Tish and Jeff Anderson had a problem last year. They did the right thing in contacting a beekeeper to remove the bees, but they did not contact the right one. Here’s the situation: The bees were first noticed when the cable guy got stung hooking up their cable lines last year. They were entering between mortar slots in bricks, going up under the siding of the second floor. The ceiling joists betweent he first and second floors are located in this area. No one knew how long the bees had been in the house. The beekeeper assumed that the colony was a recent swarm and did a simple trap removal. No siding was removed and no visual of the hive was conducted. He then sprayed a pesticide in the entry way and stuffed the entrance with No Pest Strips. Everything appeared to work and the Andersons were satisfied.
Shortly after the removal, the Andersons started having issues with ants and small white maggot-like lavae on that end of the house. A little more time passed and rats moved in. Pest and animal control companies were called. Finally, this Spring Wax Moths started coming into the upstair bedroom.
The Andersons were told that small hive beetles and wax moths were eating the honey combs that were left unattended in the corner of their house when their honey bees werre killed last year. Then a week ago, honey started dripping into their front room!!!
Honey dripping from the window trim
Honey dripping from the crown molding
Honey pooling on the windowsill
Tish pulled back the carpet because it was getting wet from the drippings. That’s when she realized the honey was dripping behind the wall also.
Honey pooling on the concrete behind the sheetrock wall.
More honey pooling, this time below the window.
The wall had to be opened to remove the honey soaked insulation batting, and the ceiling had to be removed to cut out all wax and the honeycomb. Extra sheetrock was removed because of the honey that had pooled on top of it.
Window trim removed, honey drenched window header exposed
Sheetrock ceiling weighed down with honey and fallen comb
Exposed dead hive
The rest of the hive exposed
Once everything was exposed, it was a matter of scraping out the dead comb and dropping it into the trash. Kitty litter applied to the leaks on the concrete made for easier clean up later.
Just about done…
Bottom line: If a honey bee colony is killed in the ceiling or in the walls of a home, there will be an expensive mess to clean up later. It is almost always better to remove the comb with the bees, to prevent problems in the future.
