Bees are actually very important to the environment. You might have heard a bit about how you should try not to kill bees due to how local ecosystems need them.
If you have bees in your tree right now, then you might wish to get rid of them even though you know that bees are beneficial. There are a number of different reasons why you might not want bees on your property.
For instance, you could be allergic to the bees and this might make having bees around especially dangerous for you. It’s also possible that you spend a lot of time near the tree in question.
Bees can become aggressive sometimes and no one wants to get stung by bees constantly. What can you do to get rid of bees in a tree effectively?
If you keep reading, you’ll be able to learn about several methods for getting rid of the bees. Some of them will even involve keeping the bees alive in case you want to try that out.
1 – Contact a Beekeeper
It’s possible that you might have a beekeeper in your area who would be willing to come out to your home to take the bees. A beekeeper will have the necessary tools and skills to remove a beehive and relocate it.
If you care about the bees and don’t want to have to kill them, then this is a good idea. However, it might not be practical in your situation.
Whether you have a beekeeper in your area will be left completely up to chance. You can try doing some local research to see if there are any beekeepers or beekeeping groups in your area.
If there are, then you can contact them about your problem and see if they can help. They might appreciate what you’re trying to do and they will take the bees off of your hands.
Many people can’t find beekeepers, though, and this means that they have to look into other solutions. It might wind up being necessary to kill the bees if you can’t find beekeepers.
2 – Sprinkle Cinnamon Around the Beehive
If you can see the beehive, then you could still try to make the bees relocate. Some people have had success when sprinkling cinnamon near the beehive.
Bees don’t like the smell of cinnamon and it makes them want to get away from the scent. You can try to sprinkle some cinnamon near the beehive each day to attempt to get the bees to relocate their hive.
This has worked for people in the past and it might work for you. If killing the bees doesn’t sit right with you, then this might be the option you’ve been looking for.
Whether it’ll work or not will be somewhat up to chance. Hopefully, after about a week of sprinkling cinnamon around the hive, the bees will give up and leave the tree to find a better spot.
3 – Try to Repel the Bees with Certain Plants
Another idea that you can try out is planting certain plants that bees don’t like. Bees are generally important to plants and they go around pollinating the flowers.
They play an important role in nature, but this doesn’t mean that bees enjoy all plants. There are plants that repel bees and you can use this to your advantage.
One of the most common bee-repelling plants that people use is citronella. Citronella is often used as an ingredient in candles that are meant to repel mosquitoes.
Planting citronella near the tree that has the beehive could produce good results. The bees might choose to relocate, or they could at least not come back after they’ve all died off in the winter.
There are plants besides citronella that you can consider using, of course. Cloves, eucalyptus, pennyroyal, neem, and mint plants have all been known to work well to repel bees.
Granted, this might work better for keeping bees away from specific spots such as your porch or your deck. Even so, it’s worth a shot.
4 – Mothballs
Using mothballs will wind up working very much the same way that cinnamon does. You’ll just want to place mothballs near the beehive in an effort to get them to go away.
Bees don’t like mothballs at all and the smell is repugnant enough that they might choose to relocate. If you’re able to get the bees to go elsewhere using this method, then you’ll be able to happily reclaim your tree without having to kill the bees.
Try to hang the mothballs near the beehive if at all possible. At least put them somewhere close to it so that you can get the intended effect.
Eventually, you might notice that the bees will choose to go away. This idea has worked for several homeowners with bee problems, and it might be worth a shot in your situation as well.
5 – Kill the Bees with Chemical Sprays
Of course, you could simply go out to the store and buy a chemical spray that is designed to kill bees. This is very easy to do and you can find sprays such as this at most department stores.
All you’ll need to do is spray the beehive and try your best not to get stung by the bees. It can be kind of dangerous in some ways due to having to get somewhat close to spray the beehive.
Many of the best sprays will paralyze the bees as soon as it makes contact with their bodies. The bees will die within minutes of being sprayed, too.
It isn’t always easy to get all of the bees before some can fly away or try to sting you. Just do your best to be careful and don’t attempt this yourself if you’re allergic to bees.
6 – Vinegar Spray
Vinegar spray will give you a way to kill bugs when you don’t want to have to spend money. Bee spray isn’t that expensive overall, but it’s still going to cost more than using vinegar.
It’s very likely that you have white vinegar in your house already, but even if you don’t, it’ll be a very affordable thing to buy. You can get vinegar at any grocery store and then you can use it to make a spray that kills bees.
Just mix one part vinegar and one part water together in a spray bottle. Once you’re done, you’ll be able to spray the tree where the bees are coming from.
If you can see the beehive, then you could spray the beehive with vinegar. The vinegar should be able to kill the bees and you’ll be able to rest easily.
The best approach is to wait until the bees seem to be sleeping. Then you can go and spray the nest so that they will all be exterminated.
Don’t stick around too long after spraying just to be on the safe side. You can clean things up later on.
7 – Call Exterminators
One of the safest things that you can do if you’re allergic to bees will be to call exterminators. You don’t want to risk getting stung by bees if you’re in danger of getting seriously hurt or dying if you happen to get stung.
Calling exterminators won’t take a lot of time and they’ll be able to get out to your property soon. Exterminators have the equipment and the expertise that is necessary to solve even serious infestation issues.
You’ll be able to count on the professionals to get the issues taken care of in a timely fashion. It’ll help you to move on so that you won’t have to worry every time you walk by the tree in your yard.
The negative aspect of making this choice is that it’ll cost you a bit of cash. Calling exterminators will cost more money than simply buying chemical sprays and trying to handle the bee situation on your own.
This doesn’t mean that it’s exorbitantly priced, though. It’s up to you to decide whether hiring exterminators to solve your bee problem is practical from a financial standpoint.
Final Thoughts
There are quite a few things that you can do to try to get rid of bees in a tree. Before you decide to kill the bees, it might be best to see if the non-lethal options will work out.
Try to use cinnamon or mothballs to scare the bees away and make them relocate their hive. If this doesn’t work, then you can always go back to the idea of killing the bees.
Killing the bees can be done with either chemical sprays or using a vinegar and water mixture to spray the hive down. You could also hire an exterminator to get the job done so that you don’t have to worry about getting stung.
Hopefully, this information helps you to decide which way you want to go. You’ll be able to get the bees out of your tree, but it’s up to you to figure out how you want to solve the problem.
Remember that bees aren’t necessarily bad and that they are very beneficial to the environment. If you can relocate the hive by contacting beekeepers, then that would be a very good thing.
Growing up with a mom who filled her home (inside and out) with all sorts of plants, Lisa got her start in gardening at a young age. Living now on her own with a home and yard full of plants (including an indoor greenhouse), she shares all the gardening tips she’s gained over the years.
Before you go: Now is the perfect time to start tracking your gardening progress, and I created a garden journal to do exactly that. Click the image below to see it in action and to get your own copy.
