strange looking wasp like insect

caitb1

hi all i dont no if this is the correct place to post this but we have found a nest in an old colsed off chimmely in the house of insects which look like wasps but are much darker, they dont have bright yellow strips more of a dusky colour, they are almost black, but have the same wasp shape, any ideas??? kinda scared as they wer coming down a hole into the house and although its now borded up they are outside and we have small kids so would like to know if they sting whatever they are

Genghis Cant

Honey Bee maybe.

caitb1

are they dark?? i cant remember if they looked hairy

Genghis Cant

caitb1 wrote: »

are they dark?? i cant remember if they looked hairy

Dark enough alright.

I see this thread has been moved to beekeeping, there are pictures of honey bees in here if ya take a look.

caitb1

in some of them pics they look like a honeybee i think,they only just started coming n2 the house yesterday. what happens if they are and how do we find out for sure???

caitb1

and will my kids b safe with a nest on the house, none of us hav ever bn stung by a bee so none of us know if we are allergic r not

otpmb

I think you should try to contact a local beekeeper, all the beekeepers who live near me remove nests for free, even if the nest is a wasp's nest. The insects are then given a new home away from people. I'm fairly sure you could have the insects exterminated too but why do that when you could get them removed for free.

In relation to stings, I would say try to avoid or board up the area where the bees/wasps/insects are, whether you are allergic or not it is not particularly nice getting stung.

brianmc

If they are honey bees the next most important question will be how long they've been there.

If they've been there a long time but you only discovered them now, they will also have a lot of comb built in the space possibly with honey that could cause problems for you over time. It should, in that case, probably be removed completely. It could leak honey over time and it would probably attract a new swarm of tenants this year or next.

However, if they are honey bees, they will have arrived as a swarm at one time... it's not a case of one bee moving in and building up a nest over time, so they may possibly only be there a short time.

Again, all of that is if they are honey bees.

Can you get a photograph of one? or a photograph of the nest?

caitb1

havent seen or heard them today at all so dont know wat happened with them

Reesy

Sounds like honeybees alright.

What was the nest like, do you know? If it's wax honeycombs (vertical sheets of horizontal cells, sometimes flat, sometimes higgleddy-piggledy) then it's honeybees.

Suggest you ping your local beekeeping association.