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grenthor
10-20-2008, 09:27 PM
Outside my office last week we find out there is a Bees Nest. I don't say Bee Hive because this it's not a hive at all but a collection of honeycombs all stuck together to make a nest.

This thing was around 5-6 feet long in total stretching at an angle from around head height in the upper left down to just above ground to the lower right.

This thing was strung along through, on, over and around the branches of a stand of Mangrove Trees at the edge of our parking lot. It's amazing. What was very cool to me was how it was strung from the branches. It almost looks like a blanket at spots where it's got creases and folds. Then at other spots where it follows right along the branches and almost fades into the bark of the tree.

It looks like what caused the problem for us is that the middle section of the nest collapsed - most likely due to the weight of the honey along with some heavy rain we had last week.

The bees ended up attacking a guy and sent him to the hospital. I talked to the exterminator after the fact and he said he's pretty sure they are "Killer Bees" due to their aggresiveness and the way the nest was built.

Due to this, exterminators were called (Who in turn had to call in special bee exterminators) to remove them. He said he couldn't guess how many bees just that it was thousands at the least.

I posted some pictures on my Flickr page. Both before and after. The before pictures are down at the bottom. There are only 2 and they aren't that good. I wasn't willing to get that close to them to take the pic!

I did also post an overhead picture of the area showing where the nest was. You had to climb over a guardrail, drop down about 2 feet and then climb about 6 feet back into the mangroves to see the hive. I got as far as leaning over the guardrail. lol

Here's my Flickr page with all the pictures on the main page:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bingo2/

And here's the picture I took to give you an idea of just how many freakin bees there were and how big this thing was:
(By the way, you can see this full size at Flickr and really see the bees)

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2125/2929946925_f8b2ba286a_b.jpg

Gelston
10-20-2008, 09:31 PM
We have a big problem with those bastards(killer bees) here. You'll just be standing there and a sy blackening swarm will go through you. They won't hurt you as long as you don't kill one or move though, just passing through.

nub
10-20-2008, 09:41 PM
Man that's awesome. Cool pics.

Aren't bees going extinct or something? (well not extinct but their populations are declining dramatically)

Gelston
10-20-2008, 09:43 PM
And nobody nows why.

Soulpieced
10-20-2008, 10:14 PM
The Happening.

Sean of the Thread
10-21-2008, 11:28 AM
Those look like white mangroves. Where do you live?

Atlanteax
10-21-2008, 11:40 AM
My hunch with the honey bees dying off is a "bee flu" similiar in nature to "bird flu".

But because bees are so small and proportionately more numerous (if scaling by equal weight), it's far more difficult to track/study conditions on an individual bee basis.

Taking this one step further would be trying to figure out why ants are dying off (if they were to a virus or something). Particularly since ants don't function on an individual basis (as well as bees).

So that's my thought on why we still don't understand what is happening to the honey bees.

Paradii
10-21-2008, 11:42 AM
Man that's awesome. Cool pics.

Aren't bees going extinct or something? (well not extinct but their populations are declining dramatically)

CCD, Colony Collapse Disorder. The consensus from entomologists is that its caused by the varela mite. Why it causes bees to abandon the nest in mass numbers is the question.

This will only really affect social bees. There are thousands of bee species that are solitary.

Gelston
10-21-2008, 11:42 AM
CCD, Colony Collapse Disorder. The consensus from entomologists is that its caused by the varela mite. Why it causes bees to abandon the nest in mass numbers is the question.

This will only really affect social bees. There are thousands of bee species that are solitary.

Yes, but we need teh honeys!

Atlanteax
10-21-2008, 11:44 AM
CCD, Colony Collapse Disorder. The consensus from entomologists is that its caused by the varela mite. Why it causes bees to abandon the nest in mass numbers is the question.

This will only really affect social bees. There are thousands of bee species that are solitary.

Interesting...

Paradii
10-21-2008, 11:52 AM
Yes, but we need teh honeys!

Yeah, and here's the real bad news. The mite is spreading extremely rapidly. It just made landfall on the Big Island of Hawaii about 2-3 months ago.

Their solution?

Kill every bee in a 5 mile radius of every varela mite found.

nub
10-21-2008, 12:12 PM
Yeah, and here's the real bad news. The mite is spreading extremely rapidly. It just made landfall on the Big Island of Hawaii about 2-3 months ago.

Their solution?

Kill every bee in a 5 mile radius of every varela mite found.

I just kill every Varela mite I see to do my part.

Allereli
10-21-2008, 12:17 PM
Varroa mite, and it's nasty

http://agspsrv34.agric.wa.gov.au/ento/images/V_jacobsoni.jpg

oh, here's a bee being eaten by mites:

http://www.christianlogic.com/images/uploads/christianlogic_image_varroa_mite.gif

nub
10-21-2008, 12:31 PM
Varroa mite, and it's nasty
[/IMG]

That's what I meant, I kill every Varroa mite I see.

Ashliana
10-21-2008, 12:39 PM
Why can't spiders die out instead of bees and ants? I don't care if they serve a purpose in the food chain. They're eeeeeeeeeevil!

Ignot
10-21-2008, 01:15 PM
Anything that eats roaches is NOT evil!

grenthor
10-21-2008, 04:10 PM
Those look like white mangroves. Where do you live?

Office is in the northwest corner of the Bay, just to the west of the Bayside Bridge.

ViridianAsp
10-21-2008, 04:49 PM
Why can't spiders die out instead of bees and ants? I don't care if they serve a purpose in the food chain. They're eeeeeeeeeevil!

Spiders are awesome, I used to have a collection of black widows, no lie. used to run around the backyard when I was a kid, spray raid on them and keep them in a jar of alcohol.

That nest is amazing really neat pictures.

grenthor
10-21-2008, 06:15 PM
Why can't spiders die out instead of bees and ants? I don't care if they serve a purpose in the food chain. They're eeeeeeeeeevil!

lol

Funny you say that...

Here's a picture I took of a spider that I pretty much walked into face-first in my backyard about a month ago....

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3164/2744903028_a65397938d_b.jpg

Atlanteax
10-21-2008, 06:30 PM
... what kind of spider is that?!

B2
10-21-2008, 07:00 PM
We used to have those all over our screened-in pool area. Actually, that's the only place I ever saw them...all over ANYONE's screened-in pool area.

B2
10-21-2008, 07:03 PM
Oh, also, there's a video about CCD on seriouseats:

http://www.seriouseats.com/2008/08/haagen-dazs-mystery-of-the-disappearing-honeybees-documentary.html?ref=se-bb1

Paradii
10-21-2008, 08:09 PM
... what kind of spider is that?!

either a type of asian spinyback or a crab spider probably.