I live in the Northeast in a raised ranch with cedar shake siding. I had noticed holes in some of the shakes last year and thought nothing of it. This year I noticed bees going in and out of those holes. And within the last week I can now hear humming sound inside the house, it is rythmic sound.
I was hoping I could get some ideas on getting rid of the bees without resorting to spraying chemicals underneath the shakes. The infestation is on my outside bedroom wall and I don't want to be inhaling some awful chemical for years to come in my sleep!
Thanks!!! :O

Call a professional! You could get killed trying to get rid of them yourself. I love bees and all those beneficial insects/pollinators, but when they move into my house they are pests.

A pro could also close up any entrances once he's got the nest out.

I am concerned a professional will recomend dousing the side of my house with an insectiside!

Try contacting a beekeeper's association (google the term)--they'll probably know of a gentler way to remove the hive, or at least a less toxic method of destroying it if necessary.

call a exterminator soon, they will go thruough your drywall and getinside your house. I had this done a couple years ago and they only blew some powder inside the siding, no nastie pestiside spray.

FIrst of all, are they bees, wasps, hornets, dirt dobbers, or wood bees?...Humming in the wall sounds like dirt dobbers, THey dob the mud then fan their wings to dry it on the nest they are building. They are pretty much harmless and they controll insects. They catch spiders and other insects and put in the mud tubes where they lay thier eggs, for the larvae to eat while they are growing.. They are usually black and look like wasps or black and brown with a skinny abdomen. Wasps are red or red with black wings. These guys are what ya wanna get rid of. THey are bad little critters and will sting ya in a hurry. Painfull sting. Causing shock in lots of people. Wood bees look like bumble bees, big, black and yellow and fuzzy looking, usually have a yellow spot in their face. Pretty much harmless, wont bother ya unless ya bother them. Bumble bees, build thier nests under ground and make nasty tasting honey, not worth eating. Hornets are BIG wasps looking things. THey will build in attics and inside walls sometimes. But you dont hear humming from them. If they are honey bees, little black and yellow fuzzy things, then leave them be, I wish I had a honey bee nest in my attic or walls, Lord knows there arent enough of them around if you do much gardening and notice all the unpollinated produce in the crops. You might hear them humming on hot days as they flap thier wings as well to cool the hive and the young ones in their cells. Know what you are dealing with before you start slaughtering insects because you think they are harmfull. Even wasps help pollinate peas, corn squash, beans and other veggies. NOt everything that flies is a bee!!

Once you determine what kind of critters they are, if they need to be gotten rid of, it shouldn't be too difficult. Like Farmhound, I'd love to have a hive of honey bees in my wall and wouldn't do a thing to move them.

However, if they're nasty stinging insects, this is what I've done. Take a spray bottle and mix up water with a couple tablespoons of dishsoap. Put the nozzle in those holes you were talking about and spray. It may take a couple applications to get them all, but the soap suds smothers them. No fumes, no poisons, and the small amount of water you're using shouldn't cause a problem in the wall.

I bought an old camper one time that had quite a lot of wasps and their nests in it. Didn't want to spray it with chemicals and then load my kids in there, so I used the old soap and water method. It took longer than spraying poison, but it was just as effective eventually.

Properly identify what you have. I doubt that you have a bee hive, although it is possuble, most likely what you do have are wasps, yellow jackets. Until you have eliminated the hive your do not want to plug the entrance holes. If what you have, and you do not want to hire an exterminator, is the Yellow Jackets you can make a landing platform for them and pile on Sevin (carbaryl) dust. The workers returning to the hive will land on that platform, pick up the Sevin (carbaryl), and track it into the nest where it will kill off the inhabitants of the hive including the queen. Just keep in ind that Sevin (carbaryl) is a very broad spectrum poison and due care needs to be used in handling (because this is also toxic to you) and exposure of pets and children.

Well I found out that I have a honey bee nest under by cedar shakes!!!! Just as Farmhound said they flap their wings to cool down the hive and sure enough I only heard the humming sound during the very hot weather. But I had no trouble falling asleep over this since they hummed a lullaby in the eveng!!

Anyway, Framhound and topofthehill I am concerned that the bees will eventually go through my sheetrock! Aren't there issues of having honey inside your walls?

Not sure what I am going to do yet, but I will wait for some good old fashioned organic advice!

