Spring is here
. The flowers are blooming, the grass is growing, the temperatures are rising….and the bees and wasps are looking to expand and build new homes. It’s a good time to walk around your house and check for any signs of this.
Wasps will most often begin building thier cone shaped next in the overhangs around your house. I like to catch them early and just remove the beginnings of the nests while there’s only 1 or 2 hanging around doing the building. I take a long stick and just scrape the new construction off the wood it’s attached to. You may want to be careful doing this since obviously the wasp building the nest is not going to be too happy. You might be safer getting the can of wasp poison to spray beforehand. If I’ve lagged and the nest is not so small with lots of activity, I’ll then opt for that can of safety myself. It can spray quite a distance overhead keeping you in safe distance, just be careful not to spray straight up directly over yourself….what comes up must come down. This early in the season I know I’ll be rechecking several more times in the weeks ahead for any new startup wasp condos. While it may not really be damaging to your house, if left alone a wasp nest can bring potential for personal harm as they grow in numbers.
Honey bees are also ramping up their activity, colonies may be splitting up venturing out to create new colonies. Often that can mean finding a nice 1/4″ in the siding of your home or in your eaves to start building a new hive inside your wall, or attic. If this happens you will want to contact a bee keeper, they will often pay you for the opportunity to relocate the colony. You don’t want to poison them inside the wall as that can lead to rotting bees, larvae and fermenting honey inside your wall. You also don’t want to just seal them in for the same reason, plus, they will be trying hard to find another escape route which just might lead them to the inside of your home. You can sometimes spot where a nest is located by the activity in the warmer part of the day. Swarms of bees spotted nearby may indicate a roaming colony looking for the perfect spot to call home. Bees buzzing around a certain area of your home can sometimes be spotted crawling into the gaps leading them to the new hive they are building out of site. With the assistance of pest control companies to help identify what type of bee you are dealing with and the most acceptable eradication method you may even find the need for a contractor’s help. The best thing to do if you do have a nest inside your wall is to open that wall up to completely remove the hive, and seal everything back up well after. It’ll help deter it from happening again in the same location as well as remove the possibilities of rotting inside your wall.
Carpenter bees can be found drilling holes in the siding or wood trim of your home to lay their eggs in. This is obviously already destructive due to the holes they drill, but could also attract other nuisances like wood peckers who may open the hole up larger to gain access to a meal of the eggs/larvae.
Depending on your actual location, some of this activity may be more likely to be one species over another. If you notice this sort of activity you may wish to contact a local pest control company for help in identifying what you’re dealing with and best methods of dealing with it. While I’m merely touching on the subject since it can lead to damage of your home, there are many more sources out there for more detailed information. It would be wise to see seek out some professional help if need be to deal with safest/least damaging methods of removal and prevention from recurrence as well as the legalities of things like using pesticide on honey bees.