help we have a bee nest. Is it okay to have a bees nest?

[Cappuccino]

in our garden in a wall

dh has googled

he has found 2 schools of thought -

1. pour hot soapy water down to kill em all

2. use them as a wonderful educational opportunity for your children to learn about insects

I dunno. Nothing on Cbeebies Springwatch has prepared me for this. Don't want the dd's to get stung and tho the supporters of approach no 2 suggest that it's important not to let children get phobias about being stung, I have one and will scream involuntarily and then freeze in terror whenever I see a hovering bee

they will learn this

and I will live in terror

help

Bees are fine. I'd be fine with bees and I'm terrified of wasps and bees. With bees I swallow my fear and repeat the mantra "they will not sting if I don't hurt them...". Of course I don't generall hang about to identify them, I run a mile but I will help bees out of the house whereas wasps get killed..

For some reason I seem to think that you're not allowed to kill bees. They're protected or something.

Hmm, I think I would leave it and just make sure the children give it a bit of a wide berth, i.e. don't 'provoke' the bees. We had a bees' nest in our garden when we were children and my parents left it alone. No problems. Now a wasps nest, that I would exterminate immediately. I have a dreadful wasp phobia and am very worried about them after the ridiculously mild winter. I asked dh what wasps' natural enemies are and he said 'hornets' . Fab.

oh okay soupy

though I do remember one stinging my grandma when she had done nothing

it was senile and dying I think

this is maybe what turned me

Are the dd's old enough to know not to touch them or to get too close? If so, don't worry about it. As a child our garden had approx 240,000 bee living there in hives. I was only ever stung twice in our garden.

dd1 old enough

dd2 two years old and insane

We have an annual pass to the local botanic garden and go several times a week. There are always lots of bees in the flowers/bushes. It's amazing how unfazed they are by people being near (as long as those stay calm). My wasp phobia used to be coupled with a fear of bees but I've really got over that now.

They rarely sting, Cappuccino. My dad always picks them up to free them from the house . He got stung for the first time I can remember last week actually but the bee had been stuck inside for a while.

bees die when they sting which is why they don't do it. Wasps are evil, vindictive little buggers thoughand I think they can even sting when dead. Bastards.

I'm allergic to bee (and wasp) stings. I'd be spraying it with some of that foamy stuff that seals it all in and kills them off (sorry, can't remember what it's called). I wouldn't chance water in case one escaped, cause it would be pretty pissed off if it did!

dd (15 months) has already been stung by a wasp once .

Contact a local bee keeper and see if they want them? We had a swarm of bees (I know not the same thing) out the front of our group of houses and a neighbour called a bee keeper who gladly came and removed them

(I guess it depends on the type of bee though whether they're "desirable"?)

I'd rather not kill anything if I'm honest

but I do wish deep down that they would all fly away

however I am becoming reassured by your kind words

i think they'll remove even undesirable bees, or find someone who will do so. i grew up with beekeeping neighbour and gardening mother who has very bad reaction to stings, so i have seen both sides. please don't try to kill them also imagine if it went wrong and they became angry. i do believe it is reasonably easy to take them away.

oh sorry so many xposts, i started typing that about half an hour ago!

Bees are protected in some way. We had a bees nest a few years ago & found a bee person from yellow pages who came round and removed the nest & took away to leafy surrey.

Don't kill them - they do all sorts of good things in gardens to pollinate veg being grown by people like me.

I think the local police will have details of local beekeepers who will come and collect the swarm of bees for you and take to a willing beekeeper. Do try to get them rehoused this way - not only is it good for the bees (as opposed to killing them) there may be a would-be bee keeper somewhere near you, keenly waiting in anticipation of a swarm - you could make their day!

actually that would be great

since when I relayed all this info to dh he said he is most worried because he will have to dig the bee-y bit up in order to put up our fence, which I imagine might piss them off a bit more than usual

will look at getting a bee-person to take them. Do they play pipes, like in Hamlyn? Will it be a spectacle for the entire street?

It's definitely a spectacle - all the kids in our neighbourhood turned out to watch the funny man in a white space suit (from a suitable distance, of course )

Certain bees are protected. My neighbour has just got some red tails in his porch roof. He is not happy going on about stings etc but its unlikley to be a problem.

Bees are having a really tough time at the moment due to the varoa mite. Loads of them are dying out and yet bees are responsible for a huge proportion of pollination. Without Bees our gardens and countryside will really suffer.

If they are in a wall they are unlikley to be honey bees - they tend to go in cracks in trees etc. But thye could be masonary bees which definitly are protected. Why not look up your local wildlife trust ( county name then wildlife trust in google) and see what they advise.

I understand your concerns but honestly its the wasps that are the bad guys not the bees.

i have a bees nest too right by the back door, i was going to get rid when i saw the news about the decline in them so decided to live with it.

apparently they'll only be there one year then move on.

see here