Need to confirm identity.

If they're honey bees, they may have settled in for the long haul.

If they are wasps such as yellow jackets, All residents of the nest will die of natural causes by the end of the year.

Please describe what you are calling a "hive".

And/or post an image or 2.

Thanks . I have already identified these as honey bees(on another website where I posted pictures- actually I am familiar with the wasps, hoverflies , humblers and honeybees in my garden anyway )

I have to prevent them returning next year. Can I block up the entrance with some product?

I know that wasps will tunnel their way through silicon mastic....

I don't know what it looks like beyond the entrance . I thought "hive" might be a generic term to describe where they have set up home.

I don't want to kill them them by blocking them inside but if , with the onset of cold weather they depart of their own accord ,I will block up their entrance if this is practicable. Otherwise I will have to ask one of the local bee keepers to help me remove them manually.

Lucy, The honey bee is about to go into hibernation of sorts. Most of the flowers have finished blooming and the bees numbers are at the lowest point of it's expansion/contraction cycle. The bees pretty much stay indoors now. In this case your wall. I'm a bee keeper in the US and I go onto BeeSource.com for most of my info.

What we do here and probably in Europe to remove the bees is called a cut-out. The beekeeper who has his protective suit will disassemble the wall and remove not only the bees but their entire colony and structure. Then you may have to get a contractor to rebuild the wall and make it water tight again. Here we usually charge an average of $100 US for that service, it varies with the beekeeper. The patching cost is up to the contractor who rebuilds it. Some people feel that the person doing the cut out is being paid by the colony they remove and that's true in about 50% of the cases. I've only done 1 cut out and I watched the queen and bees fly away. Also I wasn't paid and it just cost me about 4 hours of my time.

A lot of people find that to expensive and just kill them with bug spray. The problem with that is that leaves the dead bees, honeycomb and honey inside of the wall. There are some great fungi and bacteria that break them down but they do smell.

Another option is to put a window screen cone on the outside of the house. The end of the cone should be about 1cm. This allows them to crawl out but they can't find their way back in. This works but that still leaves the colonies structure inside the wall. If you do that between now and spring that will kill the colony.

As a beekeeper I naturally recommend the cut- out but that's the most expensive and also the most hygenic. Look around in your area and find the nearest bee club. That's the best place to start your search for the help you may need.

Thanks . That is very informative and helpful. To be honest I am still no better off because the bees are actually in quite a dangerous position in my opinion-at the very top of the ladder and at the edge of a flat roof behind the facia bords.

I guess the best thing would be to contact a local bee keeper and ask his advice .It is a shame I cannot make them leave with one of those electronic devices.

I did try this at first and positioned it up against the ceiling just beneath the colony for half a day or so but it had no effect.

I don't suppose it would be possible to spray with with a product that would not kill them but would make them "move house" - something like tear gas or something that they just disliked for whatever reason.

If that was possible it would need to be done in the Spring ,I suppose as it would be the same as killing them to evict them at this time of the year....

I don't doubt that the electric zapper ho no effect on them. It works by attracting the bugs to light. Bees don't pay any attention to light. Other than to come home when it's getting dark.

There's a product that's called Bee Go that we use to make bees move out of the supers so we can get the honey. Nasty smelling stuff but effective. Another product is call Bee Dun. Same effect, not offensive to us though. This time of year you would effectively be killing the hive to use it. Also in spring you don't have hardly any honey left so not as much to worry about.

Finding a local beekeeper is still your best bet though. Good Luck.

Since bees are in short supply, why don't you just put screens on your windows?