Hear a buzzing sound coming from your siding? Spot honeycomb peeking from beneath the eaves? Finding bees in your home can be a surprise, but don’t panic! Getting rid of unwanted bees isn’t as difficult as you might initially believe.
Bees can be beneficial for the environment, but their presence in your home can be a nuisance and a safety concern if you happen to be allergic to them.
This guide shows you how to get rid of bees in your siding safely and effectively. I’ll discuss DIY methods, professional solutions, and preventative measures to keep your home bee-free for good.
How to Get Rid of Bees In Siding: A Step-by-Step Guide
Learn how to effectively get rid of bees in your siding using expert-recommended methods:
Step 1: Find the Nest(s)
The key to solving your bee problem lies in identifying and removing their nests.
While seeing them enter and exit your siding confirms their presence, it doesn’t necessarily pinpoint the exact location of their nest. Worse yet, you might be dealing with multiple hives, not just one.
To locate the hive(s), observe the bees during their active hours (typically daytime). Track their entry and exit points, making note of any concentrated activity areas.
Thoroughly inspect all sides of your home for potential bee entry points. Mark these suspected locations with weather-resistant tape for easy reference. This will help ensure you’ve identified all the areas where bees might be entering.
Step 2: Get Insecticide Ready
Once you’ve located the hive(s), it’s time to address the bees themselves.
There are several options for removing them from your siding, depending on the severity of the infestation.
If you’re dealing with honeybees or bumblebees, a professional beekeeper can come along and get them relocated. Some beekeepers do it for free, while others charge a small fee.
Honeybees or bumblebees play a vital role in ecosystems, so it’s often preferred to have them relocated rather than exterminated.
On the other hand, if you’re dealing with aggressive bees like killer bees, yellow jackets, or hornets, you can feel a little less guilty exterminating them.
In most cases, insecticide spray will do the trick just fine. Otherwise, you’ll need to call a pest control specialist to handle the situation safely and effectively.
Saving aggressive bees is generally impractical in this situation, especially when they’ve established hives inside your siding. Leaving them alone isn’t an option either, as the problem will only worsen over time.
Experts recommend using powder insecticide with active ingredients such as diatomaceous earth, boric acid, or pyrethrin to handle such a job. Make sure gloves to protect your hands because powder insecticide can be dangerous if not handled properly.
Wear a protective mask, too. Inhaling the powder could be detrimental to your health as many insecticide powders contain chemicals that can irritate the respiratory system. Look for a mask rated for dust and particulates, such as an N95 respirator.
Now, you want to funnel the insecticide powder into an empty bottle. You can use an empty bottle of dish soap to make it easy to squeeze the powder out into specific spots.
Step 3: Wait Till Night Time
Once it’s dark outside, it’s time to take action.
Bees should be together during the nighttime because they aren’t active at night.
You can get them all by squeezing the powdered insecticide into the entry and exit points you marked earlier.
Sometimes entry points will be somewhat close to the ground. In this instance, you’ll want to also squeeze a bit of the insecticide powder onto the ground near the entry point.
The Bees Should Die Within One Week
If everything goes as planned, then the bees in your siding should die within one week. The bees will keep going in and out of the siding as they normally do, but they’ll be exposed to the powder.
They’ll carry this powder back to their nests and inadvertently kill other bees. It should also kill the queen bee so you’ll be able to know that the problem is truly solved.
It might feel a bit unfortunate to have to kill bees in this fashion. Bees are indeed beneficial and important to the environment, but you must keep them out of your siding in the future.
Preventing the bees from doing things such as this will be much better. Keep reading to learn about prevention techniques so that you won’t have them nest inside of your siding again.
Bee-Proofing Your Home: 6 Strategies for Preventing Future Infestations
Here’s how to keep bees out of your home and stop future infestations for good:
Fix Your Siding
The presence of bees is a tell-tale sign that your home’s exterior needs some TLC.
Addressing any loose siding or gaps will not only prevent unwanted guests from setting up shop but also improve your home’s energy efficiency. A compromised siding lets conditioned air escape, potentially leading to increased heating and cooling costs.
If your siding appears significantly damaged, it might be best to replace it entirely. New siding greatly improves the aesthetic appeal of your home while also serving as a deterrent against bee infestations, providing added protection and peace of mind.
Unless you’re a DIY pro, you’ll likely need to hire professionals to get new siding installed. This can be pricey, but it’s worth it when you want to get the job done right so that your home can look its best.
If the damage isn’t so severe, you could try to repair the siding to fix any gaps or cracks that might be present. You just have to go with whatever option makes the most sense to you.
Consider Planting Certain Plants That Bees Don’t Like
There are plants that you can place around the perimeter of your home that bees don’t like. If you have plants such as this around your garden area, then it’ll be less likely that bees will want to get near.
You have many options to consider when you decide to go this route.
Basil is one of the most popular options because you can use this handy herb in the kitchen as well. The same is said with mint. Humans love how mint plants smell, but bees absolutely hate it.
