Bee Aware

Where will you see bees?

In Texas, there are few dome shaped beehives in trees. Rather permanent homes in trees are most often aerial nests, multiple layers of honeycomb containing one queen bee, a minimum of several thousand bees, honey and brood (eggs sealed in wax chambers).

Bees make their homes almost anywhere that the queen and her colony will be out of intense sun, high winds and heavy downpours.

Among the most common places for bees to establish a beehive colony are:

Beneath roof tiles, in soffits, or inside roofs of houses or sheds;

in dog houses, chicken coops, or bird houses;

beneath floors of work sheds or children’s play sets;

inside overturned flower pots, canoes or boats;

beside or behind electrical meter boxes or cables;

in bushes, attics, mailboxes, or hollows of trees;

beneath mobile homes or work trailers; within barbecue grills or outdoor furniture;

between storm window or between window and storm shutters;

in trash piles or wood piles;

and beneath or within abandoned vehicles or trailers.

Bee Clues

The most obvious clue you have an infestation is seeing a concentration of bees on or in a single location.

Not obvious but IMPORTANT clues are:

• seeing even one or two bees crawling or flying in and/or out of one location;
• seeing a few bees simply hovering outside one place;
• finding dead or dying bees inside a room or inside a light fixture; or
• finding dead or dying bees in a swimming pool, birdbath or fountain.

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Always DEMAND the REMOVAL of BOTH the bees AND the entire honeycomb. Leaving the honeycomb inside the structure will leave you open to even more problems such as:

• baby bees maturing and generating a new hive in the same place;
• putrid stench from decaying dead bees and rotting honey;
• infestation of ants, roaches, and/or rodents attracted to the smell of honey;
• emergence of maggots;
• wax melting in Texas heat, causing honey to drip inside the walls , possibly damaging the drywall and the structure;
• leaving honeycomb or wax in the structure of your home is a potential fire hazard. It can saturate the walls and electrical outlets.

Treatments that don’t work

Using over-the-counter insect sprays and foggers are useless. You might succeed in killing hundreds of bees, but the following day, hundreds or even thousands of baby bees will hatch from within the honeycomb and recommence activity in the hive.

Plugging the bees’ entrance will not suffocate the bees. Furthermore, if the bees cannot get out to the sunshine and food through their usual exit, they will find another hole.

Smoking the bees will only send them further into the structure to get to a safer place, or they may fly away temporarily until the smoke dissipates.

Spraying into the points of entry of a bee nest will generally will not reach deep enough into the void, so the nest and the queen will remain protected, and, once you contaminate the entrance hole/ crack/ crevice, often bees will move horizontally inside the wall to build in safety and also to find another path out. Generally the new path “out” is INTO your home!