Removing a bee hive from the mast

[lenseman]

As a beekeeper, I can assure you that you do not need any fancy proprietary chemicals to get rid of bees or wasps, all you need is a heavy-duty cloth fully soaked in gasoline (outboard motor 2-stroke gas will do) and hoist it next to the entrance. The bees (or wasps or hornets) will leave.


They also do not like rotting meat, they will busy themselves trying to encase it in wax.

[malbert73]

How did it go?

[mikereed100]

Originally Posted by malbert73

How did it go?

Turns out that the Raid did the trick. Within a couple of days the bees were all dead or gone, leaving the hive at the top of the mast. Now that we are in Chile, we get an occasional bee investigating the hive, but we find a lot of dead bees on deck, so I suspect that there is enough residual insecticide left to be effective. We have buttoned up the boat now to return home to work for the Southern winter and before leaving we sealed the mast with plastic and tape. When we return we will have to drop the mast, remove the masthead and scrape out the remaining honeycomb.

A description of the event from our blog here:
https://www.sailblogs.com/member/rumdoxy/454402