There’s nothing as refreshing as a dip in the pool on a hot summer day. But your relaxing swim can quickly turn hectic when wasps, bees and other pests swarm around your pool. Want to keep the pests away from your pool this summer? This guide has all the tips you need.
Why Do Bees and Wasps Appear in Pools?
As the weather heats up, bees and wasps often have to go further from home to find sources of water. Their summer water needs may be more than they are for the cooler spring and fall, so abundant water sources are a must-have.
For example, bees not only drink water, but they collect water to take back to the hive to create a sort of bee-powered air conditioning system. Bees will fan their wings to create a breeze that runs over droplets they’ve collected, which acts much like running a fan over cool water. As that cooler air enters the hive, it can act like a swamp cooler in a human home, making the temperature indoors much more bearable.
It’s less clear what wasps are doing besides drinking, if they’re doing anything at all. But drinking is reason enough to find them poolside. If you find random wasps in the pool, even where there hasn’t been a party with a lot of food and drink left open, you may simply have a wasp nest very close by.
What Attracts Bees and Wasps to Pools?
Bees and wasps need water to drink just like the rest of us, but sometimes it’s hard to get enough or a reliable source of water in the hottest part of the year. Unlike some other animals that don’t mind getting their feet wet, bees, especially, want to land on a flat surface near water that’s calm, so that they stay very dry.
Oftentimes, pools offer that kind of experience for bees, giving them a calm water source with a wide, dry edge from which to drink or collect water. It’s also been speculated that they may be attracted to the scent of chlorine, and may prefer water that’s slightly salty.
Wasps are drawn to convenient water supplies, as well, but they also show up at pools for another reason: human food and beverages. Because many people have barbecues and beverages poolside, there’s often food trash left behind. Wasps are especially attracted to the scent of fermentation, which is abundant among discarded soda cans and meat wrappers.
How to Prevent Bees and Wasps in the Pool
It can be very difficult to completely prevent bees and wasps in pools, but here are a few tricks that may help minimize them.
1. Remove Flowering Landscaping Near Pools
A lush poolscape is an amazing backdrop for summertime fun, but it’s also a good reason for bees and wasps to come by for a visit. If you remove the flowering plants, there’s a lot less reason for bees to be buzzing about. You can always transplant those plants elsewhere in your frontyard or backyard landscaping.
2. Use Your Pool Jets
As mentioned above, bees prefer still water that’s easy to sit near without getting wet. Pool jets keep the water churning and can create little waves on the top of the water that discourage bees from stopping by for a drink.
3. Provide an Alternative Water Supply
If you don’t want to remove the landscaping and you don’t want bees in the pool, you may be able to encourage them to drink from a bird bath or other shallow water supply closer to the plantings. You can even fill it with pool water if they seem to insist that’s their favorite.
4. Repair Leaky Valves
Pools are places where water is abundant, and if there’s a leaky valve somewhere, it might be creating an oasis you don’t know about for the bees and wasps. Check all of your connectors, valves and pumps for leaks periodically, and fix them promptly so that pooling water doesn’t help create a bigger problem.
5. Call a Professional
Although bees and wasps are vital pollinators, it might require a pro to keep them out of your pool. When they’re that common and persistent, there’s likely a hive or nest nearby that needs professional bee removal. It can be very dangerous to remove a hive or nest without the right tools and experience.
What to Do If There’s a Bee in Your Pool
If you find a bee in your pool, it’s important that you don’t panic. Although it is likely panicking itself, it’s important for you to stay calm to avoid the possibility of being stung by a bee. If there’s a bee in your pool, even if it appears dead, act swiftly and carefully.
Use a cup, net or other scooping object to remove the bee or wasp from the water. You can dump it on the ground near the pool and walk away, or toss it in the landscaping if you want to make sure no one else comes across it. Whatever you do, do not touch the bee or wasp with your bare hands.
If you happen to have a hive near your pool, you may end up with bees in it simply because as they age, bees tend to keep foraging until they literally drop out of the sky. Even though they’re essentially exhausted from life, these very old bees can still sting when scooped out of pools. In other cases, the bee may have simply fallen in, and once dry, will revive and be on the defensive.