Managing bees, wasps and hornets
BEE CONTROL SOLUTIONS
It is a traumatic experience to be stung by a wasp (yellow jacket), hornet or bee which may be life-threatening to someone who may be allergic to stings. Such threats can also be minimised by taking reasonable care while outdoors and maintaining careful maintenance of wasp nests or bee hives. If left alone, a beehive or hornets nest near your home can be upsetting and dangerous.
Bee Stings
While being known for their role in pollination and honey production, bees may become a danger to homeowners when constructing their hives near or inside homes. Bees are seen as less aggressive than other stinging insects such as wasps. Bees like honey bees and carpenter bees seldom sting in Singapore, unless provoked. However there are violent species like the Africanized honey bees that can bite large numbers of humans, luckily we never have to find some of them here. Bee stings may have an allergic reaction, leading to anaphylactic shock. Anaphylactic shock is a severe medical condition which requires immediate medical attention and may even cause death.
Wasp Stings
A wasp sting is a form of defence, just like the bee. If wasps feel threatened or if their nest is disturbed they become very aggressive and cause them to sting. A sting by a normal or social wasp (also known as a yellow jacket) is a terrible experience. This can be really disturbing and alarming for the young people.
Wasp stings may also be life-threatening in stings of people allergic to the venom. The allergic reaction is referred to as anaphylaxis. Those who have been stung many times previously and have become sensitised are more likely to experience this systemic reaction. The good news is that this form of allergic reaction is uncommon and severe is even rarer.
Tips to Avoid Stings
| Do not panic |
| If you see nearby wasps keep calm and slowly walk away. |
| Do not scream, flap your arms or swat them |
| It'd only make them angrier and more angry. |
| Avoid strong, sweet smells |
| Do not use strongly scented fragrances, sprays for skin, shampoos. |
| Avoid bright colours |
| Do not wear bright, bold floral patterns on bags and clothes that could attract wasps. |
| Avoid orchards |
| Or any soft fruit trees, and even exposed containers, where wasps gather for food. |
| Avoid open drinks |
| If cans or drink bottles are left unattended, wasps can be drawn to crawl inside. |
| Cover food and drink |
| Please keep food and drink safe when eating outside, to avoid wasps. |
| Stay clean |
| Ensure washing of children's hands and faces after eating sweet foods and drinks. |
Treatments for Wasp Stings
Unless you’ve never been stung before, it’s hard to know how you would react to a wasp sting. You can do some practical things to deal with any discomfort you might experience.
- Use a cold compress such as cold flannel or ice-pack.
- Take pain relievers to ease some discomfort.
- For raising any swelling around the sting take antihistamine tablets.
- When you have any questions about a wasp sting please contact a doctor.
Immediately call for an ambulance if you experience the following symptoms after being stung:
- difficulty breathing
- vomiting, nausea or diarrhoea
- feeling faint or dizziness
- swollen face or mouth
Honey Bee
They live in hollow trees or in chimneys, cavities in walls or gaps in the building. These are similar in size to wasps but are furrier in colour and often black. Honey bees turn nectar into beeswax and honey. A honey bee swarm lands on a tree branch in flight and cluster.
Solitary Bee
They have small size colony with small nests that are tended individually by a female. Their chosen nest sites are mostly in dirt, and often between bricks in soft cement and mortar. Solitary bees do not swarm, so honey so pollen are preferred. Single bees never sting.
Carpenter Bee
They only sting if provoked, and late-spring to mid-October are more noticeable. They prefer wild, bare softwoods such as redwood, cedar, cypress and pine. A nests can be found in eaves, outdoor furniture, window trims, facia frames, siding, decks. The carpenter bees feed on pollen-containing flowers.
How to Deter Bees and Wasps from nesting
Monitoring is important if you want to avoid bee and wasp problems, particularly if you know the area that you are occupying has this pest problem. Rather than waiting for them to enter your home or garden, it’s often better to avoid a problem before it happens.
Bee Prevention Tips
- Survey your home and garden for nests, typically the size of a golf ball at the beginning of a nest formation. Early small nests have fewer bees, so they are quicker to handle.
- Look in sheds, garages and in cavity walls for nests.
- Ensure you have nice tightly fitted lids on all your outside bins. Make sure you keep the bins away from the windows and doors so that bees are not drawn to the contents.
- To stop bees invading your house.
- That can prevent nesting in your yard of bees and hornets. Honey bees can be attracted under used appliances or lawn equipment found in gardens and yards, as they provide ample shelter for a hive to grow.
- Blocking access points will prevent bees from entering and being infected, as well as reduce the possibility that other bees will in future have access to the same area.
Wasp Deterrent Tips
Check for nests
Search your home and garden for nests, generally beginning with a walnut or golf ball in size-early small nests have less wasps and are easier to handle. Search for nests in garages, sheds, walls of the cavities or under eaves.
Secure bins
Ensure you have properly fitted lids outside of the bins. Hold bins at a distance from doors and windows so the contents do not attract wasps.
Keep windows and doors shut
To prevent wasps entering inside your home.
