Removes the drywall from the ceiling of the shed and exposed the hive after removing some old insulation and a lot of rat droppings (YUCK!). Small colony pretty far in from the entrance. The wasp spray would normally only kill what the liquid hits and possibly the bees on the first comb section at the entrance. Usually not killing the queen and the majority of the colony. Anyways, we removed the bees and all, and didn’t find the queen! Looked in every comb section we took out for eggs, none! The queen must have gone out for her mating flight and never made it back home. Anyways, combined these girls with another colony and they are not thriving.

See the artwork they did inside the urn. The bees have been there for about a month. Notice the dead pile of bees on the bottom right of the urn. When I was there only about 3 bees were flying. Such pity.

Looking at how these bees died, they were sprayed. By who, we will never know unless Rich asks his gardener.

Anyways, a word to the general public. Please call a beekeeper for advice on removing bees before you attempt to make it a DIY project. For bees inside the walls or attic of your house, you will not be able to kill them using wasp or yellowjacket spray. Only when you can get a direct hit into the entire colony will you kill honey bees. But we don’t want to kill our honey bees as they are a crucial resource to our lives.

(Wasps and Yellowjackets you can spray and kill, please do not spray honey bees. Thanks!)

Used the multi-tool today to make a nice cut into the bookshelf and after removing the piece of wood we ran into cinder blocks! We see where the bees are traveling, walking from the entrance to a main support beam where there’s a gap between the beam and cinder block. From there they moved further into the chimney, possibly building their combs inside the staggered cinder blocks.

In many cases where the honey bees have moved into the chimney or from the side and behind, the job is absolutely difficult. For this situation we have there is three options that aren’t the best. 1) Trapout. This would involve trapping out the bees from the entrance and make sure that all possible entry and exit points are sealed so they cannot find a new route. This process can take up to 2 months depending on the colony. Because this colony is still young there shouldn’t be a huge amount of brood. 2) Next option is calling an exterminator and spraying them. Now that I’ve removed a piece of the bookshelf the exterminator should have a better angle at where the honey bees MIGHT have built. Now that I think about it, if they spray they still might not kill all the bees.

I was kind of disappointed today on not being able to save these bees. I can still do the trapout if the owners opt for that choice which we will save all the worker bees minus the queen. But then in some situations spraying them might be the best option.

The warm, rainy months of central Florida  bring on the flowers and the air is filled with bees busy about their job of gathering nectar and building honeycomb. Strong hives often outgrow their spaces. The bees sense the density of the bee population, grow new queens, and when she hatches she splits the hive and takes to the air in something called a swarm.  It is not uncommon to find huge swarms of bees on a tree branch in your yard, in the soffit of a house, a meter box or even a car. The queen might just be resting, and left alone, the swarm might fly away on its own,  to look for a more permanent home. It also might find its way into the walls of your house.
Many people are understandably freaked out by a huge swarm of bees bearding down a tree trunk. The first one they call is the Pest Control service to have them sprayed,  or they might try a few cans of wasp spray on their own.  Honey bees are disappearing all over the world at alarming rates and scientists say it’s for many reasons,  from diseases to pesticides. This is  putting 1/3 of our food source at risk, for lack of a good pollinater.  Whats more, the populations of African Killer bees are on the rise.  Here in Florida an estimated 70% of Honey bees are “Africanized.” This is causing monumental changes in the honey industry and fears and the preceived dangers are promoting a eradication mentality in the pest control policies and markets. But good bees are being killed along with “so called” killer bees.   Considering our responsibility to preserving the bee population, and looking practically at the options and respective costs, these are the 3 things you should know before you kill those bees.

1)      Know what kind of bees you have. 

2)      Know where they are and how long they have been there.

3)     Know your options; 3 ways to rid yourself of bees.

Honey bees pollinate 1/3 of the food we eat

1) Identify what you have

Honeybees, Hornets, Wasps, Bumblebees, African Killer Bees, to some inexperienced eyes every flying bug with a stinger is a“bee.”  Knowing what you have is the first step to deciding what to do about it. There are a number of good web sites that can help you identify your “bee.”  Wasps, Yellow Jackets and Bumblebees generally do not make big nests, nor do they travel in large swarms,  and these can easily be identified. 

Bumblebees live in small colonies

Honey Bees and Africanized bees have larger colonies  of 3 to 10 thousand bees and can fill large cavities in walls, attics, and floors with honeycomb and honey. The prospect of having a large, aggressive Africanized colony of bees in your walls can be a bit scary, but a little knowlege can calm your fears. And then… what if they are friendly bees?   The first thing to do is to I.D. your bees. There are a number of good organizations dedicated to saving bees and their websites can help you identify what you have buzzing around the house. Re-locators (www.ecobeeremoval.com)  are a good place to start;  business and research orgainizations that have websites with pictures and information to help you identify your bee. After you determine what you have you can make the appropriate decision as to how to eradicate or remove them. 
If you determine that you have an honey bee swarm or colony then this article will help you proceed to the next step.

