Our Blog Articles About Bees

Before you spray anything, seal anything, or call anyone — figure out what you're actually dealing with. The answer changes everything about what happens next.

This guide covers the five insects Georgia homeowners most often misidentify. For each one: what it looks like, where it nests, what the actual risk is, and what you should do. At the bottom is the one question that matters most.

Honey Bee

What it looks like: Fuzzy, amber-to-brown, about 3/4 inch long. Relatively uniform body — no dramatic waist. Covered in fine hairs that pick up pollen. You'll often see them carrying yellow or orange pollen pellets on their back legs.

Where it nests: Inside enclosed cavities with volume — wall voids, soffits, eaves, attic spaces, hollow columns, chimneys, floor joists. They need space because a mature colony contains 20,000–80,000 bees and can hold 100+ pounds of honey. They are not building in your garbage can or under your deck furniture. If you see bees flying in and out of a gap in your siding, soffit, or roofline, it's almost certainly a honey bee colony.

The actual risk: Honey bees are not aggressive unless directly provoked or crushed. The colony itself is the problem, not the bees' temperament. A colony left untreated for one season will have 30,000–60,000 bees and 40–80 pounds of honey inside your wall. That honey melts in summer heat, ferments, drips through drywall, stains ceilings, and attracts wax moths and hive beetles. When the colony eventually dies — from pesticides, disease, or cold — the unguarded honey and comb becomes a permanent attractant. New swarms find it by smell for years. The older and larger the colony, the more comb there is to deal with.

What to do: Call a bee removal specialist. This is the only insect on this list where spraying makes things meaningfully worse. Dead bees leave the comb behind. The comb is the problem.

Carpenter Bee

What it looks like: Large, 3/4 to 1 inch long. The critical identification feature: the top of the abdomen is shiny and hairless — almost metallic black. Bumble bees (which carpenter bees are frequently confused with) have fuzzy, yellow-striped abdomens. If the big black bee hovering near your deck has a glossy, bald back end, it's a carpenter bee.

Where it nests: Not inside your walls — inside the wood itself. Carpenter bees bore perfectly round holes, about 1/2 inch diameter, into bare or weathered wood. Deck railings, fascia boards, eaves, wooden porch columns, and outdoor furniture are the most common targets. Look for a small pile of sawdust directly below a clean round hole.

The actual risk: Carpenter bees are solitary. There's no colony, no honeycomb, and no honey. A single female drills a tunnel 4–6 inches deep, lays a few eggs, and seals them in with pollen. The sting risk is minimal — female carpenter bees can sting but rarely do, and male carpenter bees (which do the hovering and dive-bombing) have no stinger at all. The real damage is structural: years of boring into the same wood, compounded by woodpeckers who attack carpenter bee galleries looking for larvae, can meaningfully weaken exterior wood over time.

What to do: This is not a honey bee problem and Southeast Bee Removal does not handle carpenter bee removal. A general pest control company can treat the existing holes. After treatment, paint or stain all bare exterior wood — carpenter bees strongly prefer untreated surfaces.

Bumble Bee

What it looks like: Large, round, very fuzzy. Yellow and black banding across a chunky abdomen. Loud, low hum. Slower and more deliberate in flight than honey bees. If it looks like a flying stuffed animal, it's probably a bumble bee.

Where it nests: In the ground, in pre-existing cavities, under loose insulation, in abandoned rodent burrows, in compost piles. They do not build inside wall voids or build honeycomb. Bumble bee colonies are small — 50 to 400 bees, not tens of thousands. The colony dies off completely each winter and does not reuse nests.

The actual risk: Bumble bees will defend a nest aggressively if disturbed. But because nests are small, ground-level, and seasonal, most homeowners coexist with them without issue. They're important pollinators. Unless the nest is directly in a high-traffic area, leaving it alone through summer is usually the right call — it'll be gone by October.

What to do: If the nest is in a problem location, a pest control company can treat it. If it's in a low-traffic area of your yard, wait it out. Do not pour boiling water into the ground near your house — you'll drive them into your home's foundation.

Yellow Jacket

What it looks like: Bright, bold yellow and black. Hairless, shiny body with a very pronounced narrow waist — an hourglass silhouette you can see from five feet away. Moves quickly and erratically. If it's hovering over your food at a picnic, it's almost certainly a yellow jacket, not a bee.

Where it nests: In the ground (look for a hole about the size of a quarter with heavy traffic), inside wall voids, under decks, inside hollow trees. Unlike honey bees, they do not build honeycomb and they do not store honey. Yellow jackets also chew through soft building materials — drywall, insulation, wood paneling — to expand their nests.

The actual risk: The highest of anything on this list. Yellow jackets can sting multiple times without dying. A disturbed nest can mobilize hundreds of workers instantly. They become dramatically more aggressive in late summer and fall when their larval food source dries up and they're hungry. A large late-season yellow jacket nest (5,000–15,000 individuals) near a door, playground, or HVAC intake is a genuine danger. Here's a detailed breakdown of yellow jacket season, behavior, and when to act.

What to do: Ground nests can be treated yourself at night with aerosol hornet spray, applied directly into the hole, with the tube extended so you can stand back. Do this once, at night, when all foragers have returned. If you don't kill the queen, they rebuild. Wall nests should be handled by a professional — spraying a yellow jacket nest inside a wall without an exit route drives them deeper into the structure, or into your living space. Southeast Bee Removal handles yellow jacket removal throughout Georgia and Alabama.

Sweat Bee

What it looks like: Small — often half the size of a honey bee or smaller. Some species are metallic green, which is the detail that makes people think they're seeing something exotic. Others are dull black or brown with faint striping.

Where it nests: In the ground, in wood, in stems. Small tunnels. Mostly solitary. You will not find a sweat bee colony in your wall.

The actual risk: Essentially none. Sweat bees are drawn to human perspiration for the salt content. The mild sting is reflexive if they're pressed against skin. No colony, no structural threat, no reason to call anyone.

What to do: Nothing. If they're bothering you at an outdoor event, wipe sweat off your skin or move indoors.

The One Question That Determines Everything

Every call we get starts with a variation of the same thing: "I have a bee problem."

The question that matters is narrower than that: Are bees flying in and out of a gap or hole in the structure of your home?

If yes — if there's a defined entry point in a soffit, siding, eave, chimney gap, column, or roofline — there is almost certainly a honey bee colony inside that wall. It has comb, honey, and a queen. It will not leave on its own. Spraying the entry point will slow the foragers but will not touch the colony, and the dying bees inside will produce alarm pheromones that agitate the remainder. The honey will stay in your wall whether the bees are alive or dead.

That is a professional removal job. The structure has to be opened, the comb and honey extracted by hand, the void cleaned and insulated, and the entry sealed. Here's exactly what that process looks like. That's what we do.

If the answer is no — if you're seeing bees in your yard, on flowers, at your pool, hovering near wood — it's almost certainly not a honey bee colony situation. Use the guide above to identify what you're dealing with and respond accordingly.

Not sure? Send us a 15-second video to our contact page. We can usually identify the insect and tell you what you're looking at the same day — no obligation.