Bee Hive In Tree

[younggun1849]

I was hanging a stand in a willow tree last summer when a bunch of bee's got stirred up out of the tree. I waited until a frost and went in and hung the stand after the bee's were dead. It's an incredible spot, and this is the only tree we have in the area to hang a stand. The bee's are doing a number on the tree, you can see all of these tiny holes where it's like they are burrowing or something. I can't have this tree die from the bee's, any ideas? I want this tree here for the next 30 years.

 

[Catscratch]

Find a beekeeper and ask them to come take the hive. I've known many guys who raise bees and every one of them will jump at the chance to catch a wild hive. Not sure if it will save the tree, but it can be a way to get the bees away from it. You might just get a jar of honey in the process too.

 

[Bill]

What Catscratch said if there honey bees.

If there yellow jackets or nasty bees get some bonide spider and ground bee killer.
It's powdered permethrin. Put it around the entrances. They will get some on thier feet and take it in. Kills all of them.

 

[Peeps]

That does not sound like honey bees. That sounds like wasps. Bees are nice, wasps are assholes.

 

[Peeps]

 

[j-bird]

I have never seen a honey bee bore into solid wood. They will take over a rotten tree or a tree with a cavity in it already normally. Boring bees tend to be wasps or carpenter bees.... A carpenter bee will bore a hole in hard as hammered hell native timbers (you cant even drive a nail into) and the holes will be the size of a pencil to the size of your little finger. They are the size of what I call a bumble bee.

It's hard to say how long you have, but your tree has a weak spot and everything from bugs to woodpeckers will use the cavity and the decaying wood and it will grow weaker and weaker over time. It may not kill the tree, but it may put a hurting on it. You may need to consider a free standing type stand in this location at some point in time. Maybe even consider planting some trees for cover now.....

 

[Tree Spud]

A cavity in a tree is never a good thing. That means the cambium, the outer tree layer that carries nutrients & water up into the tree has been breached. The cavity also allows moisture in which starts the internal rotting process.

Putting a stand in a tree like this is very dangerous as it can have limbs referred to as widow makers. These are large limbs that may be dead and/or have a weakened support due the cavity. A limb can break off at any time by its own weight or if its windy. That's why chain sawing a dead tree can be much more dangerous than a live tree.

The tree may have 2 years or 10 years left, hard to tell.

 

[Telemark]

Can you fill the cavity with spray foam?

 

[Tree Spud]

Can you fill the cavity with spray foam?

That will actually make things worse.

Trunks wounds & decay

As J-Bird said ... start planting more trees. Accept the natural cycle we live in. Sometimes everything we do to a tree to make it huntable shortens its life span ...

 

[Tap]

Are they mason bees?
I have a ton of mason bees around my home. I believe they go into holes that other insects create.
My firewood piles always get hammered by saw flies. It's so bad that there's an amazing amount of saw dust in my pile every year. The mason bees have wintered in those saw fly holes. I'm not sure why. Maybe they feed on saw fly larvae in late fall or early spring?? IDK.
I had a ton of mason bees in my house this winter... they were coming out of the saw fly holes as the wood warmed up while sitting beside the hot wood stove.
As far as I know, mason bees don't sting. I handle them all the time and have never neen stung.