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Call LA County Vector Control.

http://www.lawestvector.org/

Oops! Just noticed this was posted from Australia (so why is it on the LA page?). Anyway, call your public agency that handles insects.

This is a good thread that discusses proven techniques for removing large groups of bees from your property:

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2243176

Oh my, this is my worst nightmare. In Costa Rica, all of our bees are Africanized, which means they're part African Killer Bee. When they come around, we put all colorful objects away (flowers come inside), close the doors, and make no sound - this can last for up to a week. If you're vigilant, they won't make their home on your property. If you're not, you have to pay big bucks for removal and hope that they don't attack before you've taken care of them.

Important to keep in mind (especially with the decline in the number of bees around the world) is that often when a swarm shows up in your yard, they are just resting. Give them up to 72 hours to rest and move on before you take any action. During this time, you may hear them in your eaves and attic, but they likely will still leave.

After they are gone (or before they ever show up), make sure any openings into your attic are screened off to prevent unwanted "guests."

I view bees as one of the most important critter on this planet.. face it we did not have bees half there would be NO plants and flowers.. just leave them alone, honestly if you relax and think happy loving thoughts they will leave you alone. If there is a hive in your home or yard consider yourself lucky and call a local bee keeper.

Remember if you must eat honey alway eat honey that comes from your area it will combat allergies.

Bees are diminishing so respect!

Oh and don't talk on your cell phone if you see them.

We had a swarm land in a tree at our house last year but by the time we found a local beekeeper who could come and get them, they had flown away. Now we keep the beekeeper's business card handy so if we are lucky enough to observe another swarm, we'll be ready. Beekeepers love to get wild bees for their hives.

"honestly if you relax and think happy loving thoughts they will leave you alone.


Oh and don't talk on your cell phone if you see them."

lol, keep drinking the kool aid!

A Cornell University study has estimated that honeybees annually pollinate more than $14 billion worth of seeds and crops in the United States, mostly fruits, vegetables and nuts. “Every third bite we consume in our diet is dependent on a honeybee to pollinate that food,” said Zac Browning, vice president of the American Beekeeping Federation.

It does make sense if you have a longstanding infestation in your ceiling or walls of bees to call a beekeeper to get rid of them. A couple of a years ago the external wall of an apartment building in my town collapsed on some children when the weight of a 100,000 bee colony in the wall gave way. Honey can also drip in through ceilings and in addition to the damage, attracts other insects like ants.

Anyway, the best thing is prevention. Make sure your holes and vents are properly screened to encourage the bees to make their home elsewhere. Whatever you do, though, don't let anyone kill the bees to get rid of them. We don't have enough as it is!

OH MY!! I cant even begin to wonder what I would do if i found that in my yard...scary.

Jen Ramos
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www.madebygirl.com
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this happened last spring at my sister's house in virginia. the bees showed up around 2:00 in the afternoon. called the local extension service and the bee expert estimated 10,000 were doing just as described, splitting to look for a new hive, hanging around in an azalea tree right by the front door. by about 10:00 pm just flew away in a cloud within a minute or so. creepy.

I was walking in Santa Monica a few years ago, and happened upon a swarm just like this...but it was all over a Volvo! When they took off all at once, darkening the sky over the street, a guy riding his bike, talking on his cell phone, rode right into the middle of the swarm and started screaming, "There are bees everywhere!! AAARRRRGGGHGHHHHH!!" It was a weird mix of civilization and nature, to be sure. You can see a series of images from this amazing sight over at my flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vanessa_holtgrewe/sets/72157594286936925/

Just set the hive on fire... that will get them to relocate... :)

when you are waiting for whoever is coming to pick them up and they are annoying (the bees, not the people coming to pick them up :-P ) you can spray them with water from a hose - that will make them settle like in the picture. (just a spray of water, of course - it is supposed to make them believe it is raining).
growing up with a beekeper as a father teaches you things like that ...

