Bee exterminator cost

We all know how important bees are to the planet. They produce honey and more importantly, they pollinate flowers and crops. But that doesn’t mean we want a bee’s nest buzzing around our house. Luckily, bee removal is a lot easier (and can be more humane) than you might think. Here, we’ll break down the typical bee exterminator cost.

How much does bee removal cost?

Bee removal prices can vary hugely depending on a number of factors, such as the methods used. While some pest control companies kill bees when they remove the hive, many bee experts and beekeepers instead offer live removals – helping you to deal with the problem without having to cause harm to the bees.

Other factors affecting the cost of bee removal include:

• The size of the nest.
• What type of bees are present.
• Where on your property the hive is.
• Whether the hive is located indoors or outdoors.
• Your location.

How much does live bee hive removal cost?

The only real way of dealing with a bee problem is to remove the whole hive. With live bee hive removal, the hive and bees are removed from a place they shouldn’t be and simply relocated to somewhere more appropriate.

This can take a couple of different forms:

• Swarm removal: In some cases, you might be able to find a beekeeper who’ll be happy to collect a swarm of bees from your property, as they can use the bees for their business. This could be very cheap or even free.
• Bee removal specialist: Specialists can remove bees from more difficult places that beekeepers may not be insured to help with. In this case, your bee nest removal cost could be anywhere from £60 – £1,000.

A beekeeper or specialist who carries out live bee removal will normally do everything they can to prevent harm to the bees and to ensure they survive. They don’t use insecticide to kill the bees, which has the added benefit of avoiding generating any toxic waste.

How much are bee exterminator prices?

The alternative to live bee hive removal is to call upon the services of a bee exterminator who will poison the bees. Contrary to what you might think, it’s absolutely legal to kill bees, wasps and any other insect in the UK, despite how useful they may be.

That said, there are laws in place about how the bees can be poisoned, and how the nest must be treated after poisoning. Your bee exterminator will also need to use methods that will prevent other robbing bees from accessing the poisoned bee colony.

All this means that it’s important to use the services of a trusted and experienced professional. The average cost of bee removal using an exterminator is £60 – £350.

Cost to remove bees from wall

Removing bees from walls can be one of the harder and costlier bee removal jobs. The cost to remove bees from a wall will depend largely on:

• How long they’ve been in the wall: The longer the bees have been in the wall, the harder and more expensive they’ll be to remove.
• The type of wall cavity the bees are in: Depending on the wall, the bees may need to be removed from inside or outside the building.

These factors will also affect the method that can be used. The preferred option is usually to remove enough of the wall to be able to access the bees and the nest. Unfortunately, this way, you’ll also have to budget for repair costs.

The alternative is to use something called a ‘trap-out,’ which is very difficult and not always successful. This is a process that will take at least six weeks but the benefit is that it saves you from having to dismantle the wall.

The average cost to remove bees from a wall is between £550 – £1,000.

Honey bee removal cost

The two main types of bees in the UK are honey bees and bumblebees. Honey bee removal tends to be more expensive than bumblebee removal because honey bees operate in larger colonies. While there are usually between 20,000 and 60,000 bees in a honey bee hive, there are usually no more than 400 bees in a bumblebee colony.

The typical honey bee removal cost is anywhere between £70 – £700. This is in contrast to bumblebee removal, which is usually between £60 – £140. 

It’s also worth noting that bumblebees very rarely need to be removed as they’re not usually aggressive and their nests don’t tend to cause damage to homes. So, if you need bees removing in the UK, they’re most likely to be honey bees.

Key takeaways

• Bees are essential for our planet’s ecosystem, so live bee hive removal is preferable where possible.
• Bees are particularly challenging to remove from walls, as the job will usually involve dismantling a section of your wall.
• Most bee removal jobs in the UK are dealing with honey bees as opposed to bumblebees.