Bees!!!! I can't escape them

As soon as I open my garage in San Antonio, it is quickly invaded with honey bees being curious. I understand they are harmless; however, it's unnerving working out a lot of flying stingy bois, especially when you have an allergic reaction to their stings. 

The local bee people can't make it out for a few weeks. In the meantime I've tried citronella candles, lavender oil, olive oil, vegetable oil, eucalyptus oil, bug sprays, vinegar/dish soap spray, and cinnamon around the garage and it only seems to attract them more. 

I've tried high frequency sounds through speakers, cricket noises, etc. Nothing - these bees are relentless.  It seems all the google remedies are failing me or I'm not dealing with normal bees. If it was a wasp/hornet I would kill those sons of bitches with fire; however, bees are much more important in our food chain (not saying hornets/wasps don't pollinate either). 

Someone please help, I feel like Chris Farley in Tommy Boy. 

Seafoam through a vacuum line on the intake

Assuming you have correctly identified them as honeybees, you are right, they are harmless.  They are all female workers likely on a cleansing or orientation flight.  They won't sting unless they land on you and you happen compress them.  Think of them as song birds.  They are not a threat, just minding their own business, occasionally flying by.  Just because they're near you doesn't mean they are planning an attack.

That said, you live in an Africanized Honeybee area and they are more aggressive than the European Honeybees typical of the northern states.  They are generally only aggressive when defending their hive (true of all honeybees).  They may have established a colony in your house.  I'd suggest observing them to see if they are coming and going or simply passing through.  If you see them entering cracks or cavities in your house, just leave them alone until a professional can remove them. 

One thing is certain, there is an established colony somewhere near by.  That's mostly a good thing.

Apis Mellifera said:

Assuming you have correctly identified them as honeybees, you are right, hey are harmless.  They are all female workers likely on a cleansing or orientation flight.  They won't sting unless they land on you and you happen compress them.  Think of them as song birds.  They are not a threat, just minding their own business, occasionally flying by.  Just because they're near you doesn't mean they are planning an attack.

 

That said, you live in an Africanized Honeybee area and they are more aggressive than the European Honeybees typical of the northern states.  They are generally only aggressive when defending their hive (true of all honeybees).  They may have established a colony in you house.  I'd suggest observing them to see if they are coming and going or simply passing through.  If you see them entering cracks or cavities in your house, just leave them alone until a professional can remove them.  There is an established colony somewhere near by.

Thanks for that insight! I usually see them fly over from the hedge row. If I waft them away they disappear for a bit and then come back with friends. There's also a ton of dandelions around my yard as well that are in full bloom. I've tried to locate their hive; however, no luck. There is a good amount of wilderness behind my house so I'm guess that's the likely location of the hive. 

I've also gone as far as to not load up my recycling trash can with anything until I take it out the day of (they really loved that thing). 

Can't wait for these guys to get out here. 

You say the local bee people can't make it out for some time.  You might want to search further.  I needed to have a hive removed from an outbuilding last summer and posted messages on facebook bee groups locally & in surrounding counties.  I got 3 responses.  One wanted $200 to remove the hive, the other wasn't interested after we discussed it, and the 3rd removed the hive for free.  I watched. It was interesting.  He let me keep about a pint of the honey.

Good luck.

Just about guarantee someone here will be able to help.

https://bexar-tx.tamu.edu/contact/

In reply to DirtyBird222 :

They don't usually work on yard flowers unless there isn't a "honey flow" happening; that is, like the poplar or locust is blooming and there's a lot of nectar to be had in one area.  When there's a honey flow, almost all the workers out collecting will focus efforts there and you don't see many bees in your yard.  They'll leave if you can be patient.

If you want to find the hive you can collect a dozen or so bees in a quart jar with a lid.  Put it in the refrigerator to slow the bees down.  Then dust them with powdered sugar.  This makes them fly slower, easier to keep sight of, and go home to get groomed.  Take the jar outside and release a bee.  It will circle a few times, getting higher and higher to orient itself, then fly toward the hive.  Follow the direction it flew for a ways, then release another and repeat.  You can also tire a length of thread to a back leg and the bee will fly slower.

They will probably leave once they've worked the dandelions or have collected whatever it is (water, tree sap, etc) that has their interest. 

If you can't wait for whomever you contacted already, a FaceBook ad will likely get them collected pretty quick.  I drove 2.5 hours once to collect a colony from a "country boy" that assured me he had honeybees in his shed.  They were yellowjackets. Post a picture of one if you can, especially the head and mouthparts.  There's a bee in my area that looks like a honeybee, but has chewing mouthparts.  I have seen honeybees working on garbage before, but more often, I've seen yellowjackets doing that.

