Commercial Bee Services - Bee Treatment on a Roof

Commercial Bee Control 

When Beneficial Insects Become Structural Pests

If you know how we feel about bees, then you know that we consider them an important part of the pollination process for essential crops. Bees are a mostly beneficial insect, however, in this routine bee service, bees were invading and nesting inside a structure, making them a nuisance and a structural pest.

We received a call from a commercial building completing some remodeling work. The work crew was unable to paint because of the large number of bees flying in and out of the structure. The client reported that the bees were aggressive, which behavior was confirmed by the technician who treated this structural pest problem. Most likely, their agitated behavior was due to their defensiveness. 

The bees were on the roof, which always presents an added challenge when a technician has to suit up in a protective bee suit, use a ladder and navigate the roof to treat the problem. In this case, our fabulous technician, Nic, even took some pictures and managed to shoot the below video.

In this case, chemical treatment was the recommended method of control. Opening up the roof was not in the client's budget or scope of work they wanted performed. It is difficult to perform live removal of a hive. Mostly because in order to remove the bees, a decoy queen must be used and this is beyond the ability of most pest control companies. If the queen is damaged or unable to be removed, the rest of the hive will likely wane in 3-5 days.

Bee control can be dangerous and is best left
to a licensed pest professional.

Chemical control methods of bees are sometimes necessary.

Bee Control Video

Caste of Bees

Did you know that honey bee colonies operate under a caste system? The caste system consists of the queen, the workers and the drones. There is a single dominate queen in each bee colony and she is in charge with reproducing. Most of the bees in a hive are workers, which include non-fertile females that forage for food and water, groom the queen and perform other hive duties. The male drones are responsible for mating with the queen. Male drones do not have stingers and therefore cannot sting.

Temporary vs. Permanent Bee Swarms

European Honey Bees swarm about once every year. They tend to swarm when they colony is becoming too large. Sometimes bees will form a temporary cluster while they are in transit to selecting a new hive location. This cluster is usually temporary and the bees will move on to a new location within 1-2 days. If the bees haven't moved on within that time frame or are starting to establish themselves permanently and going in and out of wall voids or attic eaves, please give us a call and we will go over your options with you.