Citronella plants are commonly considered when people are looking for options to keep mosquitoes away, but they work to repel bees, too. The smell of citronella plants should keep both bees and wasps away from your home if you use it around the perimeter.
If you want to plant something with a bit more color, consider planting marigolds. Red marigolds will do an excellent job of keeping bees away.
Geraniums are another option you’ll love when you’re looking for something pretty. Red geraniums are the best to use because bees can’t see red and the scent they emit is not pleasant to them.
Use Mothballs
Did you know that bees hate the scent of mothballs? You can use this to your advantage by hanging mothballs near areas where you don’t want to have to deal with them.
If you use mothballs strategically, you can avoid having bees come near many spots on your property. Some people choose to hang mothballs near the entrances to their homes to keep bees out, but others hang them near porches, patios, or decks.
The downside to this is that many people don’t enjoy how mothballs smell. It might not be pleasant to have to smell mothballs all the time when you’re trying to use your patio or porch.
Mothballs do work quite well as a bee repellent, though. If you’re looking for a simple and inexpensive way to deter bees from getting too close to your house, then this should work out for you.
Burn Citronella Candles
Maybe you just want to keep bees away from you in the yard when you’re trying to spend time outside. If you want to be able to sit on your deck in peace, then burning a citronella candle will be helpful.
You can easily find citronella candles at any department store. They’re also readily available online if you’d like to go that route.
Citronella candles are inexpensive and do a good job of keeping many insects at bay. These candles can keep both bees and wasps away from you if you choose to use them.
It’s also nice to know that you’ll be able to keep mosquitoes, ticks, and fleas away from the area. You might even find the scent of the citronella candles to be quite pleasant.
You can use citronella candles whenever you want to spend time outside with others. It might not be a permanent bee deterrent option, but it’ll be good for when you just need a reprieve.
Distilled Vinegar Helps, Too
Distilled vinegar is useful in your fight against bees, too. This is a common ingredient that many people keep around for when they need it.
You can place distilled vinegar at specific points on your property to try to keep bees away. Some choose to place small opened containers of vinegar around so that they won’t want to fly in certain spots.
It’s also possible to spray vinegar on certain surfaces to keep bees from sticking around. You could create a simple vinegar spray using one part water and one part distilled white vinegar.
Some people say that adding a tablespoon of dish soap to the mix makes it even better. The vinegar spray will be a bit sticky with the soap being added to the mix, and that can make it even easier to keep bees away from many locations.
Exterminators Are Always an Option
Not everyone has the time to handle bee infestations, so calling a professional is often the most practical option. You also might want to get faster results, especially if you have allergies or health concerns related to bee stings.
While hiring professional bee removal comes with a cost, many find it a worthwhile investment.
Pest control specialists not only safely remove bees from your siding (or other locations), but they also offer valuable expertise. They can assess the situation, identify potential entry points, and recommend preventative measures to keep these buzzing visitors away for good.
They might also be able to point out problems that you hadn’t noticed before, such as structural damage or potential entry points for future infestations.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I get rid of bees naturally?
If you don’t want to use insecticides, there are several ways to get rid of them naturally. They might take a bit longer to work, but they can be safer for the environment and your health in the long run.
First and foremost, vinegar. Vinegar is a great bee deterrent because they hate how it smells. Create a mixture of equal parts water and vinegar in a spray bottle, then spray this solution around areas where bees congregate.
If that doesn’t work, try peppermint oil. Like vinegar, bees are repelled by the strong scent of peppermint. Mix a few drops of peppermint oil with water in a spray bottle and apply it to areas where bees are present.
Is it illegal to kill honeybees?
Honeybees aren’t a protected species, so there aren’t any federal laws that prohibit people from killing them.
Even so, honeybees are vital to the environment. They not only produce honey but also help fertilize plants. Therefore, they should be relocated rather than killed.
Unless threatened, honeybees are completely harmless.
If you notice a honeybee hive in your siding, contact a professional beekeeper and they can remove the hive (along with the bees) for you.
Many beekeepers remove honeybees for free or for only a small fee since they use them to expand their own apiaries.
Final Thoughts
While bees are great pollinators, having them nest in your siding isn’t ideal. Their presence often reveals gaps or vulnerabilities in the exterior that need attention.
Addressing the siding issues will help you out in many ways. It’ll make it so that the bees won’t get in the siding in the future, and you’ll be able to get better thermal performance out of the siding.
Replacing the siding is a job that you can do yourself if you have the right tools and experience. However, most people hire professionals.
Depending on the situation, you might also want to hire experts to get rid of the bees in the siding. Otherwise, you can do so yourself by identifying the entry and exit points before using powdered insecticide to kill them.
You can then choose to use deterrent methods to try to keep bees away from your house. This will make it a lot easier to enjoy your time outside without having to worry about getting stung.
Ben has a bachelor’s degree in construction engineering. When not constructing or remodeling X-Ray Rooms, Cardiovascular Labs, and Pharmacies, you can find him at home with wife and two daughters. Outside of family, He loves grilling and barbequing on his Big Green Egg and Blackstone Griddle, as well as working on projects around the house.
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