Stupid Bees

[14karat]

Check out an insecticide with the technical ingredient 'cypermethrin' (which is a type of pyrethroid - just google it and you'll find it).
There is a wettable powder type (WP) which leaves a slight residual white powder on the surface. Wasps, dirt dawbers, hornets, etc... WILL NOT LIGHT on it and will not build a nest on it (it'll kill them if it gets on them)
Spray once in the spring just as they are starting to get active and again mid-late summer.
It works wonders, BUT, it is a RESTRICTED USE pesticide so you must have the appropriate certifications to use the stuff. And it is expensive... to the tune of $50-$70 for a pound (but a pound will last you a couple of years.)
If you use a pest service, ask them about spraying your eaves, dish, etc with Demon WP or Cynoff (among other brands) a couple of times each year. I wouldn't think they would charge much for doing that.
The quantities involved in spraying your home, etc, are small and harmless to pets and such.

 

[sergei]

Check out an insecticide with the technical ingredient 'cypermethrin' (which is a type of pyrethroid - just google it and you'll find it).
There is a wettable powder type (WP) which leaves a slight residual white powder on the surface. Wasps, dirt dawbers, hornets, etc... WILL NOT LIGHT on it and will not build a nest on it (it'll kill them if it gets on them)
Spray once in the spring just as they are starting to get active and again mid-late summer.
It works wonders, BUT, it is a RESTRICTED USE pesticide so you must have the appropriate certifications to use the stuff. And it is expensive... to the tune of $50-$70 for a pound (but a pound will last you a couple of years.)
If you use a pest service, ask them about spraying your eaves, dish, etc with Demon WP or Cynoff (among other brands) a couple of times each year. I wouldn't think they would charge much for doing that.
The quantities involved in spraying your home, etc, are small and harmless to pets and such.

I found that this is better than the WP so I use a product called Suspend SC which I use with a sprayer, it's an Insecticide which is a suspended concentrate containing Deltamethrin. Suspend SC's broad label includes the control of ants (Suspend makes an effective ant spray killer), spiders, roaches, flies, mosquitoes, fleas, wasps and hornets, centipedes, millipedes, pantry pests, silverfish, bedbugs, beetles and more. Suspend SC leaves a clear residual on surfaces that keeps on killing pests for up to 3 months. Suspend SC Insecticide is an EXCELLENT general purpose perimeter pesticide for use both indoors and outdoors. Suspend SC leaves no visible residue, has virtually no odor and it's even approved for use in restaurants and other places where food is manufactured, processed or served and 16 oz. will cost around 42 dollars. and you can do it yourself. You can get it from the following and others online.

SUSPEND SC Insecticide - Free Shipping

 

[tvropro]

Just checked the feedhorn. No sign of any returning pests. Looks like I solved the problem

 

[turbosat]

Thanks for the great posts, I think part of the difference here is that some of us in different latitudes have different names for the same creature, and some have species that others don't.
I know the yellow jackets because a co-worker and I were chased out of a work area in a national park back in 2001 by them. There was 8 of us, and the other kid and I were pounding in fence posts for a split rail fence on a horse trail, big railroad bar and sledges in the dry July Kentucky summer. By the time I saw that I was standing less than a foot away from the opening--they attacked the two of us t-totally and without mercy. Other workers standing by got not one sting, and some of them actually picked/beat the wasps off our t-shirted backs without being stung. I ended up with around 22 stings (they tatooed a ring around the inside of my ballcap and back/neck) and the other guy got about 18 stings.
Why they call them social insects I do not know lol. Luckily neither of us were hypersensitive to the stings or we would not have lasted the trip to a hosp as we were a mile into the woods and prob 25miles to a hospital.

 

[guapoharry]

Bees....

 

[tvropro]

Update

Today I cleaned out ant left over crap from the bee's in the feedhorn throat. I found like a string wrapped around the probe and some crap stuck to the back wall. It's nice and clean now. Stupid Bee's or whatever :rant:

 

[Bomarsh810]

By the look of the nest, and your description ("looked like bees" - yellow and black?) they may have been European Paper wasps. They're yellow and black, like a yellow jacket, but shaped like our native paper wasps. They're a foreign invader and much more prolific than our native species. Yellow jackets build the traditional ball shaped nests with no exposed honey combs. Paper wasp rely on the location of the nest for protection from the elements. Here a couple pics of one I found in a sea-anchor that had been hanging on the clothesline for a couple months. I had just mowed the grass under it, had my face inches from it in fact, and I was completely oblivious to it's presence until I was walking past it again and the wind blew it open a little.