Are These Digger Bees?

by Katie
(NH)

Hello,

I'm searching far and wide to find the best solution and am hoping you might help. I think I have a digger bee nest in my backyard. It is close to where my kids play and the bees frequently "follow" the kids aggressively, although no-one has been stung.

They seem to have occupied a chipmunk hole and are quite large and noisy. I have no idea how large the nest is, but it's been growing for over a month. My husband put a post in the hole to warn the kids to keep their distance. At times you can actually see the post "buzzing" with activity from the hive. I have family coming to visit with bee allergies and must remove the hive and/or destroy it.

Any thoughts?

Hi Katie

It's hard to say without knowing what sort of bees these are, the photo looks as though it might be a type of bumblebee. Do you think they're honeybees or possibly even wasps?

Are you absolutely sure they sting, not all bees of this type actually have a sting? The bottom line is that if you need to get rid of them somehow I don't think it's going to be feasible to move them,so you're probably have to exterminate them. Many people who claim to be allergic are not, they think that if a sting hurts and swells, you're allergic.

If you fill in the hole they'll probably dig their way out and the problem will persist. If they are wasps, the way to kill the entire colony is to push an empty plastic or glass bottle down into the hole. As long as you make sure there is still light going down inside the hole, they won't dig themselves out, but will perish with in a few days. I'm not sure whether this will work with other insects but I'm guessing it would.

You could try a piece of rigid plastic tubing pushed down into the hole, then the bees will exit eight feet above the ground where they're unlikely to bother anyone.

I hope you won't kill them unless absolutely necessary. If you can identify the troublemaker, or send me a close up photo I'd have a better chance of knowing what's going on.

The Bee Guy