| You can put out a passive bee trap. You can get them at Wal-Mart and feed stores. It's a plastic cylinder that has a reservoir inside for attractant. The bees and wasps check in but they don't check out. The trap comes with instructions for attractants for all kinds of bees and wasps and so you can tailor the trap for whatever kinds of bees you have. My kids were also afraid of bees, but I found that until the weather got really hot they usually were more interested in building nests and raising their young than in chasing noisy kids away from their territory. Once it gets really hot outside, bees get more cranky and will react to loud noises. You should also keep in mind that paper wasps and mud daubers and the black wasps are very beneficial in your garden and eat lots of mosquitos, gnats and other soft-bodied pests. We now have some wasps and bees living around our porch and we all pretty much co-exist peacefully. Last year I got stung when I put my hand directly on a small paper nest that was on one of my rose bushes. The rest of the wasps didn't chase me or anything though. My husband also got stung three years ago when he put his hand directly on a paper nest that was on the back of our proch swing. Other than these two times when we man-handled their nests, niether of us has been stung in over 20 years. So unless your son is alergic to bee stings you should just try to help him understand that bees have a place in nature just like he does and reassure him that even if he does get stung, it only hurts for a little while and then it might itch for a couple of days. And for a boy, a bee sting can be a real badge of courage. If he is alergic, always have bee venom antidote on hand. Cheryl | 
