We Have Bees

Saturday as I was cutting the grass I noticed a bunch of bees flying around the house.  At first I didn’t think too much about it because they were around All of Kris’s flowers on the side of the house, which is normal.  However, when I knelt down to plug in the extension cords for the trimmer and the shop vac, I noticed 4 or 5 actually flying up to the house and crawling up under the bottom row of siding.  I thought, “well that can’t be good”.

Over the next 10-15 minutes I watched a steady stream flying in and out.  I got down on my hands and knees to look and I noticed a very fine crack in the foundation.  I actually think that it is only in the facing of the cinder blocks, but either way, right at the top of the foundation there is an opening, probably no more than ¼” to 3/8” and it looks like that was where they were going in and coming out. 

I went into the basement right away to see if there were any cracks, or opening in the same area on the inside of the wall, and luckily there were not, so it appears everything is contained either in the basement blocks, or, up behind the siding.  I am still not quite sure exactly where they are, other than having an entry point right by my exterior outlet.

I should note that I am no biologist, so I don’t know if these are bees, wasps, hornets, yellow jackets, etc.  All I know is that it is some sort of black and yellow flying insect.  They aren’t the big fuzzy kind either.  I tried spraying the opening with some Sprectracide Wasp and Hornet poison.  At first, it stopped them.  As they were flying back they stopped just shy of the opening and turned around, but as soon as everything dried up, they were back to going in and out.  I don’t know if that poison only works on wasps and hornets, and not bees, but whatever they are, they are still flying about. 

I looked up how to get rid of them, and due to the colony collapse disorder that is going on, I found out the Wisconsin has “protected” the bee.  It is illegal to kill them/destroy a hive.  First of all, I am not even sure they are bees.  And I have no idea who to ask, or who to have come to my house and tell me if they are bees, or if it is some genus of yellow jacket, or wasp.  They are smaller though.  Smaller than what I would consider a normal “bee”.  We have plenty of honey bees on the flowers, and they don’t look like those, so who knows.

But if they are bees, then I need to find a beekeeper who will be willing to take them.  Apparently all I need to do is contact one and they will come and get them, and not change anything.  Which I suppose is a win-win for them, right?  I’ll try and post an update in a few days if I find out anything more.  Luckily they seem rather docile so far, just going about their business, so it doesn’t appear that I have to worry about getting stung.