Honey, hive had it with this drone: Couple lived for years with thousands of bees in bedroom wall Most of us not fortunate enough to dwell in gated manors in the countryside hive to endure a simple truth – noisy neighbours can bee annoying. One Spanish couple had 80,000 of them, living in their bedroom wall. Un-bee-lievable: Two million Swedish bugs stolen in huge sting READ MORE For nearly two years, the Granada …
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A tech writer I once worked with said that he had heard buzzing behind the bedroom wall in a rowhouse he lived in, somewhere in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC. Those called in to investigate this found a large hive settled in behind the aluminum siding. He was not found of bees, and it took him a while to feel comfortable again, even after the hive was removed.
It happens. When I was little, a hive took residence in my parents' bedroom wall. I don't know how long it was there, though I do recall watching (from the safety of a car with windows rolled up) as my dad climbed a ladder on the outside with a vacuum cleaner and put it to the hole the bees used as their vestibule. This annoyed the bees, who began boiling out around the nozzle of the vacuum, followed by my father dropping the vacuum, leaping off the ladder, and running. A professional eventually removed the bees, leaving us with enough honeycomb so my mom canned it and we ate it for years.
...my dad climbed a ladder on the outside with a vacuum cleaner and put it to the hole the bees used as their vestibule.
Glad the pro was able to help out and that your dad wasn't too horribly harmed. I have never been able to fathom why people think it's a good idea to take a do-it-yourself approach to creature removal. Police blotters and ER records are full of stories like this that have gone sideways. In this part of the States, they often start with the phrase "Here, hold my beer". What's the warning of choice elsewhere?
I had a wasp's nest hanging from the inside of the roof of my house. My Dad placed a bucket of water underneath it and hit the nest with a big stick.
It dropped in the water, and he covered it with a lid. Job done!
Another time in the same house, I had a wasp's nest underneath my bath, accessed via a gap in the wall where the drain exited. I had to get the pros in for that one.
> For nearly two years (=730 days), the Granada residents were kept awake by a persistent buzzing
[...]
> For context, a queen bee [...] can pump out 1,400 eggs every day (730 days * 1,400 eggs = 1,022,000 bees)
[...]
> Guerrero, who has rescued more than half a million bees in Andalusia this year [...]
So, Guerrero, what happened to the half a million bees you DIDN'T rescue?
Had similar happen to us in UK (although wasps not bees) made hive in the loft.
Due to loft insulation also doing a good job of keeping out noise it was not noticed until I went up into the loft - then buzzing could be heard strongly.
Similar in previous house, though noticed them quickly as old house had crap thickness insulation so sound soon apparent.
Once had bees nesting inside my summer house's wall.
The first days there were weird, with clouds of bees flying around from time to time. Then we noted it happening each time we used hot water, and discovered them flying out the water heater's exhaust pipe.
Apparently there was a hole in the pipe and they used the entrance to the wall's inside where they nested. Each time the heater started, the hot gases disturbed the bees who came out a bit disoriented.
A beekeeper came to retrieve the beehive and, as a bonus, also took home almost 6 pounds of honey.
I'd go as far as to say it's quite common. Every year I get called to remove 3 to 6 colonies from private residences, and I'm not really a beekeeper. I pulled a happy, healthy colony of around 60,000 from a sports equipment shed at a local school just last weekend. Strangely enough, we received no News coverage of the event. Should I feel neglected?
Instead of worrying about what I can and can't do, perhaps ask yourself why you aren't keeping bees? The tools are minimal (all you need can easily be carried on a bicycle). You don't even need land, most farmers will be happy for you to keep a couple hives in their fields. It's a fun and rewarding hobby that costs very little to get into ... AND it gets you out in the fresh air and sunshine. What's not to like?
Or you can hang out in mummy's basement, making sarcastic comments in obscure online forums if you prefer. No skin off my teeth.
Same here - wasps under the bathroom floor. I spent a while wondering why we kept finding a few wasps in the bathroom every day, then eventually spotted there was some mortar missing behind the soil pipe outside and the stripy buggers were flying in and out through the hole. A quick call to the pest exterminator and some new mortar solved the problem. A few years later we had a lot of building work done, including taking up the bathroom floor, and the nest they'd converted parts of the joists into was an amazing creation.
