I specialize in the removal of bees and wasps from places where they are unwanted or a hazard to people.  Let me discuss BEE relocation first, then wasp removal. If you have a wasp problem, skip down 5 paragraphs to the WASP section. There are TWO basic removal methods, "cutout" and "trapping"; both are detailed here.

 BEE REMOVAL, PART ONE:  "CUTOUT" METHOD.   I often am called to remove bees from homes, churches, factories, trees, and other places where they don't belong. I sometimes cut a hole in the structure, and remove the bees and honey that way, although this method is very hard on the bees (read on for the "trapping" method) and I do not prefer it. When "cutting out" bees, a special vacuum is usually used  to vacuum out the bees. The photo at the top of the home page shows honey, comb, and bees being removed by the cutout method. Please note that it is IMPOSSIBLE to do this by just making a small hole, for example removing a stone from a stone wall. or making a small hole in sheetrock. If you are told that the bees can bee removed this way, look out.  Just look at the size of the comb in the photo!  If the bees have just arrived, and no comb has yet been built, it is still impossible to get the bees because they will run as soon as they are disturbed, and collect again later. Remember, a typical hive is more than 30,000 bees.  People do try this, but they must put poison in and kill the bees that run to make it work.

To correctly "cut out" or "vacuum out" the bees,  it is best to work from the inside, cutting out a piece of sheetrock about 16" by 24", or if necessary a piece of flooring of similar size. Sometimes more material must be removed if the hive is very large....I have removed as much as 30 gallons of comb, honey, and bees from one hive! This method cannot be used when the bees are living behind a rock wall, because of the construction (the bees are not contained between studs or joists, and will run everywhere behind the rockwork, only to gather again later).  Although I still use this method when it is possible and people absolutely demand fast removal, there is a much better way which does not damage the building, hurt the bees, or leave honey or damaging material in the walls: the TRAPPING method.

PART TWO: "TRAPPING" METHOD.    Briefly, this method (also called the  "funnel"  method) involves closing off ALL the bee exit points except one, and putting a one-way gate  on that remaining exit, so the bees can only come OUT. Then, a very weak beehive (complete with bees and queen) is mounted right next to the one-way gate. The bees in the building come out, and cannot return, so they finally adopt the beehive mounted outside as their own. This is the most bee-friendly method. It takes several weeks for all the bees to exit.  This is because honeybees have a division of labor in the hive-- any given time, there are nurse bees for the young, housekeepers, foragers, and other job classifications. Only the foragers leave regularly. So, at first, all the foragers are excluded. Then the hive recruits more foragers, they leave, they recruit more, etc. etc.  Essentially the hive slowly winds down. This takes time, usually 4 to 5 weeks for most of the bees to leave. During those several weeks, the bees inside have been cut off from their food supply, and are forced to eat the honey that they have stored.  A hive can eat over a pound of honey a day. Toward the end of this process, the few bees inside completely run out of food, and have to leave and join the outside hive. The hive outside gets much stronger with all the new bees, and is a good strong beehive at the end. Nothing is left in the building but some empty combs, which pose no problem. Best of all, the bees and building are unharmed, and no carpenter or sheetrock work is needed. The process takes a few weeks, but because it does not damage the building or bees, it is a superior method, and I recommend it. It is best performed in the Spring or early summer, when the bees do not have a maximum amount of honey stored up. This method is also superior for another, little-known reason: when bees make a hive, they saturate the surrounding wood with a chemical called a PHEREMONE. This particular pheremone is very attractive to bees, and can be smelled miles away by honeybees. So, if the bees are removed, the area left must be completely sealed off, or a new hive will likely move in someday. In order to work, the "trapping" method must close off ALL entrances to the hive except the one-way gate. If a hole is missed, the bees will show me, because they will start using it! Therefore when the job is completed, and the one-way gate closed off, there is no remaining access to the old hive site. You can see some photos of how this method works at the "bee photos" link above. By the way, the photos are NOT in order, because a quirk in my program does not allow me to order them, so please just look through them to find what you want, which is a picture of me up on a ladder next to a beehive, then click on the photo for more information about it. Call me if you need more detailed information about the trapping method, at 918-850-3820.

Regarding just killing the bees: Besides being unethical and a violation of Federal law, this is a very bad idea. Why? All moral considerations aside, bees produce honey, and LOTS of it. If a person kills the bees with poison, he is left with what is probably a few gallons of honey in their hive. Without the bees to protect it, the honeycombs are eventually damaged by wax moths and other pests when the poison wears off. The honey leaks out....I have had to tear out ceilings before that were soaked with honey. One time I was called to a home, and the owner had a half-filled bucket of honey on the living room floor, with more honey slowly dripping into it from the ceiling. The wax does not cause a problem--but the honey most definitely does. I have stopped taking jobs that involve trying to clean up the mess from killing honeybees. For one thing, it is a horrible job. For another, in this day and age people should know better than to destroy honeybees. They are too important to be treated that way.

There is a third way to remove bees, involving the use of a bee repellent called Benzaldehyde. This sounds easy but is tricky. It will only work if (A) the bees have JUST ARRIVED, and (B) they are in a small enclosure where they can not possibly run away from the entrance hole. It will not work properly, for example, if they are in a ceiling, because the cavity is usually very long, the length of a room at least, and the bees can run away from the fumes. And it will not work if the bees have been around long enough to make honey, since the honey (and baby bees that haven't hatched out) will not be removed. Few jobs qualify for benzaldehyde removal.

