Bees are crucial to the environment because they pollinate food crops and help ecosystems adapt to changes in temperature, but they’re also notorious for their stinging habits. If you have bees in your yard, you may feel the urge to exterminate them right away. However, before you think about killing your bees, it’s important to identify them first. Since many types of bees are good for the environment, you should reconsider exterminating them. That’s why most pest control experts and exterminators offer bee removal or bee relocation services in order to get them off your property without killing them.
Professional exterminators such as Terminix or Orkin can quickly identify and remove the bees on your property. If you’re struggling with a bee infestation, I recommend reaching out to some of our picks for the best pest control companies below.
Identifying Types of Bees
Stinging insects like bees, wasps, and hornets can spark fears, but not all bees are created equal. Some help pollinate flowers and crops all over the world, while others are more aggressive.
Before you start spraying pesticides or call an exterminator, it’s important to identify the type of bees you’re dealing with. If you don’t, you could end up killing bees that benefit the environment and the plants in your yard. Bee identification can be tricky, so when in doubt, it’s always a good idea to get a professional opinion from a pest control service.
Bumble Bees
When people think about bees, many envision large bumble bees with black and yellow stripes and fuzzy bodies. Bumble bees are usually a little more than an inch long and have stubby wings. Due to their larger size, they generate considerable heat and can work during cooler weather, unlike some other bee species.
Bumble bees build their nests near the ground, often hidden under compost piles, wood, or abandoned animal burrows or tunnels. A typical bumble bee hive has several hundred bees, so if you see one, stay far away. Bumble bees don’t lose their stingers once they inflict a sting, so they can sting multiple times.
Honey Bees
Honey bees are about half the size of a bumble bee and are only active during warmer months. Typically, they create nests in hollowed-out trees, logs and fence posts. Their colonies are significantly larger than those of other types of bee and can contain 10,000 to 80,000 individuals. Honey bees may sting if they feel threatened, but they’re not highly aggressive.
Unlike bumble bees, honey bees die when they sting. They can only sting humans once because their barbed stinger is attached to their lower abdomen. After stinging, when the stinger detaches, it pulls out the bee’s digestive tract and venom sac.
Carpenter Bees
Carpenter bees most closely resemble bumble bees but have shiny black abdomens and minimal fuzziness. Generally, carpenter bees can be found anywhere with access to wood, such as fields, parks, or properties with wooden houses, gardens or sheds. Instead of creating hives, carpenter bees drill holes into wood and create tunnels where they make nests and lay eggs.
Unlike most bee species, carpenter bees are not social insects, meaning that they don’t live in colonies. Carpenter bees sting, and they’re destructive to wooden structures, so if you want to get rid of carpenter bees, you may need to exterminate them instead of relocating them.
Mining Bee
Mining bees (also called miner bees) are similar in appearance to honey bees but are smaller and have black bodies. Mining bees are essential to flower pollination, and they very rarely sting or bite, so they’re very helpful to have around your yard. Unlike many bee species, mining bees are solitary. Mining bees get their name from their nesting habits. Female mining bees will dig tunnels in the soil and cluster their nests together. Mining bees will often nest in the same location for many years.
Killer Bee
Killer bees, or Africanized honey bees, are a hybrid bee species first discovered in Brazil. Despite their name, these bees are no deadlier than other honey bee species. Their name probably comes from their more aggressive nature, as these bees will boldly defend their hive and chase down threats. According to Pest World, swarms of killer bees will sometimes chase humans for more than a quarter of a mile.
European Dark Bee
European dark bees are a subspecies of the Western honey bee. They are known for being more aggressive than honey bees and more likely to chase enemies. European dark bees also swarm to reproduce, which can be a major problem if a swarm ends up in your yard.
How Bee Exterminators Work
An exterminator will start by assessing your home for signs of bees, including bee damage and active hives or nests. Once they get a picture of how big your bee problem is, they’ll estimate how much bee removal will cost. If they suspect you have carpenter bees, they’ll closely examine wooden surfaces for damage, pollen near drill holes, and stains.
Depending on the pest control company, you may go through multiple treatments or need a monthly, bimonthly, or quarterly plan for effective bee control. After your inspection, the company will advise you on their recommended treatment plan for your specific bee infestation.
How To Remove Carpenter Bees
If an exterminator determines you have carpenter bees, they may start by changing the structure the bees are nesting in. This could mean layering a material the bees can’t drill through on top of the wood to protect it. Some may paint or stain the wood, since carpenter bees don’t typically drill through treated wood.