M2Pilot said:

You say the local bee people can't make it out for some time.  You might want to search further.  I needed to have a hive removed from an outbuilding last summer and posted messages on facebook bee groups locally & in surrounding counties.  I got 3 responses.  One wanted $200 to remove the hive, the other wasn't interested after we discussed it, and the 3rd removed the hive for free.  I watched. It was interesting.  He let me keep about a pint of the honey.

Good luck.

"Snowvid" happened and Texans can't handle natural disasters like us Floridians do with hurricanes. 

Apis Mellifera said:

In reply to DirtyBird222 :

They don't usually work on yard flowers unless there isn't a "honey flow" happening; that is, like the poplar or locust is blooming and there's a lot of nectar to be had in one area.  When there's a honey flow, almost all the workers out collecting will focus efforts there and you don't see many bees in your yard.  They'll leave if you can be patient.

If you want to find the hive you can collect a dozen or so bees in a quart jar with a lid.  Put it in the refrigerator to slow the bees down.  Then dust them with powdered sugar.  This makes them fly slower, easier to keep sight of, and go home to get groomed.  Take the jar outside and release a bee.  It will circle a few times, getting higher and higher to orient itself, then fly toward the hive.  Follow the direction it flew for a ways, then release another and repeat.  You can also tire a length of thread to a back leg and the bee will fly slower.

They will probably leave once they've worked the dandelions or have collected whatever it is (water, tree sap, etc) that has their interest. 

If you can't wait for whomever you contacted already, a FaceBook ad will likely get them collected pretty quick.  I drove 2.5 hours once to collect a colony from a "country boy" that assured me he had honeybees in his shed.  They were yellowjackets. Post a picture of one if you can, especially the head and mouthparts.  There's a bee in my area that looks like a honeybee, but has chewing mouthparts.  I have seen honeybees working on garbage before, but more often, I've seen yellowjackets doing that.

You rock thank you so much! 

bigdaddylee82 said:

Just about guarantee someone here will be able to help.

https://bexar-tx.tamu.edu/contact/

Thanks for the link!

Maybe someone released the bees.

I have no clue Wtf this is from but I doubt it makes any more sense in context

It's happening all over...their natural food has died due to the freeze. Put out a source of sugar for them away from your garage and they will leave you alone.

russde said:

It's happening all over...their natural food has died due to the freeze. Put out a source of sugar for them away from your garage and they will leave you alone.

This was happening prior to snowmagedon/snowvid/#Texanscanthandleanythingoutsidethenormweatherevent

I left a bowl of soda out once and they seemed to only care for that for so long before I was their main interest again lol

At my wife's family picnic, I learned they are carnivores.  (who knew?)   Some farm girl hung 3-4 slices of bologna on a fence and they all went over there.

Get a beekeeper to come get the hive.  A buddy of mine had a bee problem. 

Lady came out, vacuumed up all the bees, and gave my buddy 6 pints of honey. 

Bee lady was happy, she got the queen and the bees so she had a ready made colony.  She took some of the honey comb so the bees had food to start in their new home.   

My buddy was happy, he no longer had bees dive bombing  him while he worked in his garden.

A neighbor had a bee problem and he solved it the same way.  Except it was me the bees were dive bombing every time I went into my driveway. 

Bees may be harmless if you leave them alone but it seems like anywhere within 20 feet of their hive triggers DEFCON 3  and they start flying recon bees to decide if they want to go to DEFCON 1.

914Driver said:

At my wife's family picnic, I learned they are carnivores.  (who knew?)

This is not factually correct.  They do not eat meat.  They do not have the mouthparts necessary to ingest meat.  Not possible.

They may lick the moisture from a piece of meat or any other object, but more likely they are after the salt or other trace minerals.  They will lick the sweat from your skin, which some people interpret as them attempting to sting.

Factually incorrect but functionally correct.

These were Canadian bees, YMMV.

Then they were not honeybees.  Honeybees are not carnivorous, Canadian or otherwise. 

NSFW, in case the "Venture Bros" animation didn't give that away...

 They will lick the sweat from your skin, which some people interpret as them attempting to sting.

I am not going to try this at home to see if it is true.  Nope, not going to try.

Y'all got bees in your canoe

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:

Y'all got bees in your canoe

I've since moved and now have a Yellow fly problem. I'd gladly take the bees back. 

Also - I had the local Texas A&M bee people come out. They found the hive and relocated it. 

Yellowjackets are carnivorous.  And total jerks.  Honeybees are peaceful and won't bother you so long as you're not aggressive with them.  Yellowjackets are another matter entirely and deserve to be eliminated.