Whether you’ve got bumblebees, carpenter bees, honey bees, or even mason bees, there are a lot of questions to answer when you spot these stinging insects around your property. Can bumble bees sting? Do carpenter bees sting? How do you get rid of a bee problem without hurting the endangered bee population in general?
Here’s what Manchester homeowners should know about what may attract bees to your property, what you can do to protect bees, how to treat a bee sting if you have one, and how gentle pest control in Manchester can help.
What Attracts Bees To You?
Ever wondered why your yard seems to be a safe haven for every honey bee or bumble bee in Manchester? Well, there is a reason why bees may be so attracted to your yard or to you. As the swarming season begins during the spring, bees start reproducing and branching out to start new colonies. What do bees eat? They love nectar that comes from flowers.
So, one of the big attractions that can lure bees in is the smell of honey or other sweets. If you’ve got a big flowering garden that will provide bees with a good food source, they may decide your yard is the ideal place to nest.
Flowering plants full of nectar can draw bees in, but if you frequently leave out sugary beverages, wear sweet fragrances, or keep other sweets around, these things can also attract bees to your yard – or even to you. If you wear an aroma that smells like flowers or another sugary substance, you may find yourself in the company of more bees than you want.
What Can You Do To Protect Bees?
Because bees are an endangered species, it’s important that their removal is handled with care. As a homeowner, you may be tempted to spray your property with toxic insecticides or pesticides to protect yourself, but this could also do more harm than good.
Some of the natural ways you can protect the bees (and yourself) without causing real harm include:
- Don’t disturb bee colonies that you find on your property. While most bees aren’t aggressive, they may attack to protect themselves and their home, which could put you at risk of a sting.
- Avoid planting flowers and plants that bees enjoy feeding on, such as lilacs, lavender, wisteria, and honeysuckle.
- Try planting natural repellents that bees tend to stay away from, such as basil, citronella, wormwood, and marigolds.
If you do find a bee colony on your property, you can call a beekeeper and ask them to remove the colony. A professional beekeeper will be able to humanely remove the colony without killing the bees.
How To Treat A Bee Sting
Even if you’re careful about coming in contact with bees, the occasional sting can still happen. Here’s what you should do if you’re stung:
- If you’re able to, use a fingernail or a pair of tweezers to remove the stinger from your skin. If there is no stinger in your skin, you may have been stung by another stinging insect, like a wasp, which doesn’t leave stingers behind.
- Gently wash the affected area with warm soap and water to help prevent infection.
- Reduce swelling and inflammation by applying a cold compress or ice pack to the sting site.
- If the swelling is more severe, you can elevate the affected area, but make sure you avoid scratching or itching the sting site.
- For moderate pain that may follow a bee sting, you can take an over-the-counter pain medication, which may also help combat inflammation.
If the swelling and pain don’t go away after a few days or you suspect that you have an allergic reaction, you should always seek medical attention immediately following a bee sting.
Gentle Pest Control For Bee Removal In Manchester
When it comes to how to control honey bees in your home or how to control bees in Manchester, these stinging insects need to be handled with care, which is why a gentle approach is often best – and still effective.
At EcoChoice Termite & Pest Control, we treat both the environment and endangered bees with care while still ensuring we remove them from your property. With more than a decade of experience in the residential pest control industry, we’ve been Manchester’s trusted choice for pest and bee management for years.
If you suspect you may have a bee colony or bee problem around your Manchester home, there’s only one thing to do – contact us today at EcoChoice Termite & Pest Control to learn more about how our bee control services work. We also provide commercial pest control solutions to businesses in our Connecticut service area.