• Biological bee control can work, but isn't for everyone or all situations.Jupiterimages/BananaStock/Getty Images
  
  Honey bees provide delicious food, but they can cause serious damage to buildings and other structures if not properly controlled. Additionally, beekeepers need to be able to control the number of bees in their colonies and handle any diseases or pests that might attack the colony. Biological control is one option for keeping honey bees and their predators in check. However, controlling bees biologically has disadvantages.
  
  

Extensive Research

• Biological control of any organism -- including bees -- often involves using another organism such as a mite or bacteria. This means that you have to have extensive knowledge about the honeybee as well as the organism you are using for control, as pointed out by North Carolina State University. You end up having to control both organisms instead of just the bees. This becomes more complicated when you consider that there are at least four different species of honeybee in the world, each with its own biological characteristics and susceptibilities.
  
  

Time

• Biological control methods typically take time to implement. If you're trying to keep your colony from dying off, you might not have time to implement a biological method before the bees succumb. If the honeybees are a problem, such as infestations in your walls, you have to put up with the bees until the biological method starts to work. This may cause more damage and prolong the risk of injury from stings.
  
  

Expense

• Controlling bees through biological methods can be more expensive that traditional methods of control like pesticides, according to North Carolina State University. This is due, in part, to the added cost of hatching, shipping and keeping the live organisms used to control the bee population.
  
  

Commonality

• The Mid-Atlantic Apicultural Research and Extension Consortium states that most beekeepers use chemicals to control organisms that threaten bees. This may make it harder to find a bee expert who is willing to use a biological method, or who has resources available for biological control. You may have trouble finding someone qualified in using biological methods.
  
  

Broadness of Impact

• According to North Carolina State University, pesticides and insecticides can kill a broad number of organisms, which sometimes is a good thing. By contrast, biological control usually is targeted because the organisms have specific places in the ecosystem and food chain. This means that, although biological methods of bee control may disrupt the ecosystem less, it may be hard to get the results you need if multiple organisms are influencing the bees, or if you're dealing with multiple species of bee.