Finding dead bees in your home can be alarming. However, there are several potential causes for indoor bee deaths that are often harmless. With some detective work, you can get to the bottom of the issue and take appropriate action.
Common Causes
New Swarm Activity
If you notice a sudden influx of dead bees near windows, it likely indicates a new swarm has taken up residence on or inside your home. Swarming bees seek shelter in wall voids, attics, chimneys, and other protected nooks. As they move in, some bees may die from exhaustion or get trapped indoors. Contact a bee removal company to locate and safely extract the swarm.
Pesticide Use Outdoors
Bees foraging on pesticide-treated plants can get poisoned then fly into your home before succumbing. Always follow label directions when applying lawn and garden chemicals. Opt for nighttime applications when bees are less active.
Accidental Entrapment
Bees follow scents inside hoping to escape. Drawn to light they fly towards windows and struggle to get out. Close doors/windows when cooking sweet foods or using scented products to avoid luring bees indoors.
Undetected Bee Nest Close By
A hidden beehive in the walls, attic, or exterior of your home can cause bee ingress. Regular indoor bee sightings, along with buzzing noises in the walls, indicate an onsite nest. Inspection by a bee removal expert can pinpoint the hive location for extraction.
Natural Causes
Bees have short lifespans. Seeing a few dead solitary bees that have flown in and expired naturally is not unusual. Higher numbers of dead bees indicate a more serious issue.
Incorrect Identification
Sometimes houseflies, wasps, and other stinging insects get mistaken for bees. Closely examine the dead insects to positively identify them as bees before taking action.
Solutions
Here are some tips for addressing indoor bee deaths:
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Install bee excluders over vents, chimneys, and openings bees can access. This blocks their entrance while permitting ventilation.
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Use fans or AC when cooking and cleaning to direct air flow outwards, not in. Avoid opening doors and windows in bee-friendly weather.
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Inspect around the exterior for bee nests. Destroy vacant hives to prevent re-infestation.
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Consult a professional beekeeper for removals, nest extractions, and hive relocations. Avoid DIY methods.
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After bees are evicted, repair holes, caulk cracks, and seal gaps where they entered.
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Switch outdoor lighting to yellow spectrums, which attract fewer insects at night.
With some diligent detective work and appropriate solutions, you can resolve indoor bee issues, prevent reoccurrence, and peacefully co-exist with local bee populations.
Bees in your home
We all know that saving the bees is important, not only for honey, but to pollinate our crops. Otherwise, we wont have any food to eat. But sometimes honeybees are unwelcoming in places, like when they unfortunately move into our North Texas homes. That’s why we’ve put together this list of professional bee removal tips and advice for the removal process, hive removal, and what to do if you ever find bees in your Dallas home.
In North Texas, spring is bee swarm season! This is when honeybee swarms happen the most, because a queen bee comes out of hibernation and looks for a new place to live. This happens all over the country in late spring, but because our winters are warmer, the bee swarm season is much longer and earlier here in North Texas. The hive removal season is also much longer, so bee removal professionals are needed to get rid of bee infestations in Dallas homes.
Bee colonies swarm for many reasons but mostly in order to form new beehives. The old queen bee is leaving her successfully established colony of bees. She will take a small group of loyal honeybees with her and try to start a new hive before she dies as a swarm of bees. The bee swarm can be as small as a baseball (subswarm) or as large as a few watermelons. It is part of the natural process of bee propagation. Good news is a bee swarm is typically very docile and not prone to stinging. A bee swarm doesn’t need to have its honeycomb or hive removed, and bee control can remove live bees for a very low price if done by professionals. We can safely remove bees using our tried-and-true bee removal process.
