Bees in my house

[mowerman1193 42]

We decided to paint my house to closer match the siding on the new garage. While painting we ran into some of those nasty mean hornets. I discovered they are nesting somewhere in the wall. I have a block house on a slab. While watching the bees I found their entrance hole. I have sprayed a residual pesticide of two different types into this hole ( of coarse well after dark )...Only thing that has done in make then mad for a few days. Now we are gradualy getting 1-2 in the inside of the house in the room by where they enter up under the siding..

In researching a little online I found that they say if I leave them alone they will die this winter and I can just block up the entry hole. Meanwhile I will have a multi colored house, LOL I can live with that if that actually happens. My worry is they will migreat to a warmer part as it gets colder and I will have a house full.

Anyone have any suggestions of a way to rid of these short of burning the house down..LOL

Thanks for any advice...I thought maybe there is a bee expert here that can help me out..or better yet help the bees out..

Kevin

[stevasaurus 23,448]

I know one thing for sure...DO NOT close up the entry way for the bees/hornets. They will burrow out through the drywall and you WILL have them in the house. I would say that you will have to remove at least the section of inside wall that you think they are in this winter...clean it out and patch it back up. Not hard to do. Wait until winter...turn off the heat for a day or so and open it up...that should do it. One thing that I have heard, depends on what type of bee/hornet you have, they do like to return to a place they have been...and it does not take them long to burrow back in...you will have to be on the look out in the spring. They just had a thing about someone that had honey bees in their house on the news. They opened up the ceiling and it was filled with honey comb. They had a bee keeper collect the bees and they cleaned up the mess...and it was a mess. Good luck with this and be careful.

[buckrancher 2,695]

call someone in pest control they have something that will kill them quick

[CasualObserver 3,411]

I just had an exterminator out to take care of a hornet problem myself. He uses this stuff. http://www.domyownpestcontrol.com/tempo-dust-p-391.html You can do it yourself with a bulb duster, but a pro will have a power duster that will get into all nooks and crannys.

Sent from my Galaxy Tab using Tapatalk 2

[wh500special 2,338]

When I was little my mom sent me into my bedroom to retreive a photo album that has in the top of my closet. When I slid the closet door over to the wall, it knocked a hugh chunk of drywall out exposing the most intricate, multi-layered paper nest I've ever seen. It was in the dead of winter, but we still had several hornets come out of the hole as the warm household air made it in there. Dad sealed it up and called an exterminator (about the only time in my life I can ever remember dad calling in an outside contractor for anything).

Apparently the whole north end of the house's exterior wall was full of nest materials. Somehow, the little suckers removed all of the fiberglass insulation and had largely eaten away everything between the interior paint and brick veneer on the house. They chewed away passage between the studs too. My bed was against that wall and I recall hearing for years "mice" in the walls when I'd go to bed at night. The presence of the hornets and the absence of ever catching a mouse in a trap kind of suggests they were in there for years and making a racket...not innocent little mice.

Dad eventually rebuilt all of the wall on that end of the house.

My point? Winter evidently didn't do anything to kill 'em off. It's a lot colder up there in MI where you're at than here, but I think you might want to bring in somebody to treat the bays along that wall. Enough heat probably leaks out of your interior to keep that space warm enough to let them live over winter.

As the dinosaur said, be careful.

Here at work we have a colony of honey bees living in the cement block walls in the back of the shop. Their entry point has been plugged many times but they just chew it back out. There's a huge discolored spot on that wall where I'm guessing moisture (from the nest and honey) is accumulating. We've called local bee keepers but nobody wants to try to extricate them. Not sure why we haven't had an exterminator come in...that's above my pay grade.

Steve

[JimD 3,347]

This happened in a house I owned some years ago. I got my shop vac out and taped the end of the hose near the entry hole to the nest and turned it on. I had water in the shop vac. As the bees flew in and out of the nest they got sucked into the shop vac. That evening I turned it off to see how many were still coming and going into the nest. There were none. That's when I turned on the vac and shot a bunch of bee killer into it. A couple days later I emptied the dead bees out of the shop vac and sealed up the nest hole. I also did this at a place I worked. The owner was impressed to say the least. :)

[6wheeler 669]

Jim's vac-u-vator works.... After I did that on my chicken shed. I sealed the hole (piece of plywood nailed over) I sprayed BUGGSLAYER on the exterior whole building and around the bottom of it. 1 gallon of the mixed product and no bees. All they have to do is walk in it for up to 3 months and dead bees. It also works on the house for box elders and asian beetles. I just spray around the foundation and around the windows and doors and same deal, up to 3 months. But after real heavy rain you may have to re-apply . Good luck with em. Pat

[rmaynard 16,549]

I had yellow-jackets building inside my wall. They were getting in around the electric service. They were inside the house as well. I too used the VAC system, but in my case I has to use two. The bees were coming into the basement where I have a suspended ceiling. One vacuum hose was placed into the ceiling near the electric box, the other at the hole I found around the electric wire on the outside. After I had extracted an estimated 5000 bees, I used a puffer to blow bee powder into the hole. I could still hear the bees buzzing inside the walls but within 12 hours the sound was gone, and so was my bee problem. Outside hole was filled and no recurring problem.

[mowerman1193 42]

Thanks guys, I actually thought about the shop vac a few days ago but wondered what to do with the shop vac full of bees..I couldn't think of any enemeys to mail it too, LOL ( kidding ) ...Guess I never thought of putting water in it and also spraying pesticides into it.. The bees are those mean yellow jackets..and I believe its a huge nest..They was there last year and I was busy with something else and sort of forgot all about them until I found them again about 4 weeks ago..

