Ground bees

I've never found bumblebees to be a problem around here... they're extremely gentle, even if you bump into them accidentally, they just get up, and go about their Bees-ness

We have honeybees, which again, are very amicable as long as you go about your work and don't stare at their hive.  Honeybees will attempt to communicate with humans and animals, first by introduction, then by addressing you, then by warning.  Introduction is when they cruise over towards you, and just fly around you once or twice.  They might hover around in a few places about three feet away, then carry on elsewhere.  When they address you, they fly right up and hover in your direct view.  They look at your eyes, to make sure they're in your line of site, to get your attention.  They're telling  you 'Hey... I'm rather concerned about your intentions here"...   and if  they can't get your attention that way, they'll WARN you, by flying in, and bouncing off you.  They won't sting, they just fly in and bounce off to tell you that they don't think you're heeding their request.

If you come across honeybees, domestic or ferile, don't kill them, as the ecology will fall apart rapidly without them.  It's also a serious offense - In many states, if you kill honeybees with something systemic (like SEVIN), it will kill domestic hives over large areas extremely fast.  Some states, doing something like that will put you in prison, and land you an unbelieveable restitution.  Look up your state's Apiary Agriculture department, and ask, they'll put you in contact with local beekeepers that can positively identify and assist in resolving issues.

Carpenter bees, hornets, and wasps, however, are different.  They're not like honeybees, they don't develop the social structure, and while many do, they don't serve as prolific pollinators like honeybees do.  There's many ways to deal with them.

For insect control using dish-soap, I have several different methods, but one of the best, is to use a Dial-And-Spray hooked to garden hose with a 50/50 mix of dish soap and water.  The garden hose makes it easy to just walk along my grapes and hose 'em over, which kills all the japanese beetles.  It leaves enough soap on the leaves' tops to discourage more beetles, but a visit with the spray every week or so does a good job.  Seems to be fairly effective on other types of insects, too.

I never go after yellow jacket nests during day lite hours. After dark the biggest challenge is finding the nest whole. Many times just put a rock or stick close, if handy a bucket is easier to find. But even at night they will come out and after you. So I pore fast and then set the bucket over the whole to keep them to all in to die underground. 

Soap and water works on all insects.  It coats them with the soap and they can't breath.  Kills them dead!  We use it a lot for box elder bugs. but it works on all of them.  I guess, never tried myself, if you put some dish soap on a cotton ball and put it on a tick it will make them pull out and then you kill it.

Every recipe I have read all recommend the original blue Dawn dish soap.