Bees Invading Homes... Bathroom Wall Bees
A couple of weeks ago I got a call about bees living inside a bathroom wall.
At first I was told that an older couple ( the callers parents) had begun renovating a home that they were living in and that they found that they had bees living inside a bathroom wall, and that they needed the bees to be removed so that the bathroom could be renovated. I explained over the phone, that the bees would need to be removed by cutting into the wall, either from the inside or the outside. Then once exposed, I would remove the hive, comb, bees and all, then it would be up to them to effect the repairs and seal the area so that no other bees would find the smell of the old hive site attractive and move in again. A couple of weeks later I got another call and was asked to come do the bathroom bees removal . I was told that the tiles were removed and that the wall was drywall, so I gave them a low ball estimate of the cost I would charge for the removal of the bees. I did not want to charge a lot to an elderly couple in this economy. Then when I got to the address I find that I had not been told the entire truth! The house was not owned by an older couple that was doing renovations... It had been purchased by a company that buys fixer upper distressed properties, who then basically guts them and rebuilds them for resale! Well, I don't like being lied to, but even worse, when I got into the bathroom, I find that not only are the tiles still there, but they are old, thick ceramic tiles , and that instead of drywall, the bathroom wall is made from 3 inch thick concrete!!!
I have to decide if I really want to do this bathroom bees removal job or not.
OK, time to rethink that estimate for removing these bathroom bees!
I am a beekeeper, not a one lady demolition crew... so if they want me to break down this wall and remove their bees, I am asking for more money to do the bee removal job! While taking a big hammer to a wall and beating away is great therapy for any repressed anger , it is no way for someone in their 50's with Fibromyalgia to spend a day or two, unless she wants to pay for her actions later.... (Which I did... a week later and I am still paying for the activity with increased fatigue!) [caption id="attachment_597" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="first hint of comb after beating up the wall for more than an hour!"]
[/caption] Finally after beating up the wall for more than an hour I get my first glimpse of the hive. you can clearly see how this wall is constructed, that's 3 inches of concrete and thick chicken wire, along with tar paper! The actual hive was about 4 inches further over to the right, this was only about 2 small strips of comb along the electrical conduit against a stud. So I had to break even more wall to access these bees. The area I ended up breaking out was about 2 ft wide by 3 ft long. The comb went below that 3 foot make by another 4 feet, but luckily I was able to pull the comb out in huge sheets, then cut them down to fit into my Styrofoam box to take home and hive. With all the beating on the wall to get to the hive, I was not surprised to find that not one single bee was on any of the comb. The bees were coming and going thru the small hole you see above so I was able to use my BeeVac to gather about 6 lbs of bees to take home with the brood and place into the hive. After 3 hours of beating on the wall and pulling out the comb I was exhausted, and shaking, so I excused myself from the site for the day and called a friend to come help me finish in the morning. I offered half my bee removal money to help me get the rest of this hive. The crew told me that there were in fact 2 hives one on this wall and another on the adjoining wall. They had broken the wall in both places and I could see bees coming and going from both holes so I assumed that I would be dealing with 2 hives and simply couldn't see myself beating up any more wall the next day. The next morning Bobby met me at my house and we went to go finish the job of removing these bathroom bees. [caption id="attachment_599" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="bathroom bees"]
[/caption] When we got to the house and entered the bathroom this is what we found, it seems that all the bees left the wall and joined the queen up along the window frame. So it was a simple task to use the BeeVac to remove the rest of the bees. But looks can be deceiving, and this is the case...
Can you guess how many bees are along the ceiling in the photo???
Lets try another 8 lbs of bees!
We got about half of them into the BeeVac and I had to take them home and release them with the bees from the day before, and then come back and get the rest of them, while Bobby broke into the other section of wall where the workers reported more bees. When I got back Bobby reported that there were bees or hive in that section of wall, only rotting timbers, but you could see how the bees had been going from the one wall thru to this wall, making it appear as if there were actually 2 hives when it was only one massive hive full of bees. All in all this hive of bees in a bathroom wall included 18 lbs of brood comb , and another 17 lbs of bees! Luckilly, these are gentle bees and have so far decided to stay in their top bar hive . I did not use any smoke during the removal of these bees, so the brood are just fine and were even hatching in the styrene box while I was removing them from the wall.
So how did the bees get inside the wall in the first place?
We live in California , Earthquake country... After an earthquake, the outer wall cracked and two adjoining 2x4 support studs separated about 1/4 of an inch, this structural damage and outer crack gave the bees access to a nice well insulated home inside the bathroom wall.
Related articles
- A different sort of bee day (twobeehives.wordpress.com)
- Texas couple trapped in bathroom by bees (chron.com)
- Close Encounters of a Bee Kind (agrowingseason.wordpress.com)
