Bees in Mast

[Magothy Boy]

Hello Everyone:

I have got an interesting situation. I have a Morgan 321. There is a bees nest inside my mast at the top of the mast. I can see them going into the mast section through a holes used to access the capture pin for the main halyard sheaves. No nest on the outside, lots of bee activity at the top, bees going in and out. Yuk. I am wondering whether anyone else has had to deal with this type of thing. The idea of going to the mast in the chair to eradicate an active wasp nest is not a pleasant one at all.

I would appreciate any sage advice or words of wisdom!

Thanks,
Kevin

 

[Tim R.]

Fresh honey for your toast. I don't see a problem???

How about wait for a especially cool night, smoke them out and plug the holes for a week or so.

 

[abk]

I had a nest too... except mine was in the boom... and I noticed activity in an opening thru the transom where a wire led to a depth finder... I waited until dark when all the wasps were inside, Then I bombed the cabin with insect killer. I didn't have any bomb left so I sprayed c r c lube inside the boom... Maybe I should have bought some of the right stuff, but it worked anyway... The key to all of this is wait until dark and you will get them all!!! Possibly you can access the mast from below and the killer stuf can shoot 25 feet plus... Hope this helps.
Bruce (ABK)

 

[sailaway78]

Which kind of wasp

Which kind of wasps/bees are they. Here we have two kinds of the wasps. The black ones, or dirt dobbers, are basically harmless as far as coming after you or stinging you. The red ones, are very agressive and will come after you and sting the hell out of you. And they do hurt. Take that into consideration before you act. If they are the red ones, you need something that will knock them down instantly. I don't think you would want to use it on the mast, but the very best answer for them where you can use it is 3M, spray adhesive.
I think the specific label on the can is 77. One single drop of spray and they are unable to fly, or get off the nest. But have never used it on something like a mast.

 

[Scott On Eagles Wings]

CO2 Fire Extingusher

will freeze them instantly and is not overly dangerous to you. Get them when it is already cold out if you can.

The only scarry part is if you miss you will be hanging there like a piece of meat. Perhaps you could get your hands on a bee suit. Good luck.

 

[Ross]

There are many varieties of "bees". Most of them are wasps of one variety or another. Generally wasps are seasonal creatures that die off during the cold weather. Some wasps are social and build large paper nests and some are solitary and often build mud nests . Bees on the other hand can be honeybees and will winter over and they build brood and food combs from wax. Bumble bees are also social but hybernate during the winter. The insectide sevin is effective on all of them and I know of no method to prevent them from nesting where ever they choose.

 

[Steve Dion]

Words of wisdom?

HONEY?

I don't know if I would go up the mast with all of that activity. Once the weather cools off they will become less active. You may want to think about some type of traps (depending on the type of bees) or just go up there and stick a hose down the mast. Come down and let the water flow.

 

[kloudie1]

OUCH .. that has some potential for pain! I was faced with this in a boom and jused spray carburetor cleaner, which instantly knocked them out!.. (it is a nasty solvent, be careful) My kids used to laugh and say that they thought the wasps might run better with clean carburetors but that was not the case..

 

[Rich Stidger]

Wasp PREVENTION!!

I am confused as to whether the OP has bees or wasps. The long-range killing chemical works very well to get rid of the ones that you have. However, it will not prevent them from returning.

A method I have used with great success to PREVENT wasps from nesting is to place a single drier softener sheet in the area to be protected. I don't know if this works for bees, but for sure, it is effective on wasps. I had a battle with wasps in my mailbox at home and although I could get rid of them, they kept returning. After putting a drier sheet in the back of the box they never returned. And you don't need to change the sheet- I've used the same sheet in my mailbox all year.

Also in my neck of the woods, birds like to nest in the ends of my open boom in the Spring after I remove my winter cover. Sealing the ends with taped plastic has stopped them and has eliminated the extensive work to remove the huge volume of nesting material from inside the boom.

 

[Tom Monroe]

Well, I can't help but chuckle that they are BEES at the TOP of the mast ... as opposed to WASPS, which I have everywhere inside my cabin, in the lazarette, the anchor locker, inside the outboard (where they built a nest which grounded the coil), etc etc.

Tom

 

[Dan Johnson]

Magothy...

I've been sitting here thinking of how to raise a long enough piece of PVC pipe up the mast so the opening is at the bee's doorstep then use a shop vac's exhaust pressure to force enough shots of Raid's Flying Insect Spray up the PVC tube to form an effective killing zone.

Or, sew rags around the halyard about 3 feet up from the shackle, saturate them with the above insect spray, then haul them up to the sheaves and let them do their thing.

The other side of me can't help but picture the sight of dazed, pissed-off bees dropping to the deck and onto the sprayer/vac operator/halyard manipulator. Or, getting the hose in the wrong vac opening and sucking the angry hoard into the vac--then whattaya do?

Better wait a couple more weeks and let the cold kill 'em. Sail on other people's boats--that's what friends are for...

 

[Hermit Scott]

Flying beasts

This is what I would do. I would get a fogger and find a hole near the bottom of the mast and set it off spraying into the mast. They would all die. Then you just have to figure out how to get the nest out, and dead bees/wasps.
I had wasps in the holes by the winchs in the cockpit. I got stung on the back and my dog got stung on the hand(paw). That's when they got a shot of WD 40.

 

[Ross]

Re: Flying beasts

With tongue very firmly in cheek you could vent propane into the mast from the bottom and shut off the source and light a match. No bees,no dead bees , no residual nest, no insulation on the wires. BUT NO BEES!! ;D

 

[ScottyIrwin]

LOL like all the replys. Personally I would have the yard take the mast down this year.

 

[sailingdog]

I wouldn't try to deal with this problem with the mast up... the pucker factor is just too high. It also depends quite a bit on whether it is a bees' nest or wasps' nest. Wasps are thin waisted and generally far more aggresive than bees are. Wasps will generally attack any who approaches their nest too closely. This is especially true of the hornets. Bees, unless their Africanized variants, are much less aggressive and generally will only sting if provoked.

If you are going to use an insecticide to get rid of them, replace your halyards with messenger lines, if at all possible, since insecticide probably isn't going to be too good for the lines and you probably don't want to be regularly handling lines that were heavily soaked by insecticide, since most insecticides are skin-absorptive neurotoxins. Throw the messenger lines away after rinsing the mast thoroughly and re-reeving the halyards.