DIY Tip #6: How to Get Rid of Bees at Your Swimming Pool

It may surprise you to know that honey bees are attracted to salt water swimming pools. This is most prevalent during times of the year when the nectar flow is not as strong, typically early spring (Feb. – March) or later in the summer (from July on). I have done bee tracking before in an attempt to solve this problem. Normally, I do not take jobs like this because of the difficulty and the likelihood that the bees are on private property. However I wasn’t super busy at the time and the owner was very insistent.

He had just installed a very nice, expensive salt water swimming pool. His family was having a hard time enjoying it because honey bees were coming to the pool and drinking the salt water. I picked a cloudy day to track the bees because when looking up at the sky the bees are much easier to see against a cloudy sky. All the bees were going in one direction when they left the swimming pool after taking a drink. I headed in the direction that I saw the bees flying.

There were houses everywhere and roads and lots of trees. I was about to give up but decided to drive down one more road. As I did, I saw a house that had about 7 or 8 bee hives in the backyard. The house was a half a mile away and it lined up exactly with the direction the bees were flying away from the swimming pool. While I found the location of the bees, I do not know the end of the story, I only hope these neighbors were able to work things out.

Here are some things you can do to try to minimize honeybees coming to your salt water swimming pool:

1. In my experience, there is a much higher probability of the bees being owned by a beekeeper verses finding them wild in a tree. Find the neighbor that is keeping the bees and kindly ask them if they could move them. I would only suggest this if the bees are a real nuisance and pose a threat of stinging.Unlike wasps and yellow jackets, honey bees are gentle and will generally leave you alone. Many cities allow the keeping of honey bees within city limits so it may be difficult to get your neighbor to move their bees.
2. Ask the neighbor to have a supply of water that the bees can drink from. It seems that bees prefer dirty pond water over fresh water though any water source is better than none.
3. Put out pie pans filled with sand and then fill just up to the surface of the sand with water from your swimming pool. The idea is to that the bees will choose to land on the sand and drink the water that way. Every day move the pie pans several feet back. Do this every day until the bees are away from the pool. This is a way to train the bees to go to the pans instead of the pool. If you miss a day of filling the pans with water you may have to retrain the bees.