A Catastro-Bee

via GIPHY

Bees. Bees everywhere. This was the first 3 weeks of living in our house.

Bees at our front door. Bees in the wall. Bees in the vents. Bees in the bathroom. Bees crawling on the floor.

Let me tell you a little story about how bee hives get out-of-control:

A couple years ago, there was a bee hive near our roof. The owners chose to have an exterminator come out and kill the bees. No bees, no problem! Right?

WRONG. 

The bees were gone, but the hive remained. Chunks of the hive started falling down the wall, sticking in spots and creating a mess of hive and honey.

A few years later, new bees found the pieces of honeycomb and decided to call it home. One swarm in the top of the wall, one in the bottom!

Here’s what the Bee Guy found when he came to check out the situation:

Note: You’ll see this photo is dated May 16th. Bee Guy scheduled to come back the following week and did not show up (see: Angry Yelp Review).

Fast-forward to June 2nd. Bee Guy shows up with his crew, tapes off the yard with yellow Caution tape (OK, calm down Bee Guy), and sets up his scaffolding.

We were excited to choose beekeepers to take care of the hives instead of using pest control, since bees are in decline. Regardless of my frustrations with their customer service, they did a great job removing the bees and patching up.

First, they cut out a section of the wall so they could see the hives. They looked up and down the wall and found the other sections of hive that had fallen from the previous extermination.

Once they removed the hives and all the pieces, they patched up the wall and packed it with insulation to prevent any bees from accessing the wall again. The company also gave a 2-year no-bee-guarantee.

Since the bees were removed, we’ve seen a few stray bees around but no swarms. So far, so good!

Lesson Learned: If you have a bee problem, please hire a beekeeper, not an exterminator. Remove the hive, or you’ll be back to square one before you know it!

Catastro-Bee: Averted.