What can Carmel do to solve the bee problem around public trash cans?
The Carmel Street Department has been working on this issue for a few years now. Here are some updated details on what they have tried.
Typically at this time of year, due to changes in flowers, there are bees from a local hive that leave their yard and end up near the Arts and Design District area, for a couple of weeks. Typically, we don’t see as many bees in early October.
We’ve found that trapping and spraying the bees is simply not an option. So we clean the cans weekly, and empty the cans daily. We’ve changed the lids on some to be hinged, but have seen no difference in bee amount for those trash cans.
There is also an option of using moth balls in suet containers, which is also used by the Parks Department to try to deter the bees from swarming. We did this option last year and did not see success with this either. We’ve also tried peppermint oil, as the scent is supposed to defer them, but we didn’t see the success with it.
We will continue to work on this issue.
Approved and published by Jeff Worrell, Laura Campbell, Sue Fink, Kevin Rider, Time Hannon, Teresa Ayers, Adam Aasen, Tony Green and Miles Nelson.