It’s important to keep bees away and to do it humanly. There are three possible ways to do this which include repelling the bees, not attracting the bees, and bait them to another area of the yard. To Repel bees:
- Crushed Garlic
- Cucumber Peels
- Cinnamon
- Vinegar
- Dryer Sheets
- Thyme
- Eucalyptus
- Vanilla Extract
- Baby Oil
Keeping bees away from your backyard playground is important for the safety of you and your children. Keep in mind that bees are very useful insects, but can be dangerous if provoked or disturbed by people and stray dogs.
Keep them out of your yard so that they do not sting anyone or get hurt, let’s find out how!
How to Keep Bees Away – 3 Important Methods
There are three main ways of keeping bees away:
- Repel them
- Don’t attract them
- Bait them
Let’s go over all of these and find what works for you. All of the ways that are discussed in this article will be safe for the bees.
Bees are very vital to our way of living and we don’t want to kill bees as they have already seen a steep decline because of Colony Collapse Disorder.
Honey bees provide pollen to many flowers, fruits, and vegetables all summer long. Not to mention they make our delicious honey!
Since they do help with a lot of our food it’s best not to get rid of them all together but instead keep them away from your house by other means.
How to Repel Bees Away
One of the best ways to remove bees on your property is by having them leave on their own. A bee is very familiar with a certain smell.
If you use the right smell it will deter them and they will leave your house and backyard. This is one of the best tips as once you do some of these things you may not have to worry about them again.
Growing certain plants the scents of their leaves will repel most species of bees but not all of them.
Plants you can grow to repel bees are:
- Spearmint
- Peppermint
- Basil
- Marigolds (Some may attract Bees so test this one)
Keep in mind if you have a large backyard you will want to space them out. We also recommend you place some near the swing set and anywhere else your child will frequent.
Kids love to play and are not always paying attention, the last thing you want is a child getting stung.
Make sure to NOT plant Lemongrass, some people will say it repels bees but it actually attracts the scout bees as the smell is very similar to a queen bee which they love.
Natural oils and home remedies can also take care of the pests! Some of these include:
- Crushed Garlic
- Cucumber Peels
- Cinnamon
- Vinegar
- Mothballs
- Dryer Sheets*
Dryer sheets are a great way to keep bees away, simply rub them on anything you want them to avoid and it will repel them.
There are other ways that people claim to keep bees from your patio so you can have some outdoor activities with your friends and family. The main one is Citronella, Citronella has a scent that acts much like repellents for mosquitoes but when it comes to bees they really don’t seem to mind the scent of the candles.
Here are some other ways to keep bees away which include oils and scents.
- Lavender
- Fennel
- Hyssop
- Thyme
- Eucalyptus
- Vanilla Extract
- Baby Oil
- Organic Natural Baby Powder
To deter bees it might be the best way to make a spray. Doing this will be a lot easier as you can just spray the bottle where you want to avoid bees going.
You can do this by using the oils and adding water or with other items like garlic you can boil them in water and then pour them in a spray bottle.
How to Not Attract Bees
Now that you know how to deter bees let’s continue to prevent bees by not attracting them in the first place. Bees can see even more colors than humans can but at times they get confused by bright colors.
Bees are attracted naturally to the bright colors as they relate them to flowers. A bright yellow shirt may look like a big old sunflower to a honey bee.
Here are things that attract bees:
- Flowers
- Floral designs
- Pool
- Food
- Old Wood
- Garbage
- Soda (Sweet Smells)
Bees love certain scents and soda or great smelling food will entice them to stop by around the house or backyard to check what is going on. Now I’m not going to say don’t have a bbq this summer spending time with your family that would just be crazy but be careful with anything that is smelling sweet.
Have a garbage can with a lid so it will help to keep the trash from smelling. There are some tricks like hanging mothballs around to help mask the smell so they don’t come in the first place.
A pool will also attract bees simply because they want to cool off and drink. A bee needs water and it prefers nice and calm water like a pool.
Adding jets to a pool so the water will ripple will help get rid of the bees as they are not able to swim well. This makes them feel threatened and will find a better place to go, hopefully not in your yard or garden.
When having a party in your yard if you do have all that sweet-smelling food you can always bait the bees away, let’s talk more about that.
How to Bait Bees Away
There are some tricks to keep bees away by baiting them with a treat further away from where you are at. What we do is create a bowl of sweet-scented goodness that the bees will lose control over.
To keep the bees in a corner of the yard from where you are at is simply put the bowl in an area a decent distance from your picnic and playground. This will pull the bees to the bowl and away from your party.
Let’s talk about how to make this sweet bee bowl:
- Soda
- Syrup
- Fruit Juice
Use mainly soda and this will give a smell to any bee that they will love and swarm to. It will help pull them from all the foods you have out.
This also works with other bees, for example, you can bait carpenter bees from eating your house away. Find some old wood that is very soft and put it 10 feet from where they are currently nesting.
This may pull them away if it is better for nesting and leave your house alone.
Bees and Wasps
Bees are not wasps and they act much different than each other. A Wasp loves certain smells like foods and drinks, always keep an eye out for them.
Be careful how you act around them you don’t want them to feel threatened or they will sting. While we have listed a lot of ways to deter bees, wasps are in a different category and are not repelled as easily as honey bees.
Removing Nests
To remove nests we recommend contacting a professional. Some nests that are in the ground can easily be taken care of by just getting the ground wet.
Bees don’t like the ground wet and may go find another place to live, but with severe warnings be careful when you do this. Only do it at night time and stand far back.
Wet the area around the hole not inside the hole or this will prompt them to attack. Some ground bees are very nasty and will attack as a swarm.
How to Keep Bees Away From Wooden Deck
Certain bees like carpenter bees really love wood and they can make a home with the smallest hole. It’s important to fill these holes to keep the bees from coming back.
It’s important to use varnish or paint wooden surfaces this will make the wood harder for the bees to penetrate sending them away to look for a home somewhere else.
Conclusion
There are lots of different ways on how to keep bees away, find what works above for you and give it a try.
Always be careful not to provoke any bees as most of them will sting you. They are very curious by nature and love to investigate what is going on so just keep calm and wait for them to pass.
If you would like other ways to keep bugs off your playground check it out here.
Please be careful and use at your own risk
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