Keep a safe distance
If you’ve seen a nest, ensure that you keep kids and pets away from the area.
How to Deter Unwanted Bees
Seal potential entry points
Bees may penetrate any structure or object containing a hole which is a quarter of an inch or greater.
Apply treatment to the scout bees
Determine them from telling the swarm about their possible nesting location. The swarm moves on to a different spot. The trick, however, is to take quick action as bees will fly in unexpectedly.
Remove outdoor mess
May prevent the nesting of bees in your yard too. Unused appliances or lawn equipment found in gardens may attract honey bees, as they provide enough space for a hive to thrive.
Remove all traces of the honeycomb
If the honey bees used to visit your home before, pheromone scents left on the honeycomb will attract newcomers. While large numbers of bees or wasps in your home or garden mean there is almost certainly a nest nearby, it may not always be a solution to get rid of a hive nest. You would have very little control of what you can do to kill it if the hive nest is not on your house. Nests found in small, difficult to reach areas such as cavity walls may also be harder to handle.
Signs of Bee Hive
Infestation Signs
- Hives and nests will break and some members of the colony swarm to set up a new hive within a wall cavity of a residential or commercial premises
- Some bees nest in the ground, making shallow and simple holes in the soil.
- Some bees use a single type of branch while others use a number of branches to extend their nests by building underground mazes.
- For example, leafcutter bee nests consist of a line of several cells, containing dozens of leaves and twigs.
- It is vital that the specific bee and hornet species living near your home are properly identified, as they can often be mistaken for wasps.
- If you have trouble with wasps please see more information about our wasp removal services.
- Hornets and bees have different removal mechanisms, and the best form of treatment depends on finding the right species.
- Note also that special licenses are often required in some regions for the treatment of bee infestations.
Yellow Jackets
They feed on insects like caterpillars and harmful flies at certain times of the year, as colonies grow we are attracted to food that is eaten by humans. They sting repeatedly, can sting if irritated with symptoms ranging from swelling to allergic shock that threatens life. Yellow jackets hide under the porches and eaves of buildings in trees, shrubs, or internally in attics, hollow walls, floors, sheds.
Relocating bee colony
The bee hive can require a relocation in some circumstances. Our trained bee control specialists can handle the transfer to another location in a safe and secure manner.
Bee Removal
We will stop a bee swarm left to our experts, who will ensure that the hive is completely cleared. This method requires the right equipment and expertise so for safety and efficiency purposes we suggest that.
How to get rid of bees:
Relocate the bee colony
However places like bushes, trees, and sheds can require the nest to be relocated. Our ant management strategies are designed for commercial as well as domestic customers, regardless of the severity of the infestation.
Extermination
If you have a situation where extermination is needed for a nest or hive, it will depend on whether you can close the nest or hive entrance. To determine whether this is feasible and whether elimination of bees is the best choice, a qualified specialist should be hired. We’ll also know which insecticides are safe for use, which are only for industrial use.
Blocking Entry Points
It is necessary for honey bees that entry routes are blocked off, and all the honeycomb is removed if possible. Failure to do so would cause the tainted honey to be found by robber bees and taken back to their hive and polluted again.
Mortar Repointing
In the long term, re-pointing with sound mortar is the only real choice for solitary / masonry bees, which needs a thorough job, as bees searching for a nest site will soon discover places that have been overlooked.
Bee Removal in Your Home
A bee swarm should be avoided, and a professional should handle any bee pest control issue. The only way to get rid of your bees home is to ensure that the hive gets absolutely removed. This method requires the appropriate equipment and expertise and we suggest that a pest control specialist should be consulted for safety and efficiency purposes before attempting any bee control technique.
Bee Removal on your Business
We will provide your company with skilled bee and hornet extermination services, if you need a survey at a building site, a farm or a manufacturing site such as a warehouse. We provide:
- On-site inspections
- Recommend future bee and hornet pest control techniques
- Access to the latest equipment and chemicals to remove your businesses bee problem
Our Bee, Wasp and Hornet Control Solutions
The most successful way of remediating them from your property is by using a licensed bee, wasp and hornet control service. We provide a site inspection to determine the source of attraction, breeding location, infestation level and to classify the species of bee, wasp or hornet. Our NEA licensed technicians can provide reliable, focused solutions for bee, wasp and hornet control, customised to your needs. We are only going to kill a bee nest or colony if it is considered a threat to people.
1. Contact
Contact us and we’ll arrange connecting you with your local team. You will receive calls from local pest specialists within 24 hours (Mon-Fri).
2. Survey
We will address your pest issue, arrange an appointment if necessary and include a quote and suggestions. The appointment will be at a time convenient to you, in order to come up with a customised solution tailored to your pest problem.
3. Treatment
Our state-certified pest technicians will come out and provide you with your care appointment at a time that is convenient for you. We will take an environmentally-friendly approach to tackle your pest issue.
4. Aftercare
We’ll make as many visits as you require to ensure your problem is resolved. Our solutions are guaranteed and we provide periodic maintenance and prevention advice.