Family Plot

Removing Honