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, wax worms, and a latest pest the African Hive
Beetles.
• The nest is attractive to rodents that feed on the honeycomb
• The nest and leftover materials will provide a breeding ground causing an explosion of bugs in
and around your home.
• 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.
Why shouldn’t I 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.
1. Are they in a wall, floor or Sofia of your house? You probably want them removed. That entails
opening up the space they are in, cutting the entire comb out, and gathering up the bees and filling
the space afterwards with something to make the space unattractive to future swarms of bees.
2. Pick a beekeeper with lots of experience at this. It is quite involved and needs to be done right
to not have a future problem and avoid a horrible mess.
3. In rare instances it is better to sacrifice the bees if they can’t be removed, but need to be gone.
Please get a second or third opinion before you choose this path. With diseases and parasites
challenging bees for their survival and our need for them to pollinate our food, killing them off willy-
nilly is like cutting off your own arm. Poisons introduced into one hive of bees can be spread by other
bees checking out what is left when you destroy the colony.
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, wax worms, and a latest pest the African Hive
Beetles.
• The nest is attractive to rodents that feed on the honeycomb
• The nest and leftover materials will provide a breeding ground causing an explosion of bugs in
and around your home.
• 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.
Why shouldn’t I 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.
1. Are they in a wall, floor or Sofia of your house? You probably want them removed. That entails
opening up the space they are in, cutting the entire comb out, and gathering up the bees and filling
the space afterwards with something to make the space unattractive to future swarms of bees.
2. Pick a beekeeper with lots of experience at this. It is quite involved and needs to be done right
to not have a future problem and avoid a horrible mess.
3. In rare instances it is better to sacrifice the bees if they can’t be removed, but need to be gone.
Please get a second or third opinion before you choose this path. With diseases and parasites
challenging bees for their survival and our need for them to pollinate our food, killing them off willy-
nilly is like cutting off your own arm. Poisons introduced into one hive of bees can be spread by other
bees checking out what is left when you destroy the colony.
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