Robyn Dochterman says:

September 4th, 2007 at 9:30 am

You can get those spiffy white bee suits locally at Nature’s Nectar in Stillwater or mail order one from Mann Lake (or I’d be happy to loan you one). Or you can try wearing white, smooth clothes around your bumblebees. If your hair is dark and curly, you might consider a hat, also, since they especially seem to be drawn to you.

One other thing I might try is to mow the lawn during the middle of sunny days, when more bees are out foraging. Conversely, you could just endure tall grass until the middle of October, when frost should slow the bees down considerably.

Warren says:

September 4th, 2007 at 10:18 am

If this were me I would have to kill the offending bees.

Kate says:

September 4th, 2007 at 10:34 am

Interesting. My husband has disturbed two bee nests (one in the front, one in the back) while mowing this summer. He used an insecticide in both cases; we have a child and will not risk her disturbing them while playing in the yard. I wondered if the bees had established nests in our lawn this summer because we were out there less often during the hot dry summer. I’d be interested in hearing an experts opinion on this: Has this been a bad summer for aggressive ground bees, and if so, why?

Jeremy says:

September 4th, 2007 at 11:02 am

I don’t think there is a non lethal way of doing this.

However, if you want to get rid of them and kill them very quickly, head down to WalMart and pick up a couple cans of Brake Parts Cleaner in the automotive section.

My father in law and I used a couple cans to rid the yard of a hornets nest and it kills them instantly and will not harm your lawn or plants

jim hyde says:

September 4th, 2007 at 11:18 am

I’ve used gasoline sprayed with an oil can (they hate petroleum products)at night when they are dormant. They moved to a neighbor’s the next day.

Mary Kay says:

September 4th, 2007 at 12:03 pm

I have bumblebees nesting in the crack between our driveway and garage pad and house. How can I get rid of them? Hornet spray doesn’t seem to work and I don’t want to use anything flammable. They’ve stung my husband but seem to be leaving the rest of us alone, however, they do get trapped in the garage, which we go through to get to the car and backyard.

Paul J. Marasa says:

September 4th, 2007 at 12:54 pm

A Big Picture perspective: Evolutionarily, this bee situation is a problem that should not occur. Indeed, our prehistoric forbearers were nomadic primarily because of bees. A hunter-gatherer clan group would get tired come late summer, decide to cut down on hunting and gather even less, and take it easy. Anthropologists speculate that the sound of their late-afternoon-siesta paleolithic snoring–in part reminiscent of the bees’ own buzzing–would stimulate the bees, resulting in the kind of mutual pestering modern humans–and bees–still suffer. Indeed, experts claim that the sounds of modern suburban lawn maintenance–mowers, hedge clippers, weed whackers–mimic the hearty snores of proto-humans, setting off a species-memory in the bees that leads to the attacks.

The Darwinian solution, then, is either to stay indoors, stop trimming the verge, or move. Science has spoken.

NH says:

September 5th, 2007 at 9:11 am

I have had success with this problem by going out after they go to the nest at twilight and pouring very hot water(boiling, if you can manage it) down the hole. Seems to work every time.

DensityDuck says:

September 5th, 2007 at 9:41 am

Don’t be concerned about killing these bees. There’s plenty more where these ones came from.

Also, are you sure that they’re bees? They might be wasps; if they’re wasps, then TERMINATE WITH EXTREME PREJUDICE, because wasps do no good for anyone but themselves.