Getting Rid Of Sweat Bees Question?

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M

Mavven

Well-known member
Jul 21, 2021
60
NY
Pool Size
18000
Surface
Vinyl
Chlorine
Salt Water Generator
SWG Type
CircuPool RJ-45 Plus
Hey all, it's been a very busy fall/winter. Wife and I have a disabled child, so I've been MIA for reasons just mentioned.

So... Last year I went SWG (circupool RJ 45+) with our AGP. 27' ft Round, 18,000 Gallon Saltwater 8000 Running a 2 Speed 2HP pump. 190sqft Cartridge filter.

It was the best decision I made, thanks to all the info from our wonderful members 👍

All I had to do the entire season was add some muriatic acid a few times to lower the PH. Also, added some stabilizer once, to bring up the CYA and that's it! It was great, besides one "nagging" issue, literally!

With the addition of going salt (keep in mind this was only our Second season with our new pool) we developed sweat bees. They would sting my wife and I periodically, which was frustrating. We tried every method to remove them. From spraying possible nest, to the soap and sugar mix hanging, etc. Nothing worked!

I can't remember, nor did my search come up with any results. I vaguely remember someone mentioning doing something to the water, that would kill them on contact. Please don't quote me, I think the process started with the letter "B"? I may be wrong. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!
 
I was told to use a pump sprayer with an emulsion of peppermint oil amd spray all the areas around the pool. This is supposed to repell the bees but not kill them.
 
Check under the rails while it's still cool out and they aren't swarming yet. My rails were loaded with nests.

Do they land on the water to drink it ? You can try 1/4 cup of Dawn dish soap if so. It changes the surface tension and If they land they'll sink and drown.

Are you certain of the species ? A bunch of them look very similar and if you use bee spray on wasps/hornets or vice versa, all it does is make them super mad. Lol.
 
Ahultin said:
I was told to use a pump sprayer with an emulsion of peppermint oil amd spray all the areas around the pool. This is supposed to repell the bees but not kill them.
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I have heard of this method. Although, I have not tried it. Thank you for the response 👍
 
Newdude said:
Check under the rails while it's still cool out and they aren't swarming yet. My rails were loaded with nests.

Do they land on the water to drink it ? You can try 1/4 cup of Dawn dish soap if so. It changes the surface tension and If they land they'll sink and drown.

Are you certain of the species ? A bunch of then look very similar and if you use bee spray on wasps/hornets or vice versa, all it does is make them super mad. Lol.
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100% sweat bees. They land in the water and then grab onto anything they can. Float, stairs, my wife and I! Then they sting, It's a pretty nasty sting. My wife and I like to use mesh floats and just relax. They latch on to the mesh, then sting. It got to the point, we couldn't enjoy our pool time. Not sure if last year's drought affected the amount. All I know, they are attracted to the salt.

Nothing under the rails. They actually have underground hives. I researched it last year. They look like something ants make. I sprayed the ones around the pool. Unfortunately they can make them in the woods, so it's impossible for me to get every single one.

Thanks for the response. Greatly appreciated!
 
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Consider placing a water source - salted - between the pool and the woods or other areas the bees are coming from.
The further from the pool the better.
 
Mavven said:
Yes Boric Acid, thank you!
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Don't put your hopes up too much with boric acid in the pool. While boric acid is typically being used as an insecticide, the concentrations safe to be used in pool water do bugger all to bees in my experience.

I am maintaining 30-50ppm of borates (by adding boric acid) to prevent scaling of the SWG cell. But honey bees still very happily drop by regularly for a drink, I haven't really noticed any changes there. Luckily, they are not aggressive and don't really bother us.
 
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Borates won’t work at the concentrations used in pools. Bees and wasps are capable of passing enough of the boron out of their bodies for it to not be effective. It’s only at much higher concentrations that it works (essentially 1:1 mixture of sugar and boric acid then enough water to turn it into a viscous liquid). It won’t work.

SKILL-IT is an option you can try. Some people swear it works. It’s effectively just like adding an algaecide to the pool (they are very similar chemical compounds). I have no idea if it will work but it’s safe enough for pool use.
 
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mgtfp said:
Don't put your hopes up too much with boric acid in the pool. While boric acid is typically being used as an insecticide, the concentrations safe to be used in pool water do bugger all to bees in my experience.

I am maintaining 30-50ppm of borates (by adding boric acid) to prevent scaling of the SWG cell. But honeys bees still very happily drop by regularly for a drink, I haven't really noticed any changes there. Luckily, they are not aggressive and don't really bother us.
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Thank you for the informative response, appreciate it! You're probably right about the borates not helping much. I may use it for the SWG cell, as you mentioned. We get "regular" bees as well that are not aggressive.

However... These tiny sweat beas are extremely aggressive. The minute they touch your skin, they sting. They are attracted to the salt, not so much the water from what I've read. Which makes sense, because the first year we had our pool, we didn't have a SWG and no sweat bees.
 
You can try 2L soda bottle wasp traps (look them up on YouTube) and fill them with a mixture of Ponzu, orange juice, and sake (makes a great marinade too …). The salt and sweetness from the Ponzu/juice mixture attracts them and the alcohol from the sake incapacitates them and they drown. You can hang a few nearby and see what kinds of bees and wasps you attract.
 
JoyfulNoise said:
You can try 2L soda bottle wasp traps (look them up on YouTube) and fill them with a mixture of Ponzu, orange juice, and sake (makes a great marinade too …). The salt and sweetness from the Ponzu/juice mixture attracts them and the alcohol from the sake incapacitates them and they drown. You can hang a few nearby and see what kinds of bees and wasps you attract.
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Thank you for this! Bees and wasps, were not bad last year. We did get some weird purplish blue wasps. Besides that, it was these Dang tiny sweat bees. We couldn't float around for more then an hour before getting stung. I'm still doing my due diligence. Hopefully it's a better outcome this year.
 
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