Bees and wasps are out in full swing and many people may be discovering hives in their sheds, homes or on their property. When bees and wasps are in their natural habitat they serve an important role in our ecosystem through pollination but when they get into homes they can become a danger to people and pets.
Peter Moody is the owner of Modeste Creek Honey just outside of town in Carnwood. On his bee farm Moody keeps honey bees in clover fields and produces raw honey. Honey bees are not native to Canada and were actually brought over by europeans. When it comes to honey bees Moody says it’s best to just get rid of them either using store bought products or an exterminator.
“It’s the other animals around that we need to look after like all the native bees are the big ones I think people should be concerned with,” he says.
Honey bees can not only cause an issue for people worrying about being stung but if they manage to get into the walls of your home they could end up racking up quite the bill in home repairs. When honey bees make hives inside your walls and you exterminate them you end up with dead bees and honey inside your walls, this will begin to cause mold issues and also result in a possible ant infestation. If you exterminate the bees inside your walls you will actually have to cut out that section of wall to remove the hive to prevent molding. If you are feeling extra ambitious you could cut into your wall, retrieve the honey and then exterminate though Moody says that might be more work than it’s worth.
What many people are more concerned about than honey bees are wasps. Wasps tend to be more aggressive in nature than bees and it is not uncommon to be stung this time of year while out trying to enjoy a day in nature. Art Berube is the “pest boss” at Pest Control Guru out of Edmonton which serves the Drayton Valley area. Berube says there are some preventative measures homeowners can take to keep wasps out of their homes.
“An important way to keep wasps out of your home is by keeping things in good repair. So if there’s a crack in your siding or holes in your siding or in your utility access to your house… Then they find those little entry points because it’s easy to make a nest there.”
If preventative measures fail then there are some steps you can take prior to putting out the money to call in an exterminator.
“They can just buy a regular retailer long shot wasp spray and they can spray the nest and then typically within the day the wasps will be gone,” says Berube. It is best to treat your wasps nest in the evening when the wasps are less aggressive.
If the retail spray fails then it’s time to call in an exterminator.
“We carry PPE so we have suits that prevent us from being stung… we also use different chemicals and often just physical means where we will go up to the nest and put it in a plastic bag and just crush the nest and destroy it,” says Berube.
