If you find small yellow and black striped yellow jackets or fuzzy amber looking honey bees inside your home, it is likely there is a bees nest somewhere in the structure. If you are unsure from where the bees are coming, walk around the perimeter of your house. Do this during the day when it is warm and sunny. Between 60-90 degrees is best.

Bees are least active when it is cool, rainy, or extremely hot. They will also not fly at night unless you have a light on that they would be attracted to. A honey bee colony should be quite easy to spot. A newly moved-in colony can have 10,000 bees or more and an established colony may have 50,000 plus bees. There will usually be a steady stream of honey bees flying in and out of a single entry point. In one minute you might see 50-100 bees flying in and out.

A yellow jacket nest will have smaller numbers than honey bees. You may see 10-25 yellow jackets per minute flying in and out of a single entry point, more if it is late summer. Check the most common bee entry points as you walk around your home: dryer vents, chimney vents, bathroom vents, eaves, and where the floors meet, especially where the siding meets the brick. Note that once bees become trapped inside your house they will fly to the nearest light source to try to get back out. They are not able to survive for long in this state and that is why you may see dead bees underneath a living room or bathroom window.