If anyone has a problem in the San Luis Obispo area, call Cal Poly and contact Scott Jefferys. He teaches beekeeping and will send a student out to collect the swarm for the university's beekeeping program. (It is nice if you cough up a $20 for the student's time and effort). I am a landscape architecture student and took the class for fun and it totally changed my life :-)

An interesting and bee-friendly alternative; build them a bee house:
http://www.minifarmhomestead.com/cooking/beehouse.htm

If you've got fruit trees, they'll pollinate them for you!

skippyandebsy - You can laugh all you like but I have a few books on bees and they all say basically by keeping calm, peaceful and to get in that state fast think of nice loving thoughts and the bees will leave you alone.

Radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees' navigation systems, preventing the famously them from finding their way back to their hives. Its called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).
Read a paper.

And if you're allergic to bee stings, please call the appropriate agency and don't bother them.

Nice loving thoughts? Are you completely insane?

opps I left out -preventing the famously homeloving species from finding their way back to their hives.

Palmetto
I am not saying to have nice loving thoughts while you move a hive, you need a professional to do that.

I am very allergic and I have used this technique to avoid getting stung. I do a lot of camping and hiking and have been in many situations where I could of been stung.

There is no need to argue about this I am just sharig what I have read and have practiced when needed.

It's absolutely true that moving calmly and carefully will help you avoid getting stung. Whatever state of mind you want to get there, do it!

And really - with honeybees dying and colonies collapsing left and right, extermination is almost always a bad option. Do what you can to relocate first!

We have bees inside one of the eaves of our house they have set up housekeeping this past spring. We have repeatedly used insect spray killer, and stuffed every hole we could find with steel wool. They keep on coming back.

This is a nightmare, my 5 and 7 yr olds are afraid to go out on the deck. The bees have swarmed more then once, and when they did the daylight outside our window was dimmed, there were thousands. We can't open our windows because they get in through the screen into the house.

I called an exterminator we used once several years ago, they said they wouldn't come unless I paid a $240 non-refundable fee and they wouldn't guarantee the work.

My husband and I are stumped. We can't remove the hive because it is somehow in between the walls under the eaves. We would have to destroy part of the house in order to open up the space. I would love to get rid of them without destroying them. But at this point it is us or the bees....

Any ideas?

I used to be a little bit scared of bees. I've been stung three times. I'm not very allergic so it didn't cause any problems. BUT, now that I've heard all about the diminishing bee problem around the globe and the sad fact that it is an indication of how poor the health of the planet is, I am now thrilled when I come across a bee. I planted a small flowering native Australian bush in a pot on my door step yesterday and today I saw that it had attracted some bees. Woohoo! I was so happy to see them.

Colony collapse disorder is not caused by cell phones. That's an urban legend. Read a paper.

Colony Collapse Disorder (or CCD) is a phenomenon in which worker bees from a beehive or Western honey bee colony abruptly disappear. While such disappearances have occurred throughout the history of apiculture, the term Colony Collapse Disorder was first applied to a drastic rise in the number of disappearances of Western honey bee colonies in North America in late 2006.[1]


Honey bees entering a beehive.European beekeepers observed similar phenomena in Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain,[2] and initial reports have also come in from Switzerland and Germany, albeit to a lesser degree.[3] Possible cases of CCD have also been reported in Taiwan since April 2007.[4]

The cause or causes of the syndrome are not yet fully understood, although many authorities attribute the problem to biotic factors such as: Varroa mites and insect diseases (i.e., pathogens[5] including Nosema apis and Israel acute paralysis virus[6][7]). Other proposed causes include environmental change-related stresses,[8] malnutrition and pesticides (e.g. neonicotinoids such as imidacloprid), and migratory beekeeping. More highly speculative possibilities have included both cell phone radiation and genetically modified (GM) crops with pest control characteristics,[9][10] though experts point out no evidence exists for either assertion.

[wikipedia]

about the loving thoughts … not quite as ridiculous as some people seem to think. bees do strongly react to sweat and other physical signs of stress in humans, and they do react with aggression. nice loving thoughts probably act against stress in humans, and so avoid an in crease of aggression in the bees.