Bees in my mulch

[mystang52]

I have red mulch on one side of my house. We just noticed some bees hovering by the mulch. DW asked me to take a rake and stir up the mulch to look for a nest. As I did so, one bee started "exploring" my air space, and when it got too close I ran faster than I have in many years.
Google tells me these might be "ground bees" and the recommended solution was....mulch. Not sure if these are stupid ground bees picking my mulch for a home, or they're not the harmless ground bees I'm reading about. Any ideas? Do I just live and let live, or is there some way to get rid of them?
I should add that after I ran away, I checked again a few minutes later. The bee remembered me, and pursued me.

 

[Running_Man]

put a cup of diatomaceous earth in frunt of your mulch pile, use your yard blower to spread the powder over your mulch pile, the bees will be killed and the diatomaceous earth will be gone with the next rain and it is totally harmless to you. You can repeat this anywhere outside you see the bees.

 

[Markola]

At first glance, I thought I was going to need to look this title up in Urban Dictionary, as in “They got bees in their mulch.”

 

[Time2]

I once stalled my lawn mower over the top of an underground beehive.
When the bees started swarming out from under the mower deck, I also found out how fast I could run.

 

[Amethyst]

If they are really bees, that's one thing. I don't run from actual bees, as they are rarely aggressive until you actually invade their nest or try to grab them.

If they are hornets - e.g. yellowjackets - I would be marching out there with a can of wasp and hornet spray, and show no mercy. Those things are a horror show. Then again, yellowjackets likely would have gone a lot farther than just "exploring" your foot.

 

[Winemaker]

If there is a nest located there, wait til the evening when it's cooler and they are all in the nest. If you spray during the day, the bees that were out working and shopping all day will just hover in front of nest because the spray prevents them from going in.

I'm sure they are not actually honey bees, but yellow jackets, as Amethyst mentioned above.

 

[harley]

There are a lot of ground bees and wasps and such that are pretty much harmless. Unless you have to carry an Epipen for bee stings I just wouldn't worry about it. If they are honeybees they aren't ground bees and won't stay around there. If they look like bumblebees they won't hurt you. I used to catch them in my hand without getting stung (mostly). Even carpenter bees won't hurt you, although you don't want them boring into your house. If you really want to get rid of them try that diatomaceous earth thing. I've never tried that and would be interested in how it works.

As Amethyst says, if they're yellowjackets, kill the b*stards with spray asap. I used to be a beekeeper, so I like most bees. I even have built a couple Bee hotels to draw them over near my gardens. But I hate yellowjackets. They're on my list with ticks and leeches of things I'd have skipped if I were God.

 

[pacergal]

Agree with Amethyst--yellow jackets are horrible! Get rid of that nest as fast as you can.
As a child, I was with my girl scout group and one of them stepped on a nest, ran and--had 14+ YJ stuck in my long hair, stinging all the way. My girl scout leaders caught up with me and 3 other girls in the same predicament and spent time picking them out, getting stung also. Horrible experience!
My brother had one behind the flower bed at his last house. Took two home treatments, and then had to call a pest/bee guy to use stronger stuff.

 

[Amethyst]

I was gardening one time, disturbed a hidden YJ nest they had stealthily dug under a border stone. Zap, zap! I ran screaming but got 10 stings. So much pain! An antihistamine, a long nap, and revenge in the form of hornet spray helped, but those stings itched like fire for days.

Agree with Amethyst--yellow jackets are horrible! Get rid of that nest as fast as you can.
As a child, I was with my girl scout group and one of them stepped on a nest, ran and--had 14+ YJ stuck in my long hair, stinging all the way. My girl scout leaders caught up with me and 3 other girls in the same predicament and spent time picking them out, getting stung also. Horrible experience!
My brother had one behind the flower bed at his last house. Took two home treatments, and then had to call a pest/bee guy to use stronger stuff.

 

[Amethyst]

Incidentally, our lawn guy noticed some red mulch (all I could find at HD) and said, "Did you know insects are attracted to the red mulch?"

Maybe there is something to that.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

DW asked me to take a rake and stir up the mulch to look for a nest.

This is the best thing I have read today....it made me laugh and laugh hard.

 

[Sunset]

Wait until evening or night and then spray.

We have wasps build a nest inside our mailbox, nearly every year. It makes getting the mail exciting.
For that I use a hose on full blast to wash it out, as I don't want the poisonous spray on our mail.

 

[skyking1]

This is the best thing I have read today....it made me laugh and laugh hard.

AAAnd, he did it!

so let us review. A be was spotted.
DW says attack with rake.
Bees become properly offended.

I suggest a slower approach, that bee will forget you soon. Then you can take a picture and we can help you identify.
No need to go thermonuclear warfare just yet. If they are ground bees they are typically not aggressive and you can make a small adjustment, and live and let live.
If they are wasps or other hornet/type creatures then there is no good solution that lets them live.
The late night/early morning spraying works best as mentioned above.

 

[EastWest Gal]

We have had two wasps nests in the ground in our property, the last 5 years. These are not your humble honeybee. They look for holes created by other critters-rabbits and voles. Both nests I found while weeding. I was stung once the second time. We called our pest service company both times and they sprinkled some insecticide powder both times (no cost). I then sealed the holes off with dirt and rocks.