Thanks folks,
Windaway

I remember my uncle having honeybees in a wall once. They filled the wall so full of comb that they couldn’t keep it cool enough in there and some of the beeswax melted and honey soaked through the walls into his house. He had to have the bees removed and have the wall rebuilt as the inside surfaces were ruined. That was on a south-facing wall so it got full sun in the summer and just got too hot for the bees to cool.

Maybe, if your wall doesn’t get that hot you won’t have any trouble with them.

It is really not a good idea to have your walls full of honey. Think of all the other beasties it may attract, ants, raccoons, bears. I don't know if you have bears, but they wouldn't think twice of trying to take your walls down to get to honey. It seems honey doesn't rot, but it does ferment. A neighbor had a swarm try to build a nest in his grape arbor. He contacted a local apiary. The bee keeper came and collected most of the swarm. Bees are precious resources, and in some places they are endangered, so I hope you can come up with some good resolution.
Good luck-
Ria

Windaway, I admire and respect bees, and I live with them, so I try to co-exist as much as I can. But try to make the location of their nest as annoying as possible, and they might move the queen. Have you ever seen a swarm of honeybees moving the queen? It's amazing.

Most of the bees are out during the day, they are all inside it by dusk because they need the sun to locate themselves and their pollen sources.

Could you reach the opening of their nest by standing on a ladder and not walking on the roof (which will alert them)? There are going to be guard bees at the openings to those holes during the day, so don't get up close. But one thing you can try, at night when they will be slow to respond, smear oil of peppermint around the opening by putting some on a cloth on a long stick and reaching it that way. Don't shove it in the hole because that will upset the bees. Just circle the opening with it. Try to do it in one wet swirl, and then leave.

The next morning see if bees will start to fly around in confusion. There will be a lot of them. Give them a couple of days to decide what to do. They might have a "back door" to that nest, other openings, so watch to see if you can find them, and put the peppermint oil there, too.

It might take a few days, and if they do move the queen, a couple hundred of them group around here in a giant buzzing blob and slowly, slowly fly from bush to tree to bush, with several loose fliers on the edges, until they get where they want to be. Hopefully not to your garden shed!

Once they've gone, shove steel wool into any openings in your roof, into any places in the siding on the outside where it meets the roof where they might crawl in. They will squirm and struggle to get in a small hole, so it's not just big openings.

If they don't leave this way, the hive will die out by December, then you can shove steel wool into the holes without any concern. I've had them make honey and wax in my garden sheds, and it isn't a problem for one year. In fact, the wax is a great insulator and fascinating stuff. But it does attract mice, so close up any openings.

If they were wood bees, then you should shove the steel wool in the openings right away. And you'll know there are wood bees present because they eat the wood and leave sawdust that drops down to the ground. So walk around your house and look for little sawdust piles on the ground, then look up. You'll see the opening.

Hello Sweetpea! Thanks for the advice. It was a fascinating response. I sure would like to see them move the queen in one big blob!

I am going to get some peppermint oil and try it out. I think a health food store would be a good place to get that right?

If it is honey bees, they will build comb and store honey in your house. As has been said, this may lead to staining.

Most wild colonies don't last long these days because of diseases and mites. Beekeepers treat their bee colonies for these problems. If you live where there are cold winters, the bees will probably die this winter.

I have kept bees for many years. In my opinion wild bees or bees in a house are a pest, and because they don't get medicated for disease are prone to spread disease to apiaries.

A beekeeper can trap them out, but it isn't worth the effort.

Call the exterminator.

Bees are great for the garden, but best kept in a hive and tended.

Ok, in my case it's wasps. I've been dealing with this same hive for a month. They crept in under / around a window.

After various removal attempts that didn't work, I tried the Sevin powder (thanks KimmSr for that tip). Got a little 1 tsp thing from the pharmacy and "puffed" a little into their 1 remaining entryway to the outside world. [Where they burrowed through the caulk one last time before it set...] Seems they don't like the powder and are now boycotting that entry / exit. Which is good, except that now they're coming in through the window frame.

I put plastic over the inside of the window with double-stick tape and I now have a community of about a dozen wasps hanging out between the plastic and the glass. Probably more still trapped in the wall.

Does anyone know how long it will take for them to "transition" from natural causes (no food or water in there...)? This is the main bathroom of the house and it's a little unnerving.

Have gotten rid of 4 other hives this year myself in and around the house. Two of them took 2 tries, but this is crazy!

Update: Since I had previously removed the screen, I simply climbed up and opened the glass part of the window from the outside. This little enclave, then, can fly free should it choose to. [Some security system I have here, huh?] Anyway, I do still wonder about how long their comrades might be expected to last in the wall...