How Much Does Bee Removal Cost? (2024 Guide)
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For professional bee removal, plan to budget around $450. The average cost of bee removal to range from $0 to $1,500.* Regular bee activity is a sign of a healthy ecosystem. However, when bees encroach on your home or build nests within its structure, it can become a dangerous and potentially destructive situation. We’ve evaluated the country’s best pest control companies and researched average pest control costs.
Cost of Bee Removal
Expect the average cost of bee removal to range from $0 to $1,500.* In areas with local beekeepers, you can sometimes schedule live bee removal for no charge or a small fee. These beekeepers typically relocate the entire hive, sometimes to their own properties to produce honey.
On average, carpenter bees cost the most to remove. This is due to the structural damage these bees can cause to homes, often requiring carpentry repairs plus extermination fees.
*We sourced all average cost data in this article from HomeAdvisor.
Pest Control Cost
A general pest control plan costs from $400 to $950 per year, on average.
Pest Inspection
Some companies, including Terminix, offer free inspections.
Extermination
Professional pest control services, on average, cost between $150 and $450.
Factors Affecting Bee Removal Cost
These factors determine the cost of bee removal services:
- Nest accessibility: Beehive removal rates vary depending on the location of the bee colony. If the bees chose to nest within a roofing structure or another area that is difficult to access, your pest control specialist may charge a steeper fee.
- Infestation severity: Removal of a large bee population may require a high concentration of pesticides and more labor, adding to your total cost. If you only need to exterminate a swarm of bees without removing a beehive, you will pay less.
- Home location: Pest control services often vary in price depending on where you live. You can expect to pay higher fees in areas with limited pest control availability where travel fees are common.
- Removal process: Your bee removal expert will recommend a course of treatment to eliminate the infestation. This may involve swarm removal, relocation of the hive, or bee extermination. Each method differs in price. Any service that requires the removal and repair of structural components on your home will add to the total cost.
Types of Bees
Below, we’ve detailed some of the most common types of bees that infest residential properties:
- Africanized honey bees (killer bees): Africanized honey bees are one of the most dangerous types of bees. They are known for their aggression and can inflict numerous stings when swarming. According to Orkin, they will sometimes pursue perceived threats for more than a mile. You should never attempt to address an Africanized honey bee infestation without consulting a bee removal expert.
- Bumblebees: Bumblebees are rarely responsible for bee infestations, but homeowners often confuse them with carpenter bees. Unlike carpenter bees, bumblebees have hairy abdomens and do not bore holes into wooden structural materials. If a bumblebee colony has established a nest in or around your home, you may need to contact a pest control professional to schedule a nest removal.
- Carpenter bees: Carpenter bees appear somewhat similar to bumblebees but have hairless abdomens. These destructive bees are notorious for boring holes into wood to lay their eggs. This often results in structural damage to a home’s eaves, soffits, and fascia boards. Carpenter bees can also damage decks, balconies, and other wooden structural components.
- Honey bees: Honey bees are vital to agriculture and the natural ecosystem, pollinating 80% of flowering plants. For this reason, many pest control companies will avoid extermination measures unless absolutely necessary. Your pest control technician may defer to a local beekeeper to relocate the hive to an area that is a safe distance from your home.
- Sweat bees: Sweat bees are a nondestructive type of bee known for being a nuisance during hot weather. They collect salt from human sweat and often hover in swarms. Sweat bees are generally docile and have a milder sting than most bees.
Wasps, such as hornets and yellow jackets, are often mistaken for bees. Most pest control specialists can assist with wasp extermination in addition to bee removal services.
Professional Pest Control vs. DIY Products
Many types of bees are capable of delivering painful stings when provoked. For this reason, we strongly recommend hiring a pest control specialist to manage your home’s bee problem. However, there are DIY products and strategies to assist with bee control.
Insecticidal bee and wasp sprays are available from many retailers. These sprays typically kill swarming bees on contact but can be dangerous to use against large swarms. You can also purchase residual insecticides that remain active for hours, days, or weeks when applied. These products, along with insecticidal dust, can be highly effective against carpenter bees.
Our Recommendation
We recommend contacting a pest control company as soon as possible when you notice heightened bee activity around your home. A pest control specialist can identify the type of bee and provide removal services. When live bee removal is an option, your pest control company can typically refer you to a local beekeeper. Terminix and Orkin are our top-ranked national pest control providers.
Terminix
- Pricing: $249 for a one-time treatment**
- State availability: 45 (all but Alaska, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Vermont)
Terminix offers treatment options for most common household pests. You can choose either a one-time treatment or an annual plan that provides year-round pest control and prevention. Terminix offers free inspections for many types of pests, including termites. It also extends a reservice guarantee to annual plan subscribers, providing free follow-up visits to your home if pests return.
**Bee removal is not specified in this price, and Terminix states that treatment for pests not explicitly listed in its plans may add to the total cost. When we spoke to a Terminix representative, we were told that accurate bee removal pricing was not available without scheduling a free pest inspection.
Orkin
- Pricing: $323 for a one-time treatment
- State availability: 49 (all but Alaska)
Orkin is one of the largest national pest control providers offering treatments for bees, wasps, bedbugs, and more than a dozen other pests. Its website features a convenient pricing tool and several articles on how to identify common pests. These articles also detail pest life cycles, reproductive processes, behaviors, and more.
Orkin backs its treatments with a free reservice guarantee. It also advertises a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Bee Removal Cost FAQ
How long should I wait before scheduling a bee removal service?
You should schedule a bee removal service as soon as you determine that a bee population has become dangerous to you and your family or destructive to your home. Carpenter bees, in particular, can lead to expensive repair costs due to wood damage.
Will a bee removal service keep bees away permanently?
A bee removal service will address an active infestation. There is a chance that bees will return in the future, but there are steps you can take to prevent reinfestations. You can enroll in an annual pest control plan that includes preventive perimeter treatments for your home. You can also seal any gaps that allow bees and other pests to nest inside your home’s structure.
How do I find a local beekeeper to remove a honey bee hive?
You can find a local beekeeper by searching online or by contacting your local extension office.
How We Chose the Top Pest Control Companies
Our pest control research process starts with analyzing customer reviews on third-party websites such as the Better Business Bureau (BBB), Trustpilot, and Google Reviews. We then do a deep dive into each company’s website, service plans, and available cost information. We also secret shop the companies we review, reach out to representatives, and request quotes.
From there, we compile the information we’ve gathered and compare each company using our in-depth pest control methodology and review criteria. This process uses a series of factors that are important to our readers, and we score each company depending on how well they perform in each factor. For instance, companies that offer more guarantees for their service earned more points than others, and pest control plans with a larger range of covered pests earned more points than ones with fewer.
After analyzing dozens of residential and commercial pest control businesses through this process, we were able to determine the best pest control companies on the market.