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Why not just let the bees use my house?

Aside from the much higher potential for getting stung by having this close an association with the bees, there are other reasons why you need to remove them.

• The nest and the honey are attractive to ants
• The nest is attractive to moths that feed on the honeycomb
• The nest is attractive to carpet beetles that feed on leftover materials
• On very hot days the honey and the wax become a problem

They should be removed, but here is a very important point - regardless of how the bees are removed, either alive or dead, you MUST have the entire hive removed as well. Discuss this with the company you call for service. While the bees are alive and working the colony they keep most other insects away, and they also keep the wax honeycomb in place. Once the bees are no longer there the wax will melt on hot days, releasing the stored honey to flow into the wall voids and probably through the walls and into your home. The worker bees are able to create a breeze by "fanning", when the temperatures get too hot, and they create a kind of air conditioning to keep the wax cool enough to stay solid.

In addition, once the bees are gone, the ants around your home will think they've died and gone to Heaven when they discover the treasure of honey inside the walls, along with all the dead bee larvae, and you will have parades of ants working the walls for quite awhile. The dead bee larvae and pupae also will begin to rot and smell, and they become attractive to Mother Nature's little cleanup crew, which includes Carpet Beetles. There's no sense in allowing these guys to get any closer to your wool sweaters than absolutely necessary either.

A typical Honeybee hive can have over 100 pounds of honey stored in the wax honeycomb after just its first year in that location! It's attractive to ants, cockroaches, yellow jackets, and other honeybees. It must come out, and unless you are into wall construction and repair you might want to contact a professional.

How is bee removal accomplished?

Taking the Honeybees out alive is the preferred method, for it salvages these beneficial insects to allow them to continue their important work. One method used by professionals is referred to as "funneling", in which a one-way funnel is placed over the entrance hole the bees are using to get into the wall. The bees that exit are enticed to move into another small colony placed close to that funnel, and the workers that exit and cannot re-enter their home in the wall will accept a new place.

This, of course, does not eliminate the Queen, who remains inside and continues to lay eggs as long as there is honey to feed the developing larvae. Funneling is best done in the early spring, when the bees have used up much of their stored honey by feeding on it over the long winter. After the workers have been removed by funneling it still may take many weeks for the honey reserves to be used by the larvae, but at least no new honey is being created inside. At this point the wax honeycomb still should be physically removed and the wall closed and resealed, for the odor of the old hive and honey still can draw other honeybees to that point.

If funneling is unsuccessful - or simply not the option - then the professional will open the walls and go after the bees directly, usually by vacuuming them gently into another hive. All of the honeycomb will be cut out and removed, and in the process getting stung by the unhappy bees is a strong likelihood. This is why it is best not to tackle this job yourself. During the removal it is important that the Queen bee be removed, for she is the reason all the workers are there, and without her there will be no more egg-laying and any last few workers will leave.

What if I just have someone kill the bees?

Again, even if you or someone you hire pumps insecticide into the wall and successfully kills every last bee in there, you have the secondary problem of dead larvae and attractive honey still inside. This must be removed, and physically opening the wall is really about the only option.

By the way, if the bees are killed by poisoning, DO NOT eat the honey that remains.

So, there we are. Even the "beneficial" insects can be severe problems when they decide to co-exist with people, and that is when we can properly label them as "pests". Honeybees are wonderful, and we raise them in hives to take advantage of their hard work, but be aware of the potential of problems and the course of action when it happens to your home.

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Revised: 02/23/10. Home