Bee Problem

I have a walk out basement with a sliding door. Somehow there is a crack or crevice under the sliding door and patio area. I’ve had bees going in there for weeks. I tried using a wasp / hornet spray, didn’t work. I tried using a foaming spray that is meant for ground bees, didn’t work. I don’t think it was reaching far enough for the hive underground.

Finally I thought I would just fix their wagon for good and seal them in. I got a black landscape foam and sealed everything up. Then my wife called me at work today and they are getting in the house…. somehow through the sliding door? I had her seal everything up on the inside with duck tape.

Then I get home and there is a bunch of bees buzzing around outside the sliding door still, trying to find their way into the hive. This is within 24 hours of sealing the exterior, so maybe they will go away?

Any ideas before this gets any crazier??

We had very similar scenario few years ago right under the doorway. I tried all sorts of sprays, etc but couldn’t tell exactly where they were going in. I didn’t want to rip up my deck boards so after getting stung twice, I sat in ambush 10 feet away with wasp spray and just sniped each and every bee that came in or out. It took hours but it worked and they never returned.

So grab your favorite folding chair, some cold brews and watch the body count rise! Those ground bees are vicious and you need to fight fire with fire.

If they are honey bees you should call a bee removal service. They typically come out for free and take the proper steps to relocate them. Honey bees are a precious resource that are dwindling quickly.

For yellow jackets I use permethrin concentrate. Mix some with water and pour down the hole. Gets deep and kills em all.

Old fart taught me this at Fleet Farm.

Buy can of black flag wasp spray. Purchase 18” of plastics hose that attaches to black flag spray nozzle. Early morning or late night when all bees have returned, thread hose deep into crevice. Spray entire can.

So far this is 3 for 3 on some moderate sized wasps & yellow jackets.

Good luck

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eyeguy507 wrote:

We had very similar scenario few years ago right under the doorway. I tried all sorts of sprays, etc but couldn’t tell exactly where they were going in. I didn’t want to rip up my deck boards so after getting stung twice, I sat in ambush 10 feet away with wasp spray and just sniped each and every bee that came in or out. It took hours but it worked and they never returned.

So grab your favorite folding chair, some cold brews and watch the body count rise! Those ground bees are vicious and you need to fight fire with fire.

They must be honey bees or ground bees. They are smaller and I haven’t been able to hit one yet with the stream from the wasp / hornets killer. Or maybe a glancing blow, but doesn’t seem to affect them

Pete and Kurt have good ideas, but unfortunately I sealed it all up from the outside now. Guess I can make a hole and try that if they are not gone in a day or two.

I have no idea how they started getting in the house. Bizzare.

lindy, if they can’t get out, they will work their way in to get out. As Kurt mentioned getting them all in for the evening is the way to do it, provided they are not honey bees. I’d call for relocation help in that case.

Mark

mine were 100% ground bees and they got our dogs and myself. we had a nest under the deck and one out in the yard. In the yard at dusk, I just put water down their hole then covered it with a heavy log……dead! the one under the deck was challenging. Ground bees are more yellow and more aggressive than honey bees. I try to steer clear of all bees after being stung in the tongue by a wasp in my Dew can. Man did that hurt, and similar to the ground bees! Lindy, if you got regular honey bees, feel fortunate!

As a last resort…

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The natural reaction is to seal them “out” but as others have said that will seal them in and they will find a way into your house instead. Most liquid consumer products are not effective in this situation – I’ve fought the same battle…

Unplug the hole. Fill an old dish soap bottle, mustard squeeze bottle, etc. 3/4 full with Sevin garden dust and puff the dust into the hole. They get it on their bodies and it kills the nest too. If you don’t have an old squeeze bottle around Fleet Farm, etc. should have insecticide dust applicators that work the same way. It may take a couple of applications to get them all, and once you don’t see any bees there, seal the hole so other ones don’t get in next year.

How far away from the house is it? If it’s far enough gas and a lighter should burn the hive up if you can get it down there. Then seal it up…

I’m two cans into a ground nest. Thought I had them then after days of no activity they were there again with a different access hole. My dog wont stay away from them and has been wrecked twice now. Had a soccer ball sized hornet nest that was much easier to deal with. I always wait until complete darkness to hit them. I also like picking off stragglers one at a time as they fly in.

suzuki wrote:

I’m two cans into a ground nest. Thought I had them then after days of no activity they were there again with a different access hole. My dog wont stay away from them and has been wrecked twice now. Had a soccer ball sized hornet nest that was much easier to deal with. I always wait until complete darkness to hit them. I also like picking off stragglers one at a time as they fly in.

Sniping the scouts so they don’t wake the hive

Here’s a pic of one of them. I don’t think they are honey bees. Either a ground bee or wasp that likes to go underground.

I probably made a mistake with the landscape foam – but got desperate

The inside of the sliding door is sealed up with duck tape, so they’re not getting inside at the moment. Might have to leave that up for awhile

Outside it is still war. I sprayed Tempo last night and it has killed several overnight. I am sitting here with a fly swatter and have killed about a dozen so far as they come back and trying to find their entrance

The paper/ hanging hives are much easier to deal with……

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The reason they keep coming back is they probably have a hive started that they were accessing through where the foam sealer is.

Take out the foam.

If they are burrowing into the ground beside the house, pour some Tempo into the hole. (a half gallon or so at the rate listed for bees)

If you think they may be in the siding, etc. do the puff dust into the hole method. If the nest is in the house somewhere they WILL find a way in – the tape may have stopped them for now, but they can chew through walls and ceilings.

Looks like a yellow jacket to me. Like Dan said pulling the foam to find the entrance to the nest and pouring some sort of poison in after dark is your best option.

