Page 1 of Besieged by bees

We`ve been inundated by bees in the house - the ones that look a bit like wasps (they may be masonry bees). The house is an old, timber framed one, and I think they must be getting around inside the walls - found 20 in our bedroom yesterday, and plenty more in the living room.

Have a nasty feeling we have a nest somewhere, as we got the same thing last year (but not quite as bad). Going to be a mare locating it!

Does anyone know if you`re allowed to destroy them? We`ve also had hornets in the past (scary looking beasts!), and when looking around on the `net, I discover that you`re not allowed to destroy them. Do local councils provide pest control services, or is it a matter of £££ to some company?

A couple of years ago, my neighbour had a nest in the air vent. He got a normal wasp killer spray can. He sprayed the vent then put paper over the vent. He repeated the procedure a few times & they were all killed.

This item was edited on Sunday, 16th June 2002, 09:27

we had a wasps nests and called the council pest controll out to spray the nest, its costs a round £30 but it did the job its been around a year now andno trouble since. I presume you can do the same to bees.

Had a large bees nest in the garden a couple of years ago, the advice i was given was, see if a local beekeeper would come out and collect the nest, by the time he came out they had buggered off, he told me i had done the right thing as bees are a protected species and shouldn`t be destroyed.

find the hole which they come out of and block it up with apoxy resin. Then you aren`t killing the bees they just starve to death.

<OB>

Termination rely depends on your local authority : e.g. Nottingham City Council remove all nests, Charnwood Borough Council (Loughborough) would only do bees nests but not wasps.

Give your environmental health department a ring : failing that the suggestions above are sound.

I would suggest that the wasp-like bees you`re seeing are the straightforward male worker bees from a colony, but then I`m no insect expert (I was going to put down entomologist, but couldn`t spell it)

Round here (Oxford) you can get wasps nests destroyed but not bees, so if you want to get rid of them it`s a DIY solution. Plugging the hole is fine if (a) you can find it and (b) it`s their only exit, otherwise they might emerge enraged just where you least expect...

Dave

He hee... beeeeesieged by bees.....

Thanks all. I`ll give the local authority a ring. The trouble is that because of the construction and age of the house, it really is going to be hard to "plug the gap" - so many nooks and crannies. Don`t really like killing bees (wasps is a different thing....), but this is getting ridiculous!

Richard, maybe theres some honey up there you could make use of.

;-)