bees in my mums wall?

[kazmcc]

Can anybody give us some advice. My mum has had what she says are bumble bees coming into her kitchen for about a year. They appear to be dozy and die quickly, and they don't come in large numbers.....just 4 or 5 at the most. She thinks they enter the wall outside through a hole by the back door, she has seen them entering a few times but can't find where they enter the house.

If you need more info before you advise, i will get it. She isn't daft and knows honey bees from bumbles so if thats what she says they are then she will probably be right. I'd love to be able to help her, but neither of us have pest control type money to spare and they'd just kill them anyway.

Karen

 

[kazmcc]

OK, I've just looked up my local beekeeping assoc website and it says as bumbles are endangered, they would be left alone as there isn't a danger to anybody. They don't bother her, she just shoos them out the door, but it's getting to be a pain in the arsenal that's all

 

[Firegazer]

Karen,
howdy.

Are you saying that your Mum has Bumblebees appearing inside the house (rather than through the external door) and that they are living inside a cavity in the wall or under the floor?

If so, I think the normal advice with Bumblebees (which build a colony from a single over-wintering queen which dies back to her in the Autumn) is to wait until beginning of Winter, then block up the hole in the outside wall. This should mean you don't get another nest next year.

I think if you didn't want the nest killed, you'd probably be looking at a lot of work to find and remove them, and they'll be dying off (as a colony) soon anyway. With honeybees, I think you can trap the foragers into an external hive, and keep doing this until the colony shrinks and the queen gives up and leaves (when you can catch her too). I doubt if this is an option with Bumblebees.

Does that help at all?

FG

 

[kazmcc]

Thank you firegazer, yes, they are in the wall cavity coming in through a hole in the wall outside, but then making their way into the house somehow. She doesn't have the door open really as she doesn't use the small yard so they can't be flying in. she says she comes down in the morning and they are there after she has shooed them away the night before.

I will tell her to block the hole and see if that helps.

Thanks for replying

Kaz

 

[milkermel]

I know there is the annoyance factor, but just as a bit of info it takes a lot to get a bumble bee soo annoyed that it will sting, hubby has had lots of dealings with them and never once has he had a sting even when they were given good reason to do so.

 

[Queens59]

We had this last year - considering how big a bumble is, it is amazing that they can get into a room and you can't find the hole isn't it?

We read up, waited until the autumn (when they stopped appearing) and then bunged up the hole. No probs. this year.

 

[Silly Bee]

Turn off the telly, and watch the bees, far more interesting

 

[Firegazer]

Karen,
just to be sure you did mean "tell her to block the hole in Winter when no more Bumblebees are around" didn't you?

If she were to block it now, and it's their main in/out route, they will ALL be coming through into the kitchen looking for a way to find forage plants and water . . .

FG

 

[kazmcc]

Yes, thanks firegazer, I did advise her to wait. My brother tried to block them from outside, but my mum went mad and told him to unblock it lol, he wasn't too happy but he hadn't been trying for long so it wasn't too big a job.

 

[mindTheGap]

Yep, don't block the hole. Please!

As said, in a month or two the colony will be dead and the queens will move on to hibernate.

As also said, the chance of being stung by a bumble bee is pretty small - I have been stung once in my life and I used to catch hundreds using my hands as a child. (I accidentally crushed the one that stung me)

You could but a target over the hole - a square of white card to help navigation. That may stop accidental access to the house, or they may be entering through an air-brick etc by mistake. Jam jar and a piece of card to catch them and let them go outside.

check out http://www.bumblebeeconservation.org.uk/

Bumble bees are cool

 

[kazmcc]

Thanks mindthegap, my mum is like me, she can't kill anything, and the bumbles are pretty well behaved, they leave when she shoos them out, but why do you think they are groggy and half dead. She said she hasn't had any lively ones inside at all, most she finds dead on the windowsill, the dozy ones leave but don't fly too much? Even in the height of spring/summer they are the same.

I love bumbles, even when I was terrified of bees I wasn't scared of bumbles lol

 

[darrenperrett]

I`ve got a bumble nest in my haybarn and i`ve just found another in my powerhouse.
They`ll be gone in a few weeks so i`ll just work around them for now although the meter reading man may not be so keen

Darren.

 

[kazmcc]

They`ll be gone in a few weeks so i`ll just work around them for now although the meter reading man may not be so keen

Darren.

lol, tell him you are a bee keeper and they are trained bees and if he doesn't write the meter reading particularly low for you, you will set them on him