Help! Bees in my M543A2 Wrecker!

I have an unusual and annoying problem: A family of bees has decided to move in to my M543A2 wrecker. The front door to their hive is a hole where one of the mounting bolts passes through the wrecker body, right behind the center left wheels. To make matters worse, I have a flat tire right there that needs fixing, and I don't think the bees will appreciate me working on that a couple feet away from their home!

Those must be some smart bees, because they've built their home in a steel-armored bunker. I have not been able to figure out how to get at the hive itself yet, as it's surrounded by steel with a very small opening for access, I haven't been inside that portion of the wrecker body before so I don't know what might be going on in there, and I haven't been able to build a good mental picture by studying my manuals.

I don't think that calling a bee keeper to help me will work, for a few reasons: I've already tried poisoning them, so no bee keeper will want the guts of that hive now. Even if I hadn't, the hive would most likely be contaminated by hydraulic fluid, CARC paint residue, etc., and thus would not be fit for human consumption. Finally, from what little information I've gotten off the internet, when there's a hive inside a wall any bee keeper will expect the owner to cut into the wall for them so they can remove the hive, and I haven't even figured out how to get at this hive yet. There won't be any cutting involved unless I give up and decide to torch my wrecker... which isn't too likely!

I tried hornet/wasp hive spray several times with no luck. It just makes foam on the outside of the truck, kills a few bees who were loitering around the outside, and makes the rest of them mad. It can't soak into the hive because it's protected by nice, thick steel.

I tried a different approach yesterday evening. I used some copper tubing to build a long wand with a corkscrew at the end and plumbed it into a garden sprayer. My idea was to stick the end into the hole, give it a twist to lock it into place, lock the sprayer valve open and then run like hell while a couple gallons of poison is pumped inside the hive area. I picked up a head net from a local surplus store, put on my mechanic's coveralls and some gloves, and went to battle with the bees near sundown. I used a strong mix of Sevin pesticide, because I had read somewhere that its active ingredient will kill bees.

Unfortunately, the hole turned out to be too small to cram in the 1/4" tubing. I propped the wand in place with the end pointed upwards against the hole, in hope that some poison would make it in there... no luck. It just ran down the side of the body and frame, and this morning I see no reduction in bee activity.

So, I need to find some way to kill enough of the bees to be able to work around there safely, then find some way to gain access to the area of the hive, then get the hive out of there. Then I can repair my spare tire and regain use of my wrecker. I need to do it very soon, because I need that wrecker to be mission-capable to get it and a bunch of other junk out of the way so I can begin grading for my new house construction!

I can think of ways to kill those bees for sure... something involving my oxygen and acetylene tanks comes to mind. I'd like to keep my wrecker intact, though.

Do any of y'all have any suggestions for battling these entrenched bees?

I have had some luck using moth balls in closed areas that the bees seam to like to biuld nests . kenny

just sell me your wrecker, problem solved!!

Re: RE: Help! Bees in my M543A2 Wrecker!

area52 said:

just sell me your wrecker, problem solved!!

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Show up today with a Landoll and $10k in cash, and it's yours!

RE: Re: RE: Help! Bees in my M543A2 Wrecker!

If you were really bored you can try and suck em up with a shop vac, and sell the bees to places that use them to make antivenom, but in general i use a handheld propane torch and break cleaner... THATS fun!

RE: Re: RE: Help! Bees in my M543A2 Wrecker!

Don't know how much of an effect it would have but how about a small fire on the ground just big enough to make smoke or even some smoke bombs to get them to disburse.

Re: RE: Re: RE: Help! Bees in my M543A2 Wrecker!

hummer4x4guy said:

If you were really bored you can try and suck em up with a shop vac

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I don't have power at my property yet, and my genset makes a knocky sound so I don't want to fire it up until I have a chance to take a peek inside its crankcase.

bees

To remove the wheel, use a bee smoker to keep the bees from getting too excited. Then when the truck can travel, stir the nest and get as many flying as you can, then drive off, repeat till most are gone then park the truck at a neighbor house for a while.
Bee keeper will only pickup Honeybees are you sure what type you have?Wayne

RE: bees

I have no idea of what kind of bees they are. I assume they aren't killer bees, because they didn't swarm me when I attacked their hive. The brakes aren't working on this truck, either, so I think I really need to eliminate the bee problem before I do enough to the truck to make it drivable again. I haven't figured out how to gain access to the hive itself yet, even ignoring the problem of working around angry bees.

