any way of discouraging these pesky locals
fencing them out
spikes on the landing platform
calling them rude names???
Having had no experience with Eastern Water Dragons but heaps of experience with Cane Toads, we keep our hives well off the ground making it hard for the Cane Toads to reach the bees. So it appears that some kind of physical barrier would be the way to go. You could try calling them rude names:), however I don’t think that would work very well:) Good luck with that, cheers
In addition to Jeff’s excellent suggestion of putting the hive on a stand, would it be worth trying a mouse guard in the hive entrance? Perhaps an even better possibility is a robbing screen:
http://entomology.ucdavis.edu/files/147611.pdf
A robbing screen drives the bees up right at the hive entrance, so they are already in flight within a few centimeters of the hive front. That would at least make them harder to catch!
Other possibilities might be electric fences, barbed wire, a minefield around the hive, and a motion-sensing automated machine gun…
thanks dawn i like this
it may frustrate the cheeky sod
Some of us have those here in the UK to deter two legged thieves!
There ar advantages to having your colonies in the garden
If you think it is just a singular individual that is liking your bees you could try a trap and relocate plan. If it’s all of them in the area then this may not be feasible. Look at devices used to keep squirrels out of bird feeders you may be able to adapt the concept to your hive stand and prevent them from getting at your bees that way.