Please, never kill a nest of honey bees even if you find them living around your house. I don't expect you to live with them right outside your door but there are better ways of fixing the problem rather than killing them. First off, honey bees are one of the most important insects in our ecosystem. They pollinate plants more than all other methods combined, and of course the honey and pollen they produce that humans consume. Think of a world without these bees. Crops would not produce near as effectively, fruit trees would produce less fruit, and plants in general would not do as well. These bees are in serious trouble for unknown reasons. Many think it's related to the high pitch frequencies that cell phones emit but it is still being researched. Whatever the reason we need to continue to figure out a solution to help save these animals so it doesn't cause a world wide catastrophe for our food sources.
What do I do if I find a swarm of bees or if they are living around my house?
If you find honey bees living around your house the first step is to get on the Internet. Look for a local Beekeepers Association in your area. Start with a Google search such as "Beekeepers Association City State". (Be sure to change out City and State for your actual location in the search phrase.) Many Beekeepers Associations have a list of numbers to call right on their website of local beekeepers that will quickly and happily remove the bees from your premises for no charge, as long as they are not within the walls of a building or a house. Many will also remove them from such places for a nominal fee for their effort. Remember, a beekeeper wants more bee hives and a swarm is surely worth their time to come pick up to increase their stock. This not only helps the beekeeper but also allows the honey bees to stay alive and continue to pollinate and produce a honey crop. I have also found numerous entries on Craigs List for free swarm removal in different areas.
If you can't find a Beekeepers Association online try contacting your local wildlife association, they may be able to help you find some numbers to call for bee removal. You could also try to talk to any local farmers as they often have relationships with beekeepers for pollination of their crops and they may have contact information for a local beekeeper.
Honey bees are very seldom aggressive ( of course I'm NOT speaking of africanized bees ) and they only sting you out of fear to protect their hive. Native honey bees are very laid back normally and will tolerate a lot as long as it doesn't spook them. If you find bees around your house and can't find anyone to help you, feel free to leave a comment on this post and I will do my best to assist you in finding a beekeeper in your local area. If you are a beekeeper and would like to leave your contact information in the comments section feel free to as well.
The bee's shouldn't cause any distruction in the walls as the only thing they will do is use wax to seal up any cracks they find ;) If you have the hole all the way through I'm thinking maybe they are flying around in the garage? If you want to keep them and let them live in the wall and the they are also going into the garage I would consider going out there late at night when the bees are asleep and sealing up the hold going into the garage so their only way in and out of the wall is to the outside. You could get a small board and put some liquid nails on around it and place it over the hole so they no longer can invade your living space. The bees will probably never leave as once they have a good location ( and what better location than a nice tightly sealed house wall? ). They may swarm from time to time causing 1/2 of the bee's to flee and find a new home and the original bee's will start a new queen to continue their colony. This will happen once they have grown larger than their home can support. Good luck to you and thanks for caring about our honey bee friends!
what other bee would be in the ground . we have a nest of what i thought was honey bee . it is under my lavender bush. what happened is i movied the bush and i think i left a gap in the ground and now i see tons of bees going in and out . i was watering one day and hit the whole heavy with the water and when i went back 10mins later it was swaming with bees. and the whole was back in 20mins and busiess like usual. does anyone one ees ?
so these are not the bees we need to save . and i can try to get them out this is at my front door
About a week ago I discovered that we have honey bees living in our wall. We are in an apartment complex so I had to report it to the manager. I am an avid bee lover and have had bee swarms appear on our patio and have contacted local bee keepers to come get them. I know it's easy to pick up a swarm but now that I have a group living in the wall, the manager wants to exterminate. I'm wondering if there is anyway to safely get them out of the wall without exterminating them. I live in Tustin and if anyone has any ideas, please let me know. You can email me at: jamita22@yahoo.com. I will feel awful if the manager exterminates and would like to do all I can to prevent that from happening. Thanks.
It would be sacrilege to kill a honeybee in this day and age, of colony collapse disorder! Even Häagen-Dazs is kicking in money for research. They admit they have selfish motives, though (evidently, 40% of their flavors are fruit- or nut-based). :)
Hi, good post. I have been wondering about this issue,so thanks for posting. I’ll definitely be coming back to your site.
I have honeybees that started to move into a small hole in a wall of our house. We put the hole there for a light fixture we ended up never using and forgot to plug it up... Anyway we just started seeing these bees about a month ago... there are so many flying around...and the hole goes right through to the garage... I think they must be living in the walls because they fly in on both sides of the hole...must be at least 50 to 100 flying around the hole... I want to know should I let them be or call a bee keeper to come and take them away... I have no intention of killing them...(am a vegetarian :) but I am concerned about what is actually in the wall and what kind of destruction this will cause if left to get bigger... and could this entice other creatures to visit my walls....also do they ever move away on their own?
Lots of questions hope you can help..
