OC0134
.40
Removing Bees and Wasps
Michigan State University Extension – Oakland County
There are many species of stinging insects
that can become a nuisance around the
home. The following are suggestions that
will help you solve problems with different
types of stinging insects.
Honey Bees
About 50,000 people in
Michigan keep honeybees
either as a business or a
hobby.
They produce
about $4,000,000 worth of
honey and beeswax and
pollinate over $100,000,000 worth of
commercial fruits, seeds and vegetables.
Besides this, they pollinate raspberries,
strawberries,
apples,
cucumbers
and
various other fruit and seed crops in
backyard gardens. In spite of their value,
bees, which take up residence in the wall of
a house or in a hollow tree near the house,
may become a nuisance and should be
removed or destroyed. The following are
some suggestions on removing bees from
houses and trees.
If you can open a
building or tree to allow access to the
honey bee colony, the whole nest of bees,
honeycomb and all, may be removed. It
may be possible to hire a local beekeeper
to remove the colony alive. Otherwise,
destroy the bees and bury the remaining
material if any harmful insecticides have
been placed on it. You may protect your-
self from stings in this operation by using a
beekeeper’s veil and smoker and a pair of
leather gloves. If it is impractical to open
up the wall of a house to remove the
colony, apply some chemical that will kill
them. You may do the job yourself or hire
a commercial exterminator or a local
beekeeper.
If attempting to destroy a colony yourself,
keep in mind that the wax combs (nest) in
which the bees live and rear their brood
may be some distance from the flight hole
through which the bees enter or leave the
house. If you spray poison through the
flight hole, it may not make contact with
the nest and so not kill the bees. This is
the chief reason for failure in destroying
the bees in the walls of houses. You can
sometimes locate the nest by tapping on
the outside or inside wall with a hammer
and then listening for an answering buzz.
When the nest has been located, you may
bore a hole through the wall, preferably
from the outside so that a spray or dust
may be directed onto the nest.
Apply
insecticides in the evening after all the field
bees have returned to the colony. Swarms
are most easily killed as soon as possible
after they enter the building. Established
colonies are best killed in late winter or
early spring, as they are weakest at that
time of the year.
Remember that
persistent effort may be required and that
insecticides work best if applied right to the
nest. After the bees are killed, remove the
nest if at all possible, and paint over the
nest area. Otherwise, more swarms may
smell the old nest and re-occupy the
location. In any case, it is advisable to seal
all entrance holes after the bees have been
destroyed. You cannot solve the problem
by sealing in the live bees. They will crawl
between the walls and find an opening
either to the inside or outside of the house.
Using Insecticides
Several commercial companies now put out
aerosol sprays especially designed for bees,
wasps and hornets. These are the most
convenient insecticides for controlling many
bee and wasp problems.
Your local
hardware should carry or be able to locate
a spray of this type. Ordinary household
sprays are normally not effective.
You may blow carbaryl (Sevin) or diazinon
dust directly into the bees nest with a
garden duster.
These are poisonous
chemicals so handle them with care. If
more convenient, a liquid form of these
insecticides may be sprayed on with a
garden sprayer. These materials do not
have much fumigant action so they must
make contact with the bees. Use of the
“Wasp, Hornet” aerosol along with the use
of insecticide dust at the flight hole may be
effective when you cannot locate the nest.
It may be necessary to dust or spray
through the main flight hole several
evenings in succession until the bees are
killed. Hire an experienced exterminator if
you do not have success.
Swarms of Honey Bees
As honeybee colonies become strong in the
late spring and early summer, they
sometimes send swarms of one queen and
several thousand worker bees. A swarm
may cluster on the branch of a tree or
some other resting site on your property.
Their normal procedure is to stay on the
branch in the open until scout bees have
found a suitable place to make their nest.
Usually in two days or less scouts will have
located a place and the swarm will break
cluster and leave.
If you know a beekeeper in the area who
wants more colonies, you can inform him of
the swarm so that he may remove the bees
and install them in a hive. Your municipal
office may have the names of local
beekeepers who will take swarms.
Other Bees
There are many species of wild bees other
than honeybees.
Collectively they are
beneficial because they pollinate plants and
some species are particularly useful in the
pollination of certain important crops. They
rarely sting and nests should not be
destroyed unless they are located where
children play or for some other reason they
may be a nuisance.