Wasps are a different story. Although they also are a part of the intricate web of life we share, some species are very aggressive. People die from wasp stings in Oklahoma every year. There are many species of wasps. The following discussion describes the most common problem wasps in Oklahoma.

The most aggressive seems to be the Red Wasp, easily identified because of it's orange-red body and black wings. Red wasps build their nests in cavities, so usually all you see is wasps going in and out of a hole, with perhaps several wasps protecting the hole on the outside. The actual nest, which can get very large, is usually out of sight. This is the most common species I am asked to remove. When they become strong they are extremely irritable. I have been told they are not native, but were introduced to Oklahoma to combat another pest. If you have Red Wasps, call me, because left alone they will usually spread, unlike other species.

Yellowjackets are another problem wasp. There are two kinds, arial nesting and ground nesting. Both types build huge nests. Both cover their nest with "paper", and sometimes you can see this gray paper at the entrance to the nest. The actual nest is out of sight, either in  the ground or in an attic, wall, etc. Yellow jackets remove sheetrock to make more room for their nest as it grows, so if they are in a wall or ceiling, often they will leave nothing between them and the inside of the house but a thin sheet of paper and the paint. Sometimes people find this out the hard way when they hear them buzzing in a wall, and tap on the wall, breaking the paper and causing a dangerous situation, with many wasps in the house.  Ground nesting yellowjackets have a small entrance hole leading to an cavity in the ground (or often in a hollow railroad tie), and sometimes are not noticed until the hole is stepped on. If you do that you will definitely notice them! Again, yellowjackets can cause a real problem, so call if you need help. By the way, yellowjackets look very similar to honeybees, and are often confused with them. They are slightly smaller than honeybees, and their abdomen is VERY clearly striped with yellow and black stripes. Honeybees are also striped, but not so clearly. Honeybees are usually slightly fuzzy, whereas yellowjackets are not.

Hornets, and other species, often form the classic upside-down nest, with the holes showing below and the nest hanging from a thin support in plain sight. They can be a problem, especially when the nest gets very large. Usually homeowners can deal with it by spraying the nest with a can of insecticide when the nest is very small and down fairly low. When they are high up or very large you may need help. Do NOT spray a very large nest without protection, because the wasps will usually scatter everywhere instantly, and those that are not killed immediately will be very upset.

Mud daubers form the small mud nests which stick so tightly to sheltered spots of your home. Unlike all the species mentioned above, mud daubers are SOLITARY wasps, as opposed to SOCIAL wasps. This means that each mud dauber operates alone, and each nest is the property of one wasp. These wasps fill their mud castles with paralyzed (but not dead) spiders, and on each spider they lay an egg. When the egg hatches, it eats the hapless spider. The actual details are even more grisly, but suffice to say that Nature is extremely efficient. These spiders are NOT aggressive, although they can sting. It is not practical to try and eliminate them, as if you do kill all the nests in your home, there will just be more  in a short time. It is best just to let them be.

Another solitary wasp is the Cicada Wasp, or Cicada Killer. These wasps are truly huge. I believe they are the biggest wasps in Oklahoma for sure. You may notice them hovering over your lawn, flying in a seemingly aimless pattern. When the females mate, they dig a very deep tunnel, and carry Cicadas (also called Locusts) down into it. The tunnels are easily identified because the removed dirt looks like a miniature mole hill, with a dirt "runway" leading to the hole. The runway is used to drag the paralyzed Cicada down the hole, where it meets the same fate as the victims of mud daubers--eaten alive. The tunnel itself can be 40 feet deep (!!!). These wasps are really difficult to control, but call if you have a problem. DO NOT swat at them, because that really alarms them, and their sting is described as "formidable". Also. I have been told by one customer that she was stung several times when she tried to water her plants, and sprayed the dirt mounds with water. This also must set them off.

The Wood Bee (also called the Carpenter Bee) looks just like a Bumblebee, but acts different. In fact, it is not a bee at all, but rather a species of fly. Wood bees bore a perfectly round hole in wood beams, about one-half inch in diameter. The hole is bored at the bottom of the beam, or in a protected spot so that water cannot enter it. Each hole goes in and then branches out, sometimes to such an extent that the strength of the beam is compromised. These insects have a very powerful bite-- I know from experience that they can make you bleed with their bite! However, they are not aggressive. They should NOT be allowed to remain in a structure, because they will eventually destroy the wooden beams if left alone.

The various species described above account for over 95% of the calls I receive. There are other troublesome species though, and if you don't see what you have in the above descriptions, call and I will ID it for you. Whenever I get the time, I will try to find photos of all these and put them in the photo gallery. You can find photos on the net by doing a search using the insect name plus "photo" (for example, "red wasp photo").

A word for people who believe they are allergic to bee or wasp stings: I have been told that rather than buy an epi-pen for injecting themselves, an epinephrine inhaler works very well, and is over-the counter for a few dollars. The active ingredient is the same.  Of course, I cannot recommend this because I am not a doctor. But many people do it. 

If you have a bee problem or a wasp problem, call me, Lloyd Ziegler, at 918-850-3820. You can also email me at:   moigboi@hotmail.com    I have been serving Tulsa in this regard for over 22 years. All work is totally guaranteed. I am glad to give you advice, or a free estimate, over the phone. We also offer a low-price guarantee on bee or wasp removal!

--Lloyd Ziegler