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Over the weekend I was doing some work around the house and all of a sudden I just started hearing this really loud "buzzzzz-ing" noise. So I look up and I see what had to have been at least 10,000 bees swarming in the air directly above me, all over the place!
Growing up I was always deathly afraid of bees, and they still make me squirmish to this day, but given what I was doing was time sensitive, I couldn't exactly just run away ( if I could have, I would have }... But I was amazed, they didn't bother me at all. Not one of them tried to land on me or pester me. It was truly something to behold.
They started building up heavily on the side of my house, and I saw that they were entering a hole in my siding. After doing some research, I have decided to let them stay, so long as they don't start coming IN the house. I can walk right up within feet of their nest and watch them go in and out and they don't bother with me at all. They are friendly little buggers, and given that they perform such a vital function in nature, I'm not inclined to exterminate them.
I don't think it's a good idea at all to let them stay under your siding. A bees nest generates a lot of heat and you will end up with a moisture problem and stains on your interior walls from the honey. Dead bees and the smell of honey from the hive will attract rodents and bugs.
Bears love honey. If you live in an area with bears, you could come home to a hole in the side of your house.
Leaving them can also be very dangerous. If they sense danger or are irritated, they will attack to protect their hive. Some people are so allergic to bees that they will die if stung just ONCE.
Call a beekeeper to come and extract the hive alive. You need to hire professionals who know what they are doing and not just someone who will spray and kill them.
I don't think it's a good idea at all to let them stay under your siding. A bees nest generates a lot of heat and you will end up with a moisture problem and stains on your interior walls from the honey. Dead bees and the smell of honey from the hive will attract rodents and bugs.
Bears love honey. If you live in an area with bears, you could come home to a hole in the side of your house.
Leaving them can also be very dangerous. If they sense danger or are irritated, they will attack to protect their hive. Some people are so allergic to bees that they will die if stung just ONCE.
Call a beekeeper to come and extract the hive alive. You need to hire professionals who know what they are doing and not just someone who will spray and kill them.
Remember this: We NEED bees for pollination.
Very legitimate points to consider. Thanks for the input.
I know there is a beekeeping group in my area. I'll contact them for further guidance....
(P.S. bears aren't an issue in my neck of the woods )
Bears are Not a Problem NOW but once they smell the Honey they will come. Bees are outside Now but once they find a hole they will be Inside. Bees Swarming Don't sting! Once they make themselves at home they Will to defend it.
Many years ago I was gardening in my front yard and started watering when I noticed lots of bees buzzing,circling and eventually settling down at the edge of my nearby tall hedge.They formed a long hive to protect the queen.I could smell the honey from the the distance.I knew I had to call our local beekeeper.He came the very same day I think and brought a big box where he put the hive in.He told me he would be back in 3 days by that time the rest of the worker bees would have settled in the box.As a thank you we got for a year free wild honey from him. I tell you this experience to witness these wild honey bees was just amazing
Bears are Not a Problem NOW but once they smell the Honey they will come. Bees are outside Now but once they find a hole they will be Inside. Bees Swarming Don't sting! Once they make themselves at home they Will to defend it.
BAD idea to let them build a hive on your house. Bee hives are heavy and can, over time, grow to weigh hundreds of pounds. You'll have honey dripping between the walls. Bees aren't "friendly" if they think the queen is being threatened. They WILL go into your house at some point. (Bees are foragers. They will forage in your bedroom because they don't know it's your bedroom and not a garden.) Your neighbors could have bee sting allergies. (Which can kill.)
Call a bee removal service. Or a beekeeper. They'll smoke out the hive, find the queen and relocate her to a better spot. The rest of the bees will follow her.
It would certainly be a really bad idea down here where honey bees are partially Africanized. Ten years ago I discovered bees had been entering some loose boards in the rear of a storage building on some property we owned. I had decided earlier to leave them alone since they had already built a significant nest in some old tires and they had never bothered anyone. That all changed one day while I was mowing several yards away from the barn and a bee flew up my nose and stung me. Several of the other bees then chased me all the way back to the house, about 60 yards.
I finally was able to get rid of the bees by waiting until a winter day when the air temperatures had been in the teens for a lengthy period. The bees had completely filled three old tires with honey and comb. Even at the low air temperatures, several bees came out of the broken interior of the nest to try and attack me as I tore the structure down. It literally took a crow bar to break the tires loose from the wall.
I contacted our county agricultural agent who had told me about the Texas South Plains bees being partially Africanized so if you happen to ever see the attached picture in USDA literature, I gave it to them.
Last edited by High_Plains_Retired; 07-07-2016 at 02:28 PM..
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