We have sprayed some wasps nests under the eaves several times over the years, always when it was cool and in early morning.

Bees and wasps can and should live. but not if they attack us. Sorry. I leave honeybees and bumblebees alone. But aggressive wasps I do not tolerate. They can nest elsewhere or be destroyed.

Yellow jacket type-wasps in the east are these ground wasps. They aremuch less aggressive than yellow jackets California which invade every picnic and claim all the food for themselves.

We had a full blown hornet's nest (paper lantern shaped) one year, hanging from our pool slide. DH brought out a gallon plastic bag and slipped it over the nest, sealed it off, and gone.

Being humane and humanitarian does not mean that you need to be subservient to every insect in your space.

 

[mpeirce]

Even yellow jackets can live and let live.

When I was in college I was taking summer classes and so stayed in my apartment. It was the top floor of a house and had a nice porch on its level. I spend time reading there most days. In the early summer I noticed a few yellow jackets apparently with a hive in the porch wall. They flew right by me without issue. By the end of the summer those yellow jackets had multiplied and there was constant air traffic going by me. But they were used to me and never bothered me at all.

 

[MRG]

As said bees are cool and just want to make honey. Yellow jackets need to be avoided.

Bees are cool:
In about 1974 I was skidding logs out behind the cutter, Crazy Barry. Barry was a bit older than my 17 and knew how to avoid working too hard.
I came out with a couple trees and when I was detaching the choker cables I hear Crazy Barry's saw idling for a few minutes not moving. Thought it was odd but I went back and got another drag of logs, at least a half hour had passed and his saw was still idling in the same place. I feared the worst and put that machine in high gear and flew(5mph) to rescue him.

I was so happy to see Crazy Barry alive; he had his saw idling very rich as he climbed into the bee tree he'd just cut down. His only protection from the swarming bees was the smoke from his saw. I guess he had a ball cap on too. Good honey.

 

[Bamaman]

Those in the ground bees are most often Yellowjackets. And they're especially viscous little rascals that will sting you in packs.

My father once was cutting over a nest, and they swarmed him until he ran down our boat dock and dove into the lake.

There is a pest control operation in Atlanta I used to visit, and they have tutorials online on how to get rid of 150+ critters and bugs. Here is his tutorial on Yellowjackets:

https://bugspray.com/article/yellowjackets.html

You could pour gasoline down the hole and burn'em out. But chances are there's another nest within a short distance away. Use the dust that's suggested, and the bees will take it to other nests and it'll kill the yellowjackets there too.

 

[harley]

we have a lot of wasps, mud daubers, that build nests under our decks. We were concerned at first because of the dogs and the DGD. But they are not aggressive, and I'm the only one that ever got stung, and that was because I grabbed a chair one was resting on without seeing her. So we just leave them alone and have taught DGD to pay attention to where she's walking.

However, we also occasionally get paper wasps, and those suckers are aggressive! When I see them I follow them to the next and use that 20' spray stuff.

We don't have too much trouble with yellowjackets out here at the shore. But the greenheaded flies fill in the niche just fine.

 

[NW-Bound]

I have not encountered Africanized bees, but the regular honey bees are not aggressive and nothing to be feared.

I have a lot of mud daubers around here, and they are not aggressive either. I have killed hundreds of them.

Paper wasps are something else though. They will chase you after you have run 100 ft from their nest. I once had a nest they built into a dead tree stump. Stood 10 ft away and sprayed the entry hole thoroughly with a wasp spray. Killed all the damn things.

 

[Graybeard]

Around here a ground nest would be Yellow Jackets. They are wasps not hornets, don't have a barb on their stinger so they can sting you multiple times and if disturbed are aggressive and you'll be sorry you bothered them! Honey Bees and Bumblebees are valuable and should not be harmed. Generally, if you can avoid whatever is in the ground just do that. Yellow Jackets become much more aggressive in late summer so they are especially dangerous then.

I was doing the trimming with a walk behind mower and luckily for me I saw "bees" coming and going from a hole in the ground and stopped 3' from the hole! I stopped the mower so the vibrations wouldn't bring them out looking for trouble. I watched them and confirmed they were Yellow Jackets, they had to go. So just before sunset when they have returned to the nest for the night I collected a gas can, 2' X 2' piece of plywood and a heavy weight. I poured about 3 oz of gas into the hole and immediately dropped the plywood over it and placed the weight on the plywood. That solved the problem. I would not suggest lighting the gas on fire!

 

[skyking1]

On the west side the most common ground nesters are smaller bumblebees. Eastern Washington has the ground nesting hornets. Once they get stirred up they never settle down, and aggressively defend the nest territory. If it is by your door, too bad. They are nasty.
I have some black tailed bumbles in a bird nest box on my porch.

The most striking feature is the orange band, but several different species have that.
The dark eyed juncos usually nest there but this year the bees beat them to it.
They are so aggressive! NOT
Every time I close the gate attached to that post, the whole box would hum in warning. LOL
I had to knock on the box to get that picture, from about 5 inches away with my phone. One came out and buzzed her wings at me in warning.
I felt bad for the juncos, they got rebuffed when they tried to move in.

 

[Ian S]

DW asked me to take a rake and stir up the mulch to look for a nest.

Let me guess, she also recently asked you to up your life insurance and you complied!