Over the past few summers I’ve had ground nesting bees under the barn at the back. They were never a problem, so we were fine with them. Until last summer when they nested in the ground at the front of the barn. For about 1 week towards the end of the summer they were swarming the barn. They stung a few horses and a couple people. I reluctantly sprayed the area after finding no other options. I don’t want to risk someone getting trampled by a stung horse. Does anyone know if there’s anything I can do to get the wasps to move out? This is the only shelter for the horses so I can’t do anything that would require the horses being blocked off for more than a day or so.
We spray them to death. They are super aggressive. I’m fine with regular bees and carpenter bees but any thing that stings me for existing dies.
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I literally just came back inside from spraying my ground nesting bees next to the barn. I HATED doing it but I couldn’t get them to relocate with natural methods. Last year I had the same problem. We tried to coexist and it worked until the end of the season when my donkey ended up getting stung several times. She was reluctant to come inside for quite awhile after that. I also have a toddler who is often in the barn with me.
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Wait for dusk, when they’re all safely back underneath. Boil about 4 gallons of water… true rolling boil. Turn down heat and add 1 cup of Dawn and 2 Cups of Epsom Salt. Stir until all dissolved.
At twilight, carefully carry your hot pot of liquid death and pour it down the hole. By morning, everyone’s dead. No poisons or harsh chemicals - just permanently deterred bugs. 
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And just prior to following @chocomare’s suggestion, set up a bright flashlight many yards away. Any escapees will fly toward that light rather than at you.
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Reading this thread is making me tingly in anticipation of getting stung. Does that happen to anyone else?
I’ve twitched my way through all these posts, lol!
Over the course of my life I ran over one nest with the lawnmower, and during a trail ride one of the horses disturbed another nest, and those two experiences were MORE than enough for me. I don’t do the environmentally-friendly eradication route when I find a nest—it’s straight gasoline down the hole after dark.
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We were lucky severa; years ago. A guy from the highway department showed up and said they had just found a huge nest near the end of the path around the hayfield. The town took care of it because it was so near the side of the road.
The propane driver refused to fill my tank one day. He spotted a huge nest of white-faced hornets. He said “call the bug company.” They are extremely aggressive and he wouldn’t go anywhere near them. The bug company guy was fully protected from the top of his head down to his boots.
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Yes! Plus every time I read ground bees I have an instant flashback to a few years ago. One early evening I was riding at a loose rein walk on the training track - 1/2 mile track and plenty wide, may 30’ and all of a sudden my horse teleported us from the outside rail to the inside of the track. She put her head back down and carried on like nothing happened.
Since my horse’s normal way to spook was full-on meltdown of epic proportions and the hell with anyone unfortunate enough to be on her back, I mentioned it to the BO. We both scratched our heads and said, meh, maybe she’s growing up?
2 days later someone was out whipper snipping that fence line and got absolutely swarmed by ground bees. He was a mess of stings.
For the safety of horses, riders, and groundskeepers the “kill it with fire” guy came the next night, well after dark, and put them out of our misery with some concoction or other. Never had a problem with them after that and my horse never teleported us at that spot again.
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I get a physical reaction reading this. The hair on my arms goes up, and my neck and scalp tingle.
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The flip side. This evening we hacked up a hill to find a crab apple in full bloom absolutely humming with big ol’ bumble bees. Same horse that teleported from the ground bee nest stood like a statue for me to take pictures. “These are good ones. They don’t sting for no reason. Besides they’re too busy to bother with us. Are you getting my best side? Are my ears forward enough?”
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some horses are just hams even from a young age, grand daughter took this off hand photo of daughter’s weanling standing in the pasture with no one other than grand daughter
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Bumble bees are OUTRAGEOUSLY aggressive when you’re near their nest. I’ve never been targeted that badly before or after. Multiple stings, multiple bees. I was literally running, and they were chasing me!
I’ve had luck drowning the ground-nesters. If you’re within range of a hose, run a hose on the nest overnight. Doesn’t have to be full blast, but enough to keep their nesting area saturated with water.
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I will keep that in mind. Thankfully I’ve only ever encountered them doing their thing at various flowering trees.
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I still love seeing them in my garden and certainly won’t go out of my way to hurt them, but the nest that was under the trailer got doused in tempo dust.
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There must be two types of bumble bees. Back when I was young, I encountered the aggressive stinging kind. Several times they came after me and stung me and it hurt! The ones I have now are my main pollinators in my garden and they are all over my berry plants and tomatoes helping make fruit. I walk through the garden and they are buzzing all over the place and even fly into me. They never sting me. The wasps are a different story.
In the past, I’ve always lived peacefully with these bees, also occasionally bumping into them with no problems. Even fishing them out of the trough by hand. But for that one week last year the were vicious. It sounds like there’s no friendly solution so I’ll spray in the hole now before there are too many around.
I don’t know if these bees are coming out of the ground or not. The worst experience I had with a bumble bee was when I encountered one that had made a nest in/ behind a bale of hay. That sucker was out to kill me.
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“Ground nesting bees” is a misnomer. These are wasps and are very aggressive. Do what @ChocoMare suggested, but not at dusk, do it at dark. Bees can’t see well. That’s why they return to their hives at night. What @ZuzusPetals suggested is a good idea too.
I’ll leave bees alone, even when they take over my bird bath when the neighbor brings his hives in for the summer, but I’ve got zero patience with ground wasps.
I thought of this thread tonight as I was disassembling my horse’s stall to try to get rid of the bumblebee nest.
I thought they were in the ground between the kickboards and the wall. Turns out they had a nest resting on the frame behind one of the boards. I really would have liked to relocate it but they wouldn’t let me get the board directly in front of their nest all the way off for good access. I’m allergic, so while they had been very “gentle” bees so far, I wasn’t taking any unnecessary chances.
RIP little bees. I feel terrible. Last year they were in a different stall and I tried to coexist, but they ended up stinging my donkey several times at the end of the season. This year they picked a worse place right by the door of my melodramatic warmblood’s stall. (Also hoping they are vacated sooner rather than later so I can reassemble the wall)
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