I think I might try to vac them out..I need to get a new shop vac hose as I think my son got it too close to something hot and melted a hole in it..

Kevin

[stevasaurus 23,448]

Kevin, you can make a bee trap and see what you get or maybe how bad it is. Take a 1 litter coke bottle (plastic)...cut the top off of the bottle making a funnel that will fit snug in the bottom part of the bottle...put a few inches of sugar water in the bottom part and insert the top piece upside down ..place near where they come in and out...they can enter the bottle but they can not find their way out and they drown. Works great and is cheap entertainment. :)

[Trouty56 567]

I had a nest under the siding once and taped a tube over the entrance (at night of course). The other end of the tube I placed in a gallon jug with soapy water 1/2 full. Got a couple hundred yellow jackets.

Good luck.

[CasualObserver 3,411]

Kevin, you can make a bee trap and see what you get or maybe how bad it is. Take a 1 litter coke bottle (plastic)...cut the top off of the bottle making a funnel that will fit snug in the bottom part of the bottle...put a few inches of sugar water in the bottom part and insert the top piece upside down ..place near where they come in and out...they can enter the bottle but they can not find their way out and they drown. Works great and is cheap entertainment.

Here's an image of what Steve's describing. One liter or two liter bottles work great.

[stevasaurus 23,448]

Thanks Jason...a picture is worth a thousand words. See you Friday mate.

[squonk 44,515]

Napa Brake and electric motor cleaner works great for bees. Shoots a long way and non-flammable. My father was allergic to bees and I gave him a case for Christmas. He asked,"What the hell is this for?" I said for bees. You can stay in the house and shoot them thru the window. He called that summer and said it was the best bee killer he ever used.

[stevasaurus 23,448]

I can just see your dad shooting bees through the window Mike...my dad would be there right with him. :)

[hounddoghundzsa 7]

I've got the same problem and have tried numorous pesticides to get rid of them. They have been going in an old cable line hole. I will be trying the shop vac trick also!

[mowerman1193 42]

Steve that is a cool idea that is basically the same thing my wife came home with yesterday afternoon. She paid $5 for this thing that I could have made for basically free LOL..Oh well she is giving it a try. I still think the vacuum idea would be very fun and effective too..

Thanks everyone for such great ideas and suggestions..

Kevin

[IthacaJeff 151]

We had carpenter bees get underneath the vinyl siding and eventually chewed their way

nearly through the inside drywall. We added that to our list of bugs that mostly included

cluster flies for the exterminator. This year the wasps/yellowjackets/hornets are digging

in.

Exterminator came today. Problem should be solved.

Sometimes ya' gotta pay to have the expert do it.

I've come across two ground nests of some little bugger wasp. Been chased around the

yard and stung a bunch. Better me than the kids.

Jeff

[mowerman1193 42]

Ok, so I have not caught a single bee in the trap that the wife bought the other day, LOL...I hooked up the shop vac last night so it was setting about 1/2" - 1" away from their entry hole. I turned it on this morning while they was swarming around cause they was checking out that pipe sitting there. When i turned it on they all disappeared..I assume they got sucked up into the shop vac. I ran it about 15 - 30 min. at a time several times throughout the day today..I have the vac about half full of water and a little simple green cleaner as I was cleaning out the tank anyway..Thought they might get sucked up and into the water and drowned..I would love to go see what I got ( if any ) but I am too scared to go pull the top off the vac. LOL.. I would think they would all be dead in the water but I suppose maybe some could have not made it into the water? Maybe I should wait a few days before I pull the top off..I do know I still have some bees as i see them around the entrance hole..I am sure it would take a few days to get all these buggers..

If I get brave enough to pull the top off I will let you all know if I got any or not..

Kevin

[mowerman1193 42]

Ok so everyone was egging me on to go take the top off, I had to do it..They was all drowned and I have about guessing 100 or so bees in the vac. I was in town about 3/4 of the day so i didn't get to run it but only a few times.. Better luck maybe tomorrow...

Kevin

[sorekiwi 761]

A timely thread as I have a nest (or two) in one of my soffits.

Yesterday I made a "funnel trap" like the one shown above and caught about 10. Mine was a 1 litre bottle that I found in the grass by the side of the road outside. I didnt have a 2 litre bottle available, the only soda's I dink around here are "Barley pops" and I only get them in cans or glass bottles!

So I set up the shopvac this morning. By the time I got it cleaned out, it was a little late in the morning and the wasps were reasonably active. Got stung twice while setting up the hose, both times on my right ear and it hurts like a son of a witch. So I am taking unusual but great pleasure in watching those little bastards getting sucked into oblivion.

Wondering if there is a way to hook up the shop vac to the Mackissic shredder, I would love to see them going through that... :)

[sorekiwi 761]

A thought that just occured to me - I guess I need to block off the shop-vac hose when I turn the machine off. It would be a major bummer to turn it off and watch a stream of bees escape.

[JimD 3,347]

Mike, there should be a rubber flap inside the vac where the suction hose plugs into it. That would prevent them getting out if you take the hose off. Or it might work like the trap you tried that relies on them not being able to find their way out.

[DoctorHfuhruhurr 137]

Kevin, you can make a bee trap and see what you get or maybe how bad it is. Take a 1 litter coke bottle (plastic)...cut the top off of the bottle making a funnel that will fit snug in the bottom part of the bottle...put a few inches of sugar water in the bottom part and insert the top piece upside down ..place near where they come in and out...they can enter the bottle but they can not find their way out and they drown. Works great and is cheap entertainment.

I read (and tried) adding some raw meat to that mixture and it really speeds up the process.

[sorekiwi 761]

A little bit satisfying:

and a bit more satisfying:

Thanks Jim D for the idea!