P.S. we feel very special they have chosen our home as we just started planting a vegetable garden and heard bees were scarce then all of a sudden we have our own colony taking up residence....haha
thanks for this site...
DJ
Hello,
We have a nest growning onto the house. Between the first and second floor. I would call it a small but, growing colony.
We live in Ft. Lauderdale so its hot and humid most of the time.
We dont want to kill them and dont even mind helping them grow. We would like to move them to a bee box or something of that nature or at least help them to the bee box when they "Split". We know nothing of beekeeping so what would you do?
I see a swarm below the water meter in the gound, and 20-25 flies are swamping the entrance to the water meter. Is there any way to remove them besides trying to flood them out?
Dear Jasonm, to the right of our front door I noticed small bees entering and leaving a hole in the ground that is nearly covered by mulch. The activity is similiar to a busy airport with bees taking off and landing. They are small, at least I think they are bees. This makes me nervous as I need to carry an epiPen with me for bee stings. Being aware of the loss of honey bees, I don't want anything to happen to this "colony," but they seem to be multiplying and I am afraid to weed around my garden now.
Dear Jasonm,
Thank you much for your response. Local firemen canvassing the neighborhood for faulty fire alarms verified that they are yellow jackets,which makes the hairs on my neck stand up. I took a closer look through binoculars and thought they did not resemble honeybees or native bees. Never had yellow jackets take up residence. I have had social wasps with their interesting paper sculptures high under eaves, and gently discouraged them. Now I have to figure a way to discourage the yellow jackets as I did not figure an exterminator into my budget. I think it is a small swarm. Thank you again for your help.
Thanks for the info - this is helpful. I do have a message into a local bee keeper who does extraction. We do not see swarming but there is constant activity going in and out of the side our house. I discovered it two weeks ago when mulching in a corner by our porch. I see 4 to 6 of them at any given time and contantly in and out - does it sound like an established colony? When flying by we have seen them with honey. Any info would be apprecaited.
You most likely have yellow jackets as honey bee's never nest in the ground. See the following link for images of them.. http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=yellow+jackets&gbv=2&aq=f&oq=&aq...
No, these are actually a type of wasp and not a bee at all. They are not what we should protect. Thanks for doing your part in helping our world.
Megan,
Honey bee's never nest in the ground, you have some other type of bee. Honey bee's nest in hollow tree's, in the walls of a house etc.
Faith, I have never known honey bee's to live in the ground. Is this hole right up next to the house to where maybe they are just using the small hole as a passage way to the underside of your house? Honey bee's never nest in the ground however there are other types of bee's that do. What makes me wonder is you are saying it's like an airport with bees taking off and landing and that does sound similar to honey bees but still doesn't say they are indeed honey bees. Is their any where safe that you can be and get a picture of them to show me? Be sure to not put yourself in danger. If they are honey bees they won't be living in the ground however I assume it may be possible they found a small ground passage way to another nesting site. Thanks for your post and I look forward to your response.
Faith, What I would do is get some foaming wasp spray. I don't like killing any creature however with your allergy this could mean your life which is nothing to play with. Get the foaming wasp spray and ask a fellow neighbor or friend to come over and spray the colony for you. This should take care of it and and you can feel free to walk out your front door soon. Thanks for caring about our honey bee's enough to help them even with your allergy. Good luck and take care.
Well it's hard to say, however if you are only seeing 4 to 6 at any given time the colony probably isn't huge which is good. You are probably seeing them bring in pollen which they carry on their legs, if they were bringing in nectar ( what bee's make honey out of ) it would be in their holding stomachs and out of sight. Right now many flowers are in bloom so I'm sure a lot of pollen is being collected by bee's. It's great that you have found someone to help with your problem so you don't have to kill the hive. Back to your original question of them being established it's really hard to say. They could be a very small established colony or a very large none established colony. I would think they are just getting started because if you look at an established hive you could count probably 50 or more at any given time entering and leaving the hive. Good luck and great wishes to you!
Moving an established colony with honeycomb already is a very tricky task. If you want to remove the bee's which it doesn't sound like you do then I would contact an experienced bee keeper. Also if you want them moved into a bee hive and you want to keep the bee's I would still seek the advice of a beekeeper and maybe pay them for their time. I have owned hives in the past however I have never had to deal with your exact situation. If you want you can find on-line local beekeepers associations and they often have meetings throughout the summer months. Maybe take some pictures of your colony and show them to some of the beekeepers and ask them for their advice on moving them to a hive. Be sure if you attempt this you get the right gear! You will need a smoker ( this stimulates the bees and makes them think there is a fire so they will fill their stomaches with honey thus making them more docile when handling them ), protective gloves the bee's can't sting through, and a bee vale. These are the absolute basics you will need. Also when bee's swarm they are looking for a new home and they are easily persuaded to go into a new hive, however when they swarm they do not look right around their area for a new home. They want to distance themselves from the main colony before they seek a new hive. Good luck and thank you for not wanting to harm these great insects!