Bumble Bees
There are many
species
of
bumblebees
but
most of them are
covered
with
varying proportions
of rather long yellow and black hairs.
Queens are quite large, plump insects
frequently observed in the springtime.
Bumblebees are important pollinators of
red clover, blueberries and other crops. If
nests are built where the bees will be a
nuisance, the bees may be killed with the
“Wasp, Hornet” aerosol mentioned earlier
or by spraying the nest well with an
insecticide such as diazinon.
Carpenter Bees
These bees somewhat
resemble
bumblebees
but
they
have
a
broader head and
usually an all-black
abdomen.
They
make their nests in tunnels chewed into
solid wood, although they rarely cause any
structural damage to buildings. They most
commonly bore into rough cedar or
redwood
siding.
Insecticides
as
recommended for bumblebees may be
sprayed into the tunnel if these bees are a
nuisance.
Ground Bees
Many species of bees, usually small in size,
build nest in tunnels in the ground.
Sometimes large numbers of them may
make their tunnels in a lawn and become a
nuisance. Place a small amount of Sevin
wettable powder in each hole to get rid of
them.
Ground bees nests
Controlling Wasps
There are several groups of wasps,
commonly identified as hornets, wasps,
yellow jackets, mud daubers, Polistes, etc.
Each of these groups can be identified by
the nests they build.
Hornets
Hornets build gray
paper-like
nests,
often larger than
footballs.
These
may be located in
trees of shrubbery
or attached to buildings. New nests, which
are made each year, are gradually
enlarged, as the colony becomes more
populous.
Discarded nests gradually
disintegrates or are torn apart by birds and
other animals during the winter. Only the
queens (laying females) survive the winter,
by hibernating.
Control: If a nest is located where it will be
a nuisance, it may be controlled by
spraying with one of the aerosol sprays
specially designed for wasps and bees.
Spray the nest in the evening when the
wasps are home and direct the spray
particularly at the flight hole in the lower
part of the nest. Repeat the next evening
if some survived. A Sevin spray may also
be used quite successfully.
Yellow Jackets
Yellow jackets are
smaller
than
the
common
hornets
described previously
and
have
rather
definite black and
yellowish bands on
the abdomen. They build annual nests of
paper, which are much smaller than those
made by hornets and are usually built in
the ground, though some are built in
houses. Control: spray yellow jacket nests
above ground with the aerosol spray
directed down the hole in the evening.
Cover the hole to hold in the fumes and
bees after treatment. If the nest is at the
root of a valuable shrub, be careful that
you do not pour in large quantities of some
chemical that may damage the roots.
Polistes Wasps
Polistes wasps build
grey
paper-like
nests with exposed
cells facing down
that
look
like
honeycomb.
The
nests
are
often
found under
the
eaves or other parts
of houses, protected
by overhang, or in
attics. Polistes also abandon their nests in
the fall and mated females often find their
way into attics and the walls of houses to
hibernate until spring.
Polistes adults are long-legged, rather
gangly-looking in flight, of a predominantly
dark brown color. You may sometimes see
large numbers of them flying up and down
the wall on the sunny side of a house in the
fall of the year. These are mated females
looking for a place to spend the winter. If
they find a hole to the attic or between the
walls, they may crawl inside in large
numbers to hibernate. At times during the
winter and early spring, some of them may
find their way into living areas of the
house.
They may sting if accidentally
crushed. Control: Knock down nests found
under the eaves or elsewhere around the
house. If done every year throughout the
summer,
this
will
lower
the
local
population. The aerosol spray mentioned
earlier, specially designed for bees and
wasps or other sprays suggested for
honeybees, may be used to knock down
the wasps when found dancing up and
down the wall of the house in the fall of the
year. If any numbers are found in the attic
during the winter, the “Wasp, Hornet”
aerosol spray may again be used.
Individual wasps found inside the house
during the winter or early spring are
usually slow moving and fly poorly so may
be killed with a fly swatter.
Distributed by MSU Extension-Oakland County, 1200 N. Telegraph Road, Pontiac, MI 48341,
248/858-0881, www.msue.msu.edu/oakland , Charlene Molnar, Horticulture Advisor
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