Honey bee

What honey bees look like

A honey bee worker is a slim insect about 12 to 15 mm long, amber to golden brown with dark bands across the abdomen and a light covering of fine hair. It is noticeably smaller and narrower than a bumble bee and far less furry, but still clearly hairy next to a smooth wasp. The hind legs carry flattened pollen baskets that often hold a pale yellow or orange load. Honey bees are the only bee here with a barbed sting, so a worker that stings loses the sting and dies. They live in permanent colonies of many thousands, store honey and wax comb, and survive the Ontario winter as a cluster rather than dying off each autumn.

Signs you have honey bees

• A heavy flight line. Dozens of bees per minute using one small opening on a wall, soffit, vent, chimney or roof edge from morning to dusk.
• A hanging swarm. A football sized cluster of bees on a branch, fence, railing or wall, often arriving suddenly and staying a day or two.
• Constant humming. A steady hum from inside a wall or ceiling that carries on day and night and rises in hot weather.
• Staining and seepage. Yellow or brown patches spreading on drywall or a ceiling, sometimes with honey weeping through in a heat wave.
• A sweet smell. A warm scent of wax and honey near a wall, vent or fireplace, which is a strong sign of established comb.
• Winter activity. Bees appearing at the same spot on a mild winter day, which tells you the colony is living in the structure year round.

Year round activity at one point means an established colony rather than a passing swarm.

Why honey bees turn up around Ottawa and Toronto properties

Honey bee colonies reproduce by swarming. In late spring and early summer, a colony splits, and roughly half the bees leave with the old queen and settle in a temporary cluster while scout bees search for a permanent cavity. What the scouts want is a dry, dark, defensible void of a certain size with one small entrance, and buildings supply that better than trees do. Chimneys and unused flues, soffit returns, wall cavities behind brick, roof overhangs, shed and garage walls, and hollow porch columns all get chosen. Ottawa, the Toronto GTA and Hamilton have a high density of managed hives in backyards and on rooftops as well as feral colonies in parks and ravines, so swarms pass through residential streets every season.

Are honey bees dangerous?

Honey bees are not looking for trouble. Foraging bees on flowers can be worked around safely, and a resting swarm is usually calm because the bees have no stores or brood to defend. Risk rises sharply in two situations: when someone disturbs an established colony at close range, and when the person stung has a sting allergy, in which case even one sting is a medical emergency. The property risk is real and often underestimated. An established colony builds heavy wax comb and stores honey, and once it is inside a wall that weight can stain drywall, soak insulation and seep through ceilings in hot weather.

How to keep honey bees away

• Cap unused chimneys and flues with proper screening, since an open flue is the single most common way a swarm gets into a house.
• Repoint open mortar joints and close gaps in brickwork, keeping weep holes functional but screened where possible.
• Repair worn soffit, fascia, roof edges and gable vents before swarm season, which runs through late spring and early summer.
• Fit metal mesh over attic, roof and wall vents rather than plastic, and check the mesh each spring.
• If a colony was removed from a cavity, make sure all comb was taken out and the void was cleaned, or a future swarm will be drawn to the scent.

A swarm will move on if it cannot find a way in, so closing entry points is the whole game.

How GO! Pest Control handles honey bees

• Inspection. We confirm the bees are honey bees rather than wasps, locate the actual cavity behind the entry point, and judge whether it is a new swarm or an established colony.
• Relocation. Honey bees are protected pollinators and our preference is always relocation over destruction. A swarm or an accessible colony is moved rather than killed wherever it can be done safely.
• Treatment. Only where a colony cannot be relocated and presents a genuine risk to people in the building do we treat, using the correct products and full protective equipment.
• Repairs advice. We explain what needs to happen to the cavity, including removing comb and honey, and we identify the entry points to seal so the void is not reoccupied.
• Follow-up. We return to check for returning foragers, confirm the entry is closed and make sure no second cluster has formed nearby.

We are licensed, insured and bonded, and we work in homes, apartments, condos and businesses across the Toronto GTA, Ottawa and Hamilton.

Common questions about honey bees