‘Tis the Season to Spot Masonry Bees

If you thought all bees were the same, think again. This is the prime time of year to see masonry bees buzzing around, but if you go searching for a nest, you will come up empty-handed. That’s because masonry bees earned their name from the fact they sometimes use the spaces between bricks and masonry to make their nests in. If bricks are soft, the bees can even burrow inside them to create a home.

If you have seen some bees around recently, perhaps buzzing around near a door or window, or elsewhere around the outside of your building, they may well be masonry bees. You don’t always see them coming and going, so it can be hard to tell where they are getting in. However, they like to use holes and gaps that are already there, and if you have any of those present, chances are that is where the bees are getting in.

Most of the time, masonry bees will not be a danger regarding the building itself. However, you should seek expert advice if you see lots of these bees around. The more you see, the more likely it is there will be a large colony, and that means you could have far more bees using the fabric of your home or business premises than you can see.

April and May tend to be the main months where you’ll spot masonry bees, so this is not the time to fill in any gaps or holes they’re using to get into your home. Once they have departed, perhaps during the summer months or thereafter, you can start filling in any cracks or crevices around the exterior of your home with mortar. There is not usually any need to treat the area to prevent or harm the bees. Although some may return the following year to try and get into their previous homes, the newly-mortared joints will prevent this from happening, and they will then go somewhere else.

If you do require advice about a particularly intensive infestation of masonry bees, or you’re unsure whether they are doing significant damage, always call in a pest control expert to assess the situation. If you live in an old building that may be more fragile than a new one, this is particularly important, as you don’t want them to cause any real damage over time.