Unfortunately, bee swarms are full of honey and are looking for a new home. They will go to any place that is good for a bee colony or where a honey bee hive has been before, which isn’t always the best place for people in North Texas. We perform many bee rescues of spring bee swarms in established neighborhoods and newer neighborhoods alike. North Dallas and Fort Worth have a lot of old trees and ranch-style homes that bee colonies can hide in or that have been infested with bees for decades. It’s likely that these homes were on farmland or next to farmland with lots of beehives 60 years ago (see Beekeepers Dallas). We now have bee colonies that have been around for decades. They got there either because beekeepers let their bees out of their backyard hives or because old bee colonies from hives that stayed in trees. Texas neighborhoods like McKinney, Frisco, and Southlake, which used to be farmland a decade ago, are having the same problems with bee control. Since a lot of the land around these homes is still very rural, live bee colonies are only miles away. One thing we both agree on is that North Texas has a lot of bees.
Bees in your Attic
We often see bees in the soffit, roofline, or eve boxes of homes as a live bee removal service and a bee control company. We sometimes get rid of bees in low places like valve or cable boxes, but this doesn’t happen very often. Bees can safely go in and out of walls, pipes, conduit, and other places with a hole only a quarter of an inch wide. Aging or even newer homes are equally susceptible to bees. In general, though, bees like to live high up in old trees and the pretty soffit boxes we build on our north Texas homes. Beeproofing a house can be hard for people who have never done it before or don’t have much time because it’s time-consuming to patch every spot. Best practices can be found here (Bee Proof your home).
We see bees most often in soffits and eves, where they become a nuisance or even a danger to a homeowner, and removal professionals are needed to save the bees and get rid of the honeycombs they have made.
Bees may not damage the structure of your home or business, but they do make honeycomb and honey, which attracts all sorts of pests and vermin that will damage your home if you don’t get rid of them quickly by bee removal experts. An average beehive with bees and honey can weigh 20 to 400 pounds and grow from the size of a baseball to a full wall with 20,000 to 80,000 bees in a year! Bees can also get into wiring conduits and build comb, which can mess up your electricity or make it hard to get to places when you need to. Have you ever tried to turn off the main waterline while a bee colony was in the valve box? We also get a lot of calls from people whose attics have been invaded by honeybees or whose Santa Bees are coming down their chimneys and swarming inside.
Why Do I Keep Finding Dead Bees On My Landing Board?
FAQ
What does it mean to find dead bees?
What do bees in the house symbolize?
What happens if you don’t remove dead bees?
Why am I seeing bees in my house?
Are there dead bees in Your House?
While finding dead bees is alarming, it is even more alarming to find plenty of live bees in your house. If we did, we should carefully inspect all over the house for entry points. Gaps, cracks, and holes in different areas of the house should be carefully inspected.
Will the burning stop after a bee sting?
Yes, most definitely, the burning sensation after a bee sting will decrease and go away completely in a few hours. The redness may last for a few days, and the swelling around the sting area may also take a few days to completely resolve. But the burning sensation should resolve soon.
Why do I keep finding dead bees in my house?
If you keep finding dead bees in your house, it may indicate a problem with the local bee population and have serious consequences. The decline in bee populations is a global issue that affects the food we eat and the environment. To help protect bees, avoid using pesticides, plant bee-friendly flowers and provide nesting options.
Why are there dead bees in my garden?
Although you may be saddened by the sight of dead bees in your garden or yard, the reasons are often natural. If you suspect other causes, it may a good idea to alert the relevant authorities in your area. You can help minimise the possibility of harm to bees by avoiding the use of insecticides in and around your garden.
What if you find dead bees?
Finding dead bees can cause concern, but if you have found dead bees in your yard, garden, beneath a tree or simply on the pavement, there are various possible explanations. On this page you will find tips to identify whether the causes are natural or not, and some potential reasons for the death of the bee or bees. Which species is it?
Are Dead Bees a problem?
Keep in mind that bees are important for our environment, so beekeepers often perform nest relocations for free. —> Go back to the FAQs on dead bees Dead bees can die from cold weather, diseases, parasites, starvation, or simply old age. Finding dead bees on the ground isn’t necessarily a cause for concern.