I’ve got bees living in my house...help!

[ScarlettDarling]

Noticed a lot of bees hanging around our bay window a few days ago and didn’t think much of it until I started hearing buzzing in my sitting room ceiling and finding a couple of bees in my daughter’s bedroom😳

They seem to be getting in where there’s a gap under the lead flashing at the top of the bay window and must be getting into the floorboards from there. I’m totally freaked out. I know bees are important but the buzzing and the thought of bees crawling around in our house is really making me jumpy.

I just don’t know what to do. I’ll obviously be contacting someone to replace the lead flashing but in the meantime I’m so anxious. Any advice gratefully received.

Do you know what type of bee's

I don't think you can get bees removed as they are protected.

Just leave them to it.

We live in a thatch and one year they nested in the eaves over our bedroom window. They look like they are about to fly in, then slow down for their approach to the nest. I loved watching them I was quite sad when they left in the winter.

I do realise that is easier said than done though,we live in the country so are often dealing with things like this - mice,rats,dead squirrels down chimneys,dead birds in chimneys that cause blue bottle infestations for a week etc etc!

You absolutely can get them removed, call a local pest company and they will collect the swarm and relocate them to a safe place. Most bee places will collect them for free too as they don't want them to be harmed.

Try not to panic though.

I contacted pest control who said they could be masonry bees or honey bees. Honey bees can’t be touched as they’re protected. A bee keeper could be called if there was a swarm but there’s not...just 10 or so bees at any one time.
He said for masonry bees the best thing to do is block any points of entry. We think we know where they’re coming in so as I said in my op, we’re going to see about getting the lead flashing replaced, but in the meantime I’m just so freaked out. Every noise I hear makes me jump and when the buzzing starts properly my heart just sinks.

I started a thread last week as I have bees in my porch canopy. I've decided to leave them there all summer as they aren't in the house and I live alone. The (good) advice I got was to check local Facebook or other social media for bee keeping societies or bee keepers who will take them away for you to live somewhere else. Mine are no trouble. I've cut the grass right next to them with my noisy mower and been in and out of the front door without them seeming that bothered.

A lot of misinformation here - contrary to popular opinion, honey bees (or any type of bee in the UK), are not protected! @ScarlettDarling Your pest controller was totally wrong!

Not saying that bees shouldn't be protected (they should), but they are not protected.

Try a local beekeeper or beekeepers group , they might at least look at them, identify which type they are and be able to advise you.

If they're masonry bees they probably won't do any harm - we have them in our walls and they're no bother.

We've had honey bee nests removed before - it's sad, but if they're causing you problems you really can have them removed (and IME they may well not be able to relocate them). But I'd ask if there's an interested beekeeper on your local groups - my friend keeps bees and would certainly come and have a look.

We have had bees causing a nuisance in the house with the children and the cats. Called pest control and we have tree bees. Apparently they will die off at the end of June but we just couldn't stand the buzzing. Cost me £90 plus vat to have the entrances to the house treated. Seems to have done the trick. Not seen or heard a single bee since.

What did they do? Block the entrances or use insecticides? We found another bee in my daughters room today, think they must be squeezing through the gap between her skirting and floor😩

They said not to block the entrances while they are active as it means the bees just try to find another entrance. I'm not sure what they used but there is white powder where the bees were getting in. Now the bees have gone I need to block the holes they were getting in through. Hope this helps.

I would try the beekeepers association before opting for extermination.
Why pay to have them killed when you might be able to have them removed a d relocated for free? If they move the queen bee the rest will follow.

We had bees in a wall. We contacted a local bee keeper who advised that if it wasn't possible to access the hive to extract the queen, then we would need to exterminate them. We spoke to a pest control company who said the same. We very reluctantly treated with insecticide after leaving them for two seasons. I actually hated having them in the wall as we used to have to dash through their flight path on a regular basis and it felt quite threatening as their were hundreds of bees.

We thought we had sealed up the hold around the window frame where they had entered, but they came back again to the same wall last week and we exterminated them immediately.

i plant my garden to be good for bees so it is quite devastating to have to destroy them but we can't have them living in the wall again.

Had exactly the same problem ,& beekeeper couldn't help as entry point high up. The bees buzzed noisily under the floor boards then came out. They get dozey at night so we netted them and put outside. For the remainder, we set off smoke bombs, (exH lifted floorboards to do this) & they buzzed off.