Honey Bees

[Steve30]

Hello
Question about how to stop bees going in my pool
So I have a new neighbor and at first it was all cool and good I thought this is great
Last week he had 10 bee hives delivered and set up behind his garage
So now I have a few hundred thousand bees within 35 feet of my pool, and guess what? this is the bees new spa, they love my pool and my bird bath
100's of bees at a time, so now that the hot weather is here I can't use my pool, they really love the ladder and the solar cover cover when its rolled up
Its going to be in the 90's this weekend and I can't wait to watch all these bees enjoying my pool
PS I have been using the trouble free pool method since 2013 and have never had any alga, or need to shock my pool
We open the pool in spring always crystal clear
Just started with the boric acid this year to see how that works
Thank you !

 

[Shirker]

Boric acid might be toxic to bees (is that a pro or a con?). Could your neighbor be encouraged to put a "safer" water source closer to the hives?

 

[LoneWolfArcher]

That is unfortunate. I live in the country and have a river through the property. If a "neighbor" had bees they'd be so far away it wouldn't matter. But it sounds like you live in a sub? Do ordinances and/or HOA allow for bees? And 10 hives worth? I'd hate to call the city/HOA on my neighbor but those rules are in place exactly for these reasons.

 

[Wally oasis]

So this is interesting
My wife is deathly afraid of bees .
I have heard that if you put salt into the pool that bees don't like the water so much. I put in a couple of bags last year and it seemed to work. I drained my pool a couple of weeks ago and refilled but haven't added any salt. I've seen a couple of bees lately but unknown how effective salt really is.

 

[Wally oasis]

So I've looking around at the different threads here at TFP.
It seems salt may attract bees. Also chlorine is like alcohol to us, it makes them drunk.

Maybe borates in the water would kill/poison them.
Doesn't seem to be any good positive answers.

 

[Shirker]

Maybe borates in the water would kill/poison them.

Borax is used as an insecticide. But I don't know if pool concentration would be effective or not. Personally, I feel that is the least effective way to deal with the issue though. But it might be a good conversation starter with the neighbor.

"hey man, I'm concerned about your bees. I hope the borax I put out doesn't hurt them. You think you might aught to move them further away or provide easy water for them?"