14 common places you will find beehives

When beehives are found on residential and commercial properties, it’s a moral dilemma: We don’t want structural damage and we don’t want to harm the bees.

We love bees and hate wasps. Few of us think twice about eradicating a nest of wasps; they sting. Bees pollinate flowers, make honey, and poets write about them. What’s not to love about bees?

Arizona Bees

There are 20,000 bee species and not all make honey. Arizona bees include:

• Bumblebees
• Carpenter
• Cuckoo
• Honey
• Leafcutter/Mason
• Long-horned
• Mining
• Squash
• Sweat
• Yellow-faced/Masked

Angie’s List says, “Bee stings hurt, but the destruction bees can cause to your home stings longer.” Bees will erode and destroy the structure of your home to create beehives.

Where You’ll Find Beehives

Most species of bees are docile and non-aggressive. They seek isolated, hidden areas and prefer facing east or southeast. You can find bees inside:

1. Abandoned office buildings
2. Behind brick walls
3. Between siding (aluminum, wood) and drywall         
4. Concrete cracks/openings near floors
5. Decks
6. Eaves
7. Empty houses
8. Hollow trees
9. Patios
10. Roofs/rooflines
11. Soffits
12. Spaces between cinderblocks
13. Storage sheds
14. Underground – (Interesting fact: 70% of bee species live underground! They don’t cause much damage, but if you have allergies, they should be professionally removed.)

Damage Control Often Needed

As a rule, the bees don’t damage property themselves. But the mess they leave behind can lead to expensive repairs. They also expand to fill spaces or gaps in your construction.

A beehive colony will maximize and overrun any space it has found in your home or commercial property. This creates the potential for even more necessary (and costly) repairs, especially when roofing is involved.

Carpenter bees won’t repair anything and they don’t eat wood. They chew into unsealed wood, excavate tunnels, then lay eggs. The type of damage they cause is not the same as termites’ because their tunnels are the main cause of damage.

If you see what looks like a bumblebee flying out of a hole near your roof or at a corner of the house, it’s probably a Carpenter bee. They like decks and porches but any wood is at-risk. This compromises the structural integrity of any building, commercial and residential.

Honeybees will invade available openings in your roof or corners and fill them with honeycombs. In some homes, the weight alone is enough to cause damage. The honey, dripping wax, and waste will seep through ceilings and walls. This causes more damage and attracts other pests. Honeybees are important to our ecosystem and are protected in some areas.

Mason bees prefer tunneling into mortar. They cause hard-to-see damage to wall structures and yes, they do it by “drilling” holes into the mortar. If your home or office is stone or brick, the windows and doors have “weep holes.” The weep holes are designed to keep moisture out of stone buildings. Mason bees believe the holes are designed to let them in.

Beehive Removal by the Professionals

Bees can add value to our planet when they are not life- or property-threatening. Exterminating or controlling bees is never a DIY (do-it-yourself) project.

The professionals at Budget Brothers Termite & Pest Elimination will carefully remove your bees and beehives.

Request a free evaluation of your bee infestation today. Together, we’ll plan the right course of action to safely remove these damage-causing insects from your home or office building.