Bees?

So, I have a problem. I took a look at the 18 today - it sat in the backyard this summer, as I put the 14 in the water at my parents cottage this year instead of the 18. I was checking it out, found 2 new soft spots to repair this year, then noticed the bees. Looks like one nest in the sail track of the mast - no problem. Another in the rotted plywood sailbox on the trailer - no problem. Then I found a third. Don't know how much of a "nest" there is, but there were lots of bees in the joint between the starboard hull and the front crossbar - underneaththe crossbar, where the dolphin striker rod comes out - you know the crevice I'm talking about.

So, how much trouble am I in? Do bees eat/destroy fiberglass? Do I just need to spray and clean the pesky buggers away, or do I have a major glass-job to do?

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-Bill

Conesus Lake, NY
1976 Hobie 14

Bill,

Not sure I can help you much, but I think I can say with certianty that bees will not eat fiberglass. I think they would just attach a nest to whatever substrate. I really do not think their building material would be acidic enough to harm anything as well. Of course I am no expert when it comes to bees so maybe someone else can be of more help. I suppose it also depends on what type of bees you are refering to. There are bees that bore into wood but they are usually solitary creatures.

Is this one of those large paper nests? I don't think anything living eats fiberglass (At least not on this planet). Just wait until tonight when it gets dark and cool out. Go out with some bee killer and a flashlight and douse the nest with it. Wait about an hour, knock the nest off with a stick or something, move the boat, hit the nest with more spray and drop a match on it. While doing all this be aware of any bee's looking to defend the nest, at night they usually don't fly and as it gets cooler the temp will really slow them down. Wash any overspray off the boat. You and your boat should bee ok.

If it's just a tubular mud wasp nest just wait till tonight spray it a little and knock it off, stomp it into the ground...wash boat off.

If your allergic, get someone else to do it!!!!

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1981 H16.
1993 Macgregor 26S

Then again, perhaps they just want to sail.

I take preservation a bit further then I should at times, so I'd suggest relocating them if you can get to the hive. Just keep in mind, water works them up, smoke settles them down. Pull it up on the driveway, then toss the grill from your BBQ on your fire pit. Get some decent flames and toss on a wad of wet leaves. When its good and smokin' grab the grill and set it under that section of the boat. This should create enough smoke to make the bees pretty docile. You can then use a towel to grab the nest and move it.

Or you can just blast the bastards with poison/water hose at a safe distance.

Either way, I'm sure the structure of the boat is fine. If they were carp bees they would make their own hole.

AAAAHHHHH!!!!!!! I hate friggin' BEES!!!! AAAHHHHHH!!!!!!! The only thing worse is SNAKES!!!! AAAAHHHHHH!!!!!

Bees...not to bad, red wasps....the devil!

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Nacra 5.2 "Elsies"
Hobie 14T, "Blazin" I guess I am keeping her!

I found some wasp nests in the trailer last year early in the morning. Not sure why but I knocked the nest off into the wifes tupperware and closed the lid.

New problem - a bunch of very pissed off wasps inside the tupperware and I didnt want to ruin the tupperware with posion.

Solution - about 25 seconds in the microwave oven.

harriw, Now look at what you started.
The guys are stinging worse than a bunch of bees. I know you didn't mean to.

On a quieter note, you might call a bee keeper and he will come and get them. Animal services should have a number.

Yeah, Put a tap on the drainplug and start selling honey!!:D

I had a VW bus that aparently the bees liked and built a hive in the front door! I left them in there, they eventually took off. They did make a freaking mess though. Everytime it got hot wax would drip onto the door jamb and make the door stick.

There's a bee shortage on the planet and scientists are actually worried about certan plants not getting polinated. Aparently there's no bee shortage at your place.

They don't eat fiberglass.

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Sail Revolution
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Thanks for the tips guys - we actually have a pretty good exterminator that we have bee-proof the house every spring (not so much because the proofing works, but because their guarantee is awesome, and they'll come back and get rid of the nests all summer long for free). It's getting cool enough now at night though that I shouldn't have any problem getting rid of them - I just wanted to make sure I wouldn't have any serious fiberglass repairs to make afterwards. I think I'll spray them a few times, then clean out the survivors/nest pieces with the pressure washer.

By the way, great story Walt. What do nuked bees look like anyway? That's much more efficient than the ol' magnifying glass method.

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-Bill

Conesus Lake, NY
1976 Hobie 14

You're off your god damn rocker. Kill em' all!!!!

Well, I had my h16 set up at the lake for the past few weeks, when we went to sail her on Saturday Sept. 1 we had a problem similar to the bees. When we pulled the sails out of the sail tube the sails were covered with tiny ants! We put the sail up slowly and knocked the ants off with a towel and sprayed them with off, I also sprayed some off in the sail tube. Has anyone ever had ants in their sail tube? Will the off I sprayed in the tube hurt the sails?
This just seemed weird.
We also ran into a guy at the lake who had an h16, I believe it had sail number 546, he said it was one of the first h16s, he said it was almost 40 years old!
John G

Quit using your sail for a table cloth.

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Woops, I didn't realize that you shouldn't use sails for a table cloth!!, What should I use???
Yesterday we went back out and had some nice wind for a while, then it died for an hour, while we were in the middle of the lake, bummer. It did pick up a little bit and we were able to get back in, but it took us about an hour to go a mile. I noticed when I got in that I had too much downhaul, so much for my attention to detail.

I made a mistake on the sail numbers on that older hobie 16 I saw at the lake, (Stockton Lake, Missouri) . The correct sail numbers are 254, white with one stripe toward the top of the sail, the boat still seemed in pretty good shape, except he had a bent mast.
John G.