Yep, looks like a yellowjacket (not that it really matters). August is prime time for them.

If all else fails, call an exterminator. My folks struggled with them a few years back. Finally called an exterminator, and his arsenal was much more advanced than is available to the general public.

Thanks for all the input. I was going to try Kurt’s method tonight… just got out of Fleet Farm. They didn’t have any Black Flag. No problem, I can probably use some Spectracide Pro or Raid Wasp and Hornet. Except that I can’t find any plastic tubing that fits either. I checked the farm area and found tubing, but nothing with that small of diameter. I even tried some aquarium air tubing, no dice.

I think I’ll remove some of the foam where they liked to enter previous. Make enough of a hole to observe them coming and going again. Then I will have to do a midnight attack with some combination of chemical. Maybe dump a gallon of Tempo down the hole until I can locate some plastic tubing.

If that doesn’t work I will probably have to call an exterminator. This is getting old…

Hello,
Please need some help trying to identify these vests, and any advice to eliminate them. I am attaching a couple of pictures.
These are on my yard, under a shed. There is a hole where they all go.
I have already been stung a couple of times, when trying to apply some.
I got a trap that am planning to put tomorrow.
Thank you,
LMEB

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Looks like the same buggers I dealt with. I ended up mixing a two gallon batch of Tempo and dumping it down the hole. Might have been over-kill, but problem solved.

Wait till dark and dust their entrances with this, they will be gone in 2 days

https://www.amazon.com/Bonide-363-Spider-Ground-Killer/dp/B001VJ492Y/ref=asc_df_B001VJ492Y/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=167137474498&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=10884293086122806523&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9019493&hvtargid=aud-801381245258:pla-315804875215&psc=1

Bassn Dan wrote:

The natural reaction is to seal them “out” but as others have said that will seal them in and they will find a way into your house instead. Most liquid consumer products are not effective in this situation – I’ve fought the same battle…

Unplug the hole. Fill an old dish soap bottle, mustard squeeze bottle, etc. 3/4 full with Sevin garden dust and puff the dust into the hole. They get it on their bodies and it kills the nest too. If you don’t have an old squeeze bottle around Fleet Farm, etc. should have insecticide dust applicators that work the same way. It may take a couple of applications to get them all, and once you don’t see any bees there, seal the hole so other ones don’t get in next year.

. We had yellow jackets build a nest inside the soffit right above the main entrance to our house . I tried a couple different sprays with poor results . Tried dans method and haven’t seen a bee since . Thanks for the tip

I got stung today weeding a flower garden. When I walked to pups later, bees were swarming everywhere. Those little SOBs are super active right now!

Mike Martine wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Bassn Dan wrote:</div>
The natural reaction is to seal them “out” but as others have said that will seal them in and they will find a way into your house instead. Most liquid consumer products are not effective in this situation – I’ve fought the same battle…

Unplug the hole. Fill an old dish soap bottle, mustard squeeze bottle, etc. 3/4 full with Sevin garden dust and puff the dust into the hole. They get it on their bodies and it kills the nest too. If you don’t have an old squeeze bottle around Fleet Farm, etc. should have insecticide dust applicators that work the same way. It may take a couple of applications to get them all, and once you don’t see any bees there, seal the hole so other ones don’t get in next year.

. We had yellow jackets build a nest inside the soffit right above the main entrance to our house . I tried a couple different sprays with poor results . Tried dans method and haven’t seen a bee since . Thanks for the tip

Glad to hear that worked out for you Mike.

DaveB – Sucks to get stung. If they land on me I just blow at them rather than swatting them away – I think they sense the CO2 and think it’s a bear or other critter that may eat them and they leave. That is unless you disturb a nest and they get really tuned up! Going near them when mowing or weed trimming is the worst, so watch for ground nests.

LOL I don’t know what to tell you that hasn’t been said. But I would listen to the guys that said open the sealed hole.

A few years back I sprayed a can of something or other into the little hole in the cinder block of our foundation where the bees were making a home. Then seal it.

Big mistake. I’m sure the bees flew in the hole and then took a left or right so my spray had little if any effect on them.

My FD’s bedroom looked like it was from a horror movie with all the bees a buzz. Picked up a bomb that killed them. But the carpetings color changed with all the dead bees on it.

Used the shop vac to pick them up and man to they stink!!

Only the FD was stung once by a bee that went through the washer and dryer. Damn she was mad.

yea those bees/wasps were out in hoards this weekend. i always put out a couple wasp traps. they filled fast over the weekend.

i got them at fleet farm. just dump some hummingbird juice in them. the good bees dont go near them or i wouldnt do this.

Sounds like you have the problem solved but I had the same issue last fall, I had a rotten window sill/frame corner and the yellow jackets got through a crack near the siding took up a nest inside my wall. I wanted to make sure they were dead before I went to repair the rot plus I didn’t want them finding a way into my house after I sealed it up.

Foams/sprays had no effect as they were way inside the wall and the canned killers wouldn’t get far enough back there, the next day the bugs were back at it flying in and out. Finally found somewhere (reddit?) that suggested Delta Dust, 100% waterproof and long lasting. I bought a 1lb bottle and a bulb duster with a brass wand, jammed it up inside and puffed it in there in all directions and it worked great – the next day there were about a dozen just hovering around not wanting to go back in cause they knew it wouldn’t end well. Made another application two days later and no sign of life after that, had no issues repairing the sill/frame.

Hope this helps someone down the road, good luck.

Another dusting option is get this off amazon.

Tempo Dust Insecticide BA1011. I used it.

Cleaned this up this weekend.

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Pour some WD-40 down there and light that sucker up