At least I think they’re bees, they look like bees. I noticed a ground nest with quick moving bees flying around while I was watering one of my ornamental flower beds. At first, I thought they were flies . I guess they didn’t like the water because I was stung twice! Ouch! So, I’ve been trying to stay away from the hole they are flying in and out of. One day some of them buzzed me as I was attempting to do a bit of maintenance around the perennials that are in the bed. Does anyone have any advice as to how to get rid of the nest and the angry bees? I normally don’t mind bees, but I can not tolerate being stung. I’m going to want to have my flower bed back, I’m not happy to share the space with stingers!
@Kay At dusk is when it’s a safe time to water when the bees are inactive all tucked inside for the night. Or set up a sprinkler with a timer. There are several great sprinkler timers on the market that can be controlled by iPhones. Could be Leafcutter bees that nest in the ground or rotting wood, building long, thin tunnels with individual compartments for each egg. So do bumblebees. Hopefully they are not yellowjackets. Hard to ID without a pic considering 70-80% of bees live underground. *Here’s a Link and pics of ground bees in Nebraska - Good Luck https://lsintspl3.wgbh.org/en-us/lesson/npm22-il-nepollinators/7
Kay, it sounds like yellow jackets to me, or possibly bumblebees. Can you safely take a good close-up foto of the bees for me? Another important thing is — are there several holes, or just one?
This is about 3 1/2 - 4 feet away, these bees are very quick coming and going. Not a very easy task to snap a pic ! Can you see it? I don’t think they are bumble bees, (I see them all over my flowers.) These busy bees are smaller than bumblers and fly faster. There is just one hole. It has gotten bigger since I realized it was there. I have planned on laying mulch there after I dug up some Solomon’s Seal but now I don’t want to get that close to that hole. Yellow Jackets maybe?
Those are yellow jackets. They will be there until the beginning of winter unless you take steps. Steps like calling in a pest control person, or use ant powder at the hole’s entrance. Those insects have a painful sting…and they are dangerous in the sense that they can sting several times, unlike honey bees who can sting just once. Yellow jackets. Yeah, yellow jackets, but not in your back yard.
Sjoerd- Thank you for the info. Yes, the stings do hurt, I got stung twice. We will take steps to eradicate them. I just can’t have them nest where they are. I have been happy to see a lot bees this year that are doing their thing in my flowers, but I’m not willing to share garden space with aggressive yellow jackets. Wish us luck
A wise decision, Kay. Y’know, I would rather have twenty honeybee stings than one yellow jacket sting.
I think Sjoerd has given you good advice. We had a yellow jacket nest once....in the beginning of the season they were relatively gentle. But by the end of the summer the nest had become quite large & they were very aggressive. I've been told that once they reach critical mass they become very aggressive. Don't the know if this is true, or if they are always aggressive. In any case, I came home from work one day to find my husband's good suit coat lying in the driveway, his pants(!) outside the front door & he and our dog huddled together in a downstairs bedroom. Our dog's snout was so swollen she looked like a duck. Apparently she heard the buzzing of the yellow jacket nest, went to investigate, and got badly stung. The wasps went after our dog & then my poor husband! He was trying to brush them away from her snout & they got under his clothes. He was convinced they'd gotten into the house, thus the huddling in the downstairs bedroom.
Cayuga, oh my! That’s a bad memory ! Yikes! I looked into the ant powder and did some more reading. I resent not being comfortable in that garden area , so we’re prepared to declare war. Thanks again Sjoerd!
You guys just be sure you use enough ant powder. They will take it into their colony and spread it. I find these little devils are so unpredictable. I have yellow jacket stories, but I won’t bore you with them all. I will tell you that my Bride was sitting reading, and a yellow jacket just landed on her arm and stung her. Just like that. My biggest problem was their interference in my bee hives. They would take honey and larvae. I would be doing an inspection and while checking out the frames I would sometimes see one of those little hufters stealing. How they would get in past the guards is a mystery. I would just pick them off and squish them, then take them away from the hive and toss them into the canal. The idea being to get rid of the pheromones that they let loose, calling for more to come. Good luck with fighting those mean-o’s. Just be very careful Clay and Kay. Sorry about your man and doggie, Cayu.
Sjoerd-I just read your latest post, and it kind of answers my question. I was going to ask, why Ant powder, and how it works. Bob found some wasp spray and he did spray once, but it was wet after a rain so it didn't do much. Isn't the spray meant to be a contact killer, and thus would not be effective to get inside the ground nest? Also maybe didn't do much because its different to target a ground nest verses a hanging nest? I used to be trained and have a pesticide applicator's license, but a lot of that info has floated out of my memory. The goal is to kill the eggs right? The battle continues
Kay wanted to share with you how I get rid of yellow jacks. There are a number of ways just google. It takes time to eliminate them all and the nest. I purchase yellow jacket hormone packets - available at hardware stores. (There are also YJ traps for this purpose too.) At night while YJ are all in the nest…Place the hormone packet with open slit inside on the bottom of a bug zapper. It was on and zapped continuously during the day. The YJ literally covered the bottom of the zapper with several inches of dead yellow jackets . Change and replace packet and clean out when needed. I set up both YJ traps and bug zappers in several areas around the property and kept them from attacking us to clear our space. My neighbor pours a small amount of boiling water with soap in the YJ entry and exit hole at night, then covers the openings kills the nest . You may have more than one YJ nest. Good Luck.
Hiya Kay— the idea is that they take the powder down into their nest and eat over time and then die. Before anything, why not begin by asking a pest control company for a price quote. Also, your local municipality may have this service for free.