Another common bee treatment is spraying or dusting chemicals into holes in your home’s wood or access points. This will slowly kill the adult bees over time but won’t hurt the eggs, so you may need several treatments to get rid of the larvae as they grow. In most cases, your pest control professional will need to re-treat and observe your home to ensure the bees are entirely eradicated.
How To Remove Honey Bees and Bumble Bees
Honey bees and bumble bees rarely need to be exterminated, but it’s not illegal. According to the Mississippi State Extension Service, there are no federal or state laws protecting nuisance honey bees. Still, it’s best not to kill them unless you absolutely have to, so an exterminator or local beekeeper is a good choice for having the bee colony relocated safely.
Typically, these pest control experts tempt the bees to leave their colony and enter a box hive. Some beekeepers even use a bee vacuum to remove them from the hive. After this, the beekeeper can move the whole box hive to a different location so they can continue vital pollination.
Can I Remove Bees Myself?
Don’t try to exterminate or remove bees on your own without the proper experience, knowledge or equipment. Using DIY pest control methods to kill bees is dangerous, so don’t attempt it unless you have some pest control experience. It’s best to leave extermination or removal to the experts.
What Not To Do
When in doubt, always call a professional to deal with bees and wasps. Don’t attempt the following:
- Spraying pesticides
- Closing off the exit hole of a beehive to try and starve the bees
- Pouring boiling water into a hive
- Using diatomaceous earth to kill bees
How To Prevent Bees
Typically, there’s no reason to try and prevent beneficial bees such as honey bees or bumble bees from creating a nearby hive and pollinating your garden. Still, if you wanted to create a bee-free environment, you could cut down on plants that attract pollinators.
Carpenter bees are a different story since they’re dangerous to your home, so you should take preventative measures to avoid them. Start by painting and staining your wood to prevent carpenter bees from nesting. Carpenter bees typically don’t drill through treated wood, so painting your wood will likely encourage them to nest elsewhere.
If you’re trying to prevent other types of bees from congregating in your yard, start by eliminating food sources. Bumble bees and honey bees love sweet foods, so if you have a trash can outside, make sure it’s covered so bees won’t get into leftover sweets, soda cans, bottles of juice, and other types of sugary garbage. Routinely empty your outdoor trash cans and clean them regularly to keep them free from stickiness and food residue that may attract pests.
Other options for repelling bees include citronella candles and planting red geraniums and marigolds to encourage bees to bypass your garden.
Best Bee Exterminators
It can be hard to sort through all the options for bee extermination and pest control, but a few companies rise above the rest when it comes to service and reliability. Orkin and Terminix are great options for bee control and extermination because they have strong reviews, a long, positive history in the pest control industry and licensed professionals trained to control bees effectively.
Before you decide which company to hire, check out our Orkin review and our Terminix review to get a better idea of what each company has to offer. Then gather multiple quotes to see the companies’ plans for pricing and treatment.
Final Thoughts on Bee Exterminators
When you’re unsure, bee control is a job best left to professionals. Trying to exterminate bees on your own can be dangerous, and it often results in killing bees that are beneficial for the environment. However, professional bee exterminators can identify the type of bees you have and assess whether your bee infestation requires extermination or relocation.
Regardless of what kind of bee species you have, I recommend leaving pest control services to the experts. If you’re thinking about hiring professionals to handle your bee problem, get a free quote from some of the best names in the industry below.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it legal to exterminate bees?
According to Environment America, many states have passed laws banning or limiting the use of certain bee-killing pesticides. These consumer neonicotinoids are harmful to bees and are still readily available in most lawn and garden stores. However, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, Vermont, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island have already passed laws to limit the sale of these pesticides.
Can I remove a beehive myself?
While there’s nothing stopping you from removing a beehive yourself, I don’t recommend it. If you get stung repeatedly by a swarm of bees, it can be fatal in some cases. Instead, call professional pest control experts to handle your bee problem.
When is the best time to remove bees?
The best time to remove bees is early in the morning, at night or when it’s raining. Bees can’t fly when it rains, and they sleep at night, so they’ll normally be in the hive at those times.
Are there alternatives to killing bees?
Yes. You don’t have to kill bees. You can repel them or remove them instead. To repel bees, you can spray citronella, lavender or peppermint oil on nearby plants to keep bees away. However, to remove bees, you should call a professional pest control service.