I have had to call in the exterminator at home in the past. I was amazed to see them use a powder(poison not available to the general public) in a puff ball(like a turkey baster) and just blow a little "magic dust" in the opening the bees were using. The explanation was that they will land on the dust then it is absorbed into their bloodstream through their feet(this took a couple days to take effect). This method was used to "maintain" a problem area until the queen was left with no others to service her needs. Long story short, call an Exterminator!
My home brew methods include, standing at the entrance with a propane torch and a garden hose and performing hand to hand combat with them as they exit! (sometimes ends as a draw).
Another favorite is the liberal use of kerosene or gas(depending on how mad I am at them). Almost burned down the house on my last battle using fuel! Not a good choice for your situation.
You might try getting in the truck and just drive around(no circles, strait lines down the road) and see if you can loose them like that? Might end ugly.
I have had great success using carburetor cleaner in place of expensive bee spray. Be careful not to spray on siding, plastic, or your eyes as you look up!
If you have a boat launch nearby you could back the truck into the water and drown them? Not sure what could go wrong on this idea. (never tried it but an episode of Our Gang come to mind here) Spanky and Alphalfa may have received a few stings but I can't remember for sure.
Well good luck and let us know how it goes for you!

Calling an exterminator may be my only option.

The truck is not road-worthy, so driving it anywhere is not an option at this time. Anyway, I'd need to fully submerge the truck to get water up to where those wily bees have moved in!

I don't think anything involving fire is a good option on my truck, which is already pretty well coated with hydraulic fluid back there, and probably has decades of grease and oil residue accumulated in the turntable area.

With or without the worker bees in the picture, I still will need to gain access to the hive to remove it and the queen. I could use some advice from other folks who've worked inside the turntable area of the wrecker about how to get access to the innards without needing to do anything drastic like lifting off the crane... which I can't do anyway, because I don't have a second crane!

If there's a deck plate or something that I can remove to get into the turntable area, then maybe I can pump in some poison from the top side of the hive to kill most of them off, and then start the messy job of scooping out the hive once the bees are no longer an effective fighting force. Without knowing what the enclosed area(s) under the crane look like, I don't know where I might be able to cram in a tube to deliver poison, water, or whatever.

Oh, no water on the property yet, either, so I'll be trucking in anything I need.

Mark,

Maybe try plugging the hole and see if they come out somewhere else? Might be a better access point and it might allow you to change the tire if they are coming/going in somewhere else.

use caulk to seal the opening after the sun goes down.

First of all this is one of the funnier problems that anyone has experienced. I would also use caulk or something to seal them inside. They will die without food after awhile and your problem solved. Otherwise keep spraying the ones on the outside with that bee killer stuff and sooner or later you will dwindle them down. Good luck.

Bees are a real problem with dormant MVs. They really like the area in the cab behind the door and under that top lip where the soft top support goes. Picked up a deuce at DSCC once. Spent over and hour getting it ready to tow. Found the bee hive early on and just was cautious and avoided the area as much as I could. Even had the wife running lookout for me. I got everythng done, and loaded ready to pull out. As I was driving away in the tow vehicle one of the bees decided to come up and sting me in the back. When I got back to FL I burned em out.

I use ether (starting fluid) on wasps around here. It kills them on contact.
It has a good range. Use a small tube to direct it into the hole.
Just don't create any sparks until it dissipates.
If they are yellow jackets or wasps they can tear you up, especially if you are alergic to venom.

you need to merge this with the snakes discussion. their solutions were 44 mags and 12 guage shotguns. OVERKILL NEVER FAILS

I use brake clean to battle bees and wasps. it works quicker than any hornet spray. you could jam the little red hose in the hole and let it rip. After looking at your pictures, i went and looked at my wrecker. the main truck frame is a "C" channel and the structure of the wrecker body is also a "C" channel and the hold down bolt hole has no clearance around it where the bees could pass thru. i think they are going through a hole in the wood strip between the the two frame pieces. have you tried looking from the passenger side? i was able to stick my head between the right fuel tank and the front-rear tire and get a good view of the channels on the other side. i would think you'd be able to see where they are going and spray them from there.
jeff

Hard to tell from the picture, but they look like honey bees. They look too small to be carpenter bees and wasps and hornets usually don't mill about the entrance like that. My Dad kept bees when I was a kid. Smoke was your best friend. They think their nest is on fire and bail out so you can rob their honey. You can probably but a smoker at the local tractor supply. Load the sucker full of cedar chips and go to town. That would prolly get most of them away from the hive so you could get a better look.

I bought some stuff the other day that is a foam that sticks to the hive and surrounding area like the insulation foam. it works great for containing them in a small area. they get stuck in the foam. If you spray too much on a open nest it gets heavy and falls off. I killed a ton of them the other day . I started earl;y in the morning before it got warm out and before I started banging around. worked great