We had some bird boxes dotted around, in the apple tree, on the end of the shed, on the side of the garage, in the holly bush, etc. etc. One summer, I noticed that every time I walked past the garage, I could hear a soft humming sound, sounded like a 50Hz humm from some machine, which I couldn't locate. I then noticed that there were several large bumblebees clustered around the entrance hole of the bird box, but they looked different to normal bumblebees, which are generally solitary in nature. I contacted the Bumble Bee Conservation Trust, and sent them a photograph, which they identified as being Red Tailed Bumblebees, a very rare species that like to live communally. The bees clustered around the entrance were apparently using their wings to ventilate and cool the interior of the box, hence the sound. They lived in that bird box all that summer, but weren't there next year, so I opened the box and found it to be almost full of a large honeycomb. I didn't fancy eating the contents, so I disposed of it, and the following year we had Blue Tits in there instead.
A long time ag, I stayed in an old manor house in South West UK on a horse riding holiday. My room was on the top floor & I noticed a faint, continuous humming sound. Looking out of the window, I saw quite a lot of bee activity beneath the eaves of the roof. I went to see the owner & asked if she knew there seemed to be bees nesting in the attic. "Yes", she said, "are they causing you a problem?". "No", says I, "they're not bothering me; so they've been there a while, then?" "Oh, about 200 years", she said, "only sometimes we get honey running down the wall in your room" ☺
It's spring here in the Northern Hemisphere. Honey bees are coming out of Winter maintenance mode (contrary to popular belief, honey bees don't hibernate). Some are swarming. You will likely see more bees than normal for a month or so. This is normal, it happens every year.
If you happen to find bees in an inappropriate place at home or work, DO NOT take matters into your own hands. Call a local beekeeper. Most will be quite happy to come and collect a queen and her colony free of charge. Getting a free colony that being wild/feral is fully adapted to local conditions is worth the work. If the first one you call won't do it for free, call another. Your local city/town offices can usually point you in the right direction. Failing that, call your local ag extension.
Likewise, if you have a swarm hanging in a tree in your backyard, call a beekeeper. The bees are just looking for a new home, and the keeper will be more than happy to provide them one. Some (myself included) will happily provide a hive to you at cost, so you can keep the bees for yourself. They will also be happy to talk to you about taking care of them once you have them. Some will take care of them for you, at the cost of a percentage of the honey/wax/pollen/popolis collected. Ask. Squeeky wheel & all that ... and I have never met a beekeeper who isn't happy to talk about beekeeping.
DO NOT use poison. Chances are you won't be able to kill off the hive, and you'll make the honey inedible, which is sad. Worse, if you DO manage to kill 'em off, the hive will rot in place ... and trust me, you don't want a rotting hive in your attic or wallspace.
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Surely a house with 80,000 bees in the walls would have tons of bees buzzing around in the yard looking for flowers or on their way to some flowers down the way a bit. Most times I'm in my yard I see zero bees, and one or more squirrels and/or rabbits. So I can conclude that the squirrels and rabbits either make their home in my yard or its trees, or very damn close, but there are no beehives nearby.
If I suddenly started seeing bees every time I was in my yard, I'd assume they had a hive somewhere and probably be curious exactly where so I wouldn't have to worry about stumbling onto it unexpectedly when mowing the lawn.
Actually, you'd be surprised. If the bees aren't interested in your garden[0], they will exit their hive and make a bee-line (to coin a phrase) for their preferred source of pollen and nectar. You might not notice them at all if their doorway is above eye-level in a corner of the house that you rarely look at. Up under the eves is common ... One pencil sized hole on your soffit vent screen is all it takes.
[0] Many garden flowers have been bred to be pretty to humans, not bees.
I used to keep a couple of hives but they died out :-( . However a swarm got into my neighbour’s roof (big house) and has lived on happily ever since. I can see them flying out in sunny weather and when my neighbour has a house painter he wears a bee suit and hat to do the upper windows :-) .
In my case it was in the family room near the chimney (in the ceiling). When the beekeeper came out, he first took IR scans of the ceiling to see where they were. After that, he cut the ceiling open and vacuumed up the bees (he had a specialized vacuum container). Then he took out the hive, which looked like it was a work in progress for a while (years?).
Yes, I have pictures of the hive, after the bee removal, before the hive removal. Quite a complex construction if you ask me.
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