It’s often said that the only way to permanently remove bees from your residential or commercial property is by having the beehive itself physically removed—preferably safely and with the help of a pest control specialist.
Aside from perhaps boring a hole into the hive before removal and eliminating common types of bees (bumblebees, carpenter bees, and honey bees) from your home or workplace with the help of bee insecticides, what can you do to control bees or repel them from your property in the first place?
One of the first things that homeowners and commercial property owners can do to forestall the possibility of any species of bee calling their property home is to arm themselves with some knowledge and know what they’re up against.
Knowing What You’re Up Against
Initially, it’s important for property owners to differentiate bees from wasps.
Although honey bees and wasps both sting when provoked and are similar in size, they have different markings and totally different nests (or hives). Therefore, they require different pest-eliminating strategies.
Another thing to bear in mind is that honey-producing bees like the honey bee are far more social than carpenter bees, and this informs where each bee species like to set up shop, so to speak, and how each can be eliminated.
Honey bees typically build their nests in outdoor locations (for example, near fence posts), whereas carpenter bees can be found in wood planks and fields.
Carpenter Bee Traps
That’s valuable knowledge because a carpenter bee trap is a different way of dealing with the problem from drilling a hole and applying insecticide into a honey bee’s hive prior to removal.
In essence, a carpenter bee trap works by enticing a carpenter bee to slip through a small hole bored into a piece of wood. Then, the carpenter bee makes its way into a plastic bottle that’s on the other side.
Although this is one way of dealing with a part of a bee infestation, it doesn’t deal with the entire colony.
Carpenter bee traps can be helpful along with methods like vacuuming the hive or plastic tarps, but only a licensed pest control specialist can eradicate a colony of bees from your property by safely removing the entire nest or hive.
Homemade Bee Repellents
Bee repellents take a fundamentally different approach to solving the bee infestation problem. In lieu of trying to kill or forcibly eliminate the bees from your property, a homemade bee repellent seeks to repel bees before they can gain a foothold.
Peppermint and spice coupled with soap and water can make a potent bee repellent because it’s purported that hornets and bees detest the scent of peppermint essential oil.
Spraying this potent DIY brew around your property’s problem areas and suspected bee entry points (like windowsills) can help sidestep an infestation issue before it gets out of control.
Calling in the Experts
The only way to permanently eliminate the threat that a current infestation of bees presents to your home or workplace is to call in a pest control specialist to remove the nest or hive for you.
Why’s that? While DIY methods like carpenter bee traps can neutralize a fraction of the bees on your property and bee repellents can attempt to surmount the problem before it can take root, only professionally and safely removing the hive has been proven to comprehensively solve the problem.
Get in touch with the pest control professionals at Bain Pest Control or browse our commercial pest control services here.