
ground.
I am surprised they didnt use smoke to just encourage the bees to move.  
you can use a vacuum cleaner ... put a few moth balls in the paper sack or dirt
holder OR dont put it in the sack and dump the bees outside.  
a friend had a similar experience in her apt right before she moved out.  I
really do
wonder about the nest full of honey and the fungus that will start to grow on the
residue.  Ingrid


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endorsements or recommendations I make.

 We have had a few cases of people with honey bees building nests in walls
aand in a cieling.  The nests were huge, especially the cieling one where it
was so heavy it made the sheetrock sag about 4 feet down into the room.  The
people would find dead bees in the house and honey would drip from it.  In
all the cases they called some people who raised bees and they came and took
the bees away.  The people were left to clean up the hive.  Personally I
can't see why they left it so long it made the cieling sag to the point they
couldn't walk under it.  I imagine they had ants too with all that honey
dripping around.  It was on the news one night and the pictures of it kind
of stuck in my mind, not to mention the sound of all those bees you could
hear when the news crew were filming the hive.

Shell
(who is allergic to bees)



ground.

I really do