Mosquito Dunks kill Honey Bees

The City of Dallas is spraying for West Nile again this year. It kills bees too as do the mosquito dunks placed in standing pools and bird baths. With Honey Bee survival often in the news these days and everyone wanting to help save them I would think it would be easy to find a beekeeping specialist to remove the hive and insects. However, it is costly leaving extermination the only option for most.

Texas Honeybee Guild, save residential colonies from extermination, but what if the bees are in the wall of a brick home?  Friends of mine paid $500 the first time to have the wall torn into to get the hive. When the bees returned a second year they had the the bees exterminated and were not happy about having to do that. This week the bees are back for a third time in the same spot on the brick wall as previous years. I decided to investigate and this is what I found.

"After the comb is removed, wash the walls with either ammonia or bleach to remove the pheromones the bees have put on the wood and in the wax left in the wood. The removal of these pheromones reduces the potential for attracting the bees back to this wall."

Lets hope this works to help the bees to make better choices ; )

Repel Mosquitos Naturally

I simply cannot stand Mosquitos buzzing around me, drives me crazy. Last year I tried the Deet Free Mosquito Patch from AgraCo.  Basically it is 300 mg Thiamin B1. Mosquito's do not like it. It stays in the system for 36 hours (you can remove the patch after 24 hrs.) I do not know how much Thiamin B1 you would have to consume if taking the vitamin orally. I thought I read somewhere last year that the U.S. military used this patch in jungle situations because that is what convinced me to try it. It worked for me. Granted it was the end of the season, but I did not have a swarm buzzing around my head (and that drove me crazy) in the garden.

"AgraCo Technologies' new Mosquito Patch is a unique, safe and natural way to repel mosquitoes, gnats and flies. There are no chemicals, pesticides or insecticides in the patch. It contains 300 mg. of Vitamin B1 (Thiamin)."