I’ve got bumblebees in my horses’ shelter. They’re quite large, about the size of my thumb, and there’s quite a few of them. I haven’t found a nest in there, and there are no flowers in the area, so I’m not sure why they’ve chosen the shelter as their home, but they are annoying and a nuisance. Is there any way to deter them and get rid of them?
Are you sure they’re not carpenter bees? They’re also big fat bee guys. They like to drill into unpainted surfaces. They’re usually pretty friendly, I’m not even sure if they sting?
Painting any bare wood surfaces in the fall and filling in their holes is often enough to deter them for next year.
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Another guess here that you have carpenter bees. They look like bumblebees except where bumblebees are yellow/black striped all the way around carpenter bees are shiny black on the bottom side. I had them drilling into my house a few years ago and used some spray to kill them.
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Here’s a page on Carpenter bees:
https://extension.umd.edu/resource/carpenter-bees/
They’re important native pollinators, and easy to dissuade. You can even provide “acceptable” wood surfaces for them, and they’ll be happy for the home.
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If they aren’t carpenter bees (the most logical answer), they might be bumblebees.
I get these social bumblebees nesting behind my kickboards:
That big rats nest looking mass behind the board is their “hive” full of honey pots. I thought a had a pic, because it looks very cool inside, but I can’t find one. So I stole this from Google:
I try to coexist with the bees, but sometimes these bumblebees get aggressive, which makes the horses nervous. So when the horses start acting agitated by the bees, I have to pull the bees nests out of the wall. The nest in my picture was on the same wall as my horse’s feed and water buckets, so it was becoming problematic and had to go unfortunately.
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Grab a stepladder and look for almost perfectly round holes in the wood parts of the structure. The hole is the entrance to a nest where the bee larvae are growing up. Spray insecticide fiectly into each hole and plug it up. Caroenter bees have immunity to the standard big box store wasp sprays so you need to buy a caroenter bee specific spray.
Carpenter bee larvae are a preferred food of woodpeckers, and if a woodpecker arrives it will do far more damage to your horse shelter than the bees ever will as it pecks open the nest tunnels to feast.
And pray you really do have bumble bees instead of carpenter bees.
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Maybe you can try some of these ideas if possible.
A Guide to Moving Bees Without Killing Them
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I get carpenter bees around my wooden backyard fence every year. Hanging a brown paper lunch sack puffed up to look like a wasp nest seems to help keep them away.
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One of my worst bee stings was a bumblebee by its nest. They had nested under a trailer by the door - they couldn’t stay. WOW are they aggressive when by their nest. I was running and got chased down and stung right in the forehead. Otherwise they are so nice!
If they’re carpenter bees, I’ve had luck with the paper bag method mentioned here.
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They are carpenter bees; almost no chance that they are bumble bees based on this description.
At this point - the best you can do is look for the holes and use carpenter bee spray that comes with a long skinny tube to get in there.
The activity will die down soon; this is when eggs have been laid and the females are in the burrows with them. The males are hovering around the entrances to defend them. The males will not sting but can bite (so don’t pick them up if you find them on the ground.) Next spring you may want to put up a deterrant (like a fake wasp nest) early in the season so they avoid the shelter as a nesting place.
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Thank you for all the replies. Based on them, I’m guessing they are carpenter bees. At least I have several things to try now!
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Same, but it was my hay shed. I thought we were friends - I’d tell them good morning, but then it got hot, they got pissed, and about 25 stings later, we eradicated the nest. I hate to kill pollinators, but I have to be able to feed without being attacked!
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My carpenter bees (pretty sure not bumble bees) are my pollinators in my garden, so I really need them or I won’t have tomatoes, blackberries, etc. They are very nonaggressive. They fly into me and never sting me and the only damage to my barn is very small. However, a while back I was cleaning up some sticks that I had thrown over a pile of old rotting hay in my front yard. I heard this buzzing sound as I worked and then suddenly a large bee came after me. I had to run into my house to get away. When I snuck back later I still heard that buzzing noise. I assume there was a nest in the old hay. Not interested in finding out, but pretty sure it would have stung me.
I’ve never been stung by carpenter bees. Although my horses have been- because sometimes they land in their feed and get accidentally eaten. 
Seriously, it takes a lot for them to sting. I think only the females can sting, too.
The bumblebees, OTOH, are generally very easy to get along with… except when they feel their nest is being threatened. It’s frustrating when they start getting aggressive because it makes it hard to even relocate them safely.
Most of the carpenter bees you see flying around are males and they don’t have stingers.
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Please don’t kill them.
I hate reading that people are going out to buy purpose-made sprays to kill them. 
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You’ve probably never lived in a log home. There is no alternative, because after they drill holes and leave eggs, woodpeckers peck trenches to get the larvae out.
There are other places carpenter bees can live other than man-made shelters. They can (and do) live in trees.
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And their frass/spit stains everything it touches. Particularly the white siding on my old garage.
Them and carpenter ants can go live in the woods.
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