2) Where are they and how long have they been there?

These bees have been in this roof for over a year

One of the  first questions a professional bee remover is going to ask you is ” Where do you think the bees are located? ”  You may only see dead bees below the porch light, or you might see them in pile up in the light fixture and wonder where they are coming from? But most times you will see the bees coming in and out of a hole in the wall,  maybe one left by a sloppy electrician, or a crack in the trim of a roof soffit.   What is the wall or structure made of;  concrete block, dry wall, or wood siding? This will determine the difficulty and the relative costs to remove the bees. You might note when you see that hole where the bees have entered the wall, inside, is a cavity. Be it in the block wall or a dead space in between the studs in the framed wall, the bees fly up to the very highest portion of that space, the top plate, that the roof rests on, and this is where they normally begin building their comb.  They will fill the space no matter how big it is.  So “how long have they been there” is obviously the next question.  The longer the bees have been in your wall the more of a bee problem you have.  Once they fill the space with honeycomb they will then move into another available space if there is access to do so. This access might be another cavity in the wall  or it  may be into the ceiling or between the floor joists.  The older the hive, the more honeycomb there will be, and that means more of the structure that has to  be removed to get at it. And here is a very important  point.  Removal of the honeycomb is very important if you want to solve not only this particular bee infestation but future bee problems  as well, because “bees love honey.”  There can be 20  pounds of honey in the walls of an established hive. All manner of pests are attracted to that honey including other honey bees that can smell it and are drawn to it with a deep craving.

3) Know your options

If it is determined that you have bees in your walls or somewhere in a structure on your property (water meter, valve box, old shed, dog house, etc..) there are only three options to resolve your bee problem;  Plug the holes,  Exterminate the bees or Remove the colony

 Plugging holes can work sometimes but trapped honey bees will look for another way in or out and they just may end up in your house. If you do manage to block all entrances, there is still the issue of the honeycomb in the walls.  Bees fan the comb to keep it cool.  Pugged holes, with dead bees will cause the honey to  heat up and melt and the mess in  the walls will grow into a deeper problem,  and a return of   bees, attracted to  the honey, the very next season.

Call an exterminator to kill the bees.

Frankly, exterminators don’t want to mess around with Honey Bees and only about 50% will come out on a call to kill  them.  Honey bees are protected in some states and in others there are restrictions to when and where you can spray them. Exterminators generally do not remove honey or honey comb and even when they do spray they are often not too successful. Honey comb blocks the walls in layers and only a few inches of bees are killed.  They die from the spray and their bodies block the entrance and when the spray wears off  the remaining hive members regroup and continue to grow the hive.  Small swarms or recently inhabited spaces can be killed by spraying if you can gain complete access to the area where they are.. If that is the only option for you, it is possible to kill them if those perfect conditions exist.

Small swarm lands on fence

Raw, wild honey, one of the sweet rewards for your concern for bees!

3) Remove and relocate the colony

 

 

The last and most effective (and humane) way of handling a honey bee problem is to hire someone to remove the colony,  preferably someone skilled in live bee removal .  The bee expert will assure success on a number of different levels.  Like previouisly mentioned, live bee removal includes the removal of live bees and the honeycomb.  The beekeeper removes the comb filled with honey and/or bee larva and inserts it into the frames of a bee hive box that will be the new colony home.  He will then scoop up the remaining bees or vacuum them up in a special bee vacuum and pour them over the brood or honey- comb. The bees will then be relocated to the care of a beekeeper.  Even Africanized bees can be relocated and tamed.  Though some counties and beekeeping associations across the US recommend killing Africanized hives, others like myself do not agree with the policy.  There are different levels of hybridization of the African/European honey bees .  Some are just a “moody” version of the regular honey bee, others are more aggressive.  But try as they may, controlling the population is a loosing battle and we might as well start to learn to live with the African honey bee.  She will dominate in the end, at least in the warmer regions, which is their geographical limitation.  Like any wild animal, they can be tamed via speical breeding and they have good traits too;  they are  viogorous honey producers and are resistant to disease. Some of us are willing to  work with African killer bees and so we hive them and re-home them.. Bee removal speicailists are most often skilled in handy work and can remove and re-install structures after the bee removal is complete.  If you are handy yourself or have a family member who can use basic power tools then you can save money by paying a professional bee remover to do  only the “cut out” and the removal of the bee colony. You can button things up yourself when he is done.  Ironically, live bee removal will many times be  cheaper than a pest control spraying service. and you get the good blessing and good feeling of saving the bees. To me it’s a no brainer.  Most of the time live bee removers do not use chemicals (be sure to ask) and not having chemicals shot into your walls is another big plus. When its all done its not unusual for the bee relocator to reward you with a nice chunk of  incredible wild honey comb. Its only right.  Now that you are armed with the best infomation, go make the right decision, and I hope you will consider saving the bees.