Why not kill them?
First of all you’ll have a very hard time doing this. Imagine you standing with a spray can of Wasp and Hornet Killer in your hand relying on your ability to actually spray the entire swarm. You’ll most likely only make them very, very angry. Usually honeybees are not aggressive, but if you disturb them or threaten their hive, they’ll be justifiably in a little payback! And by the way, remember what you see grouped together does not include those flying around.
Secondly, let’s say you are somehow successful in killing them. Now you have a lot of chemicals around your home and 5,000 (or more) dead bees. They stink. If you gathered that number of bees and rolled them up you’d have the equivalent of at least a dead small squirrel.
As the dead bees decompose they attract other pests such as ants and maybe roaches. Ants love dead bees. Roaches love honey. Maybe you think because you sprayed bug killer the ants and/or roaches won’t come. Wrong. Soon the pesticide evaporates and then it’s lunch time.
So why try to kill them? It’s far more environmentally responsible and helpful to have them removed and relocated. When bees have entered a structure such as your home they become a problem and stop being a beneficial insect. Poisoning or spraying a swarm is at times effective. There are times that the only workable solution is poisoning, but trying to remove them beforehand is the better approach.
Physically removing bees from a structure is known as a "Cut Out", as the bees are physically cut out or removed from the building. I do cut outs, but each case is different. Contact me for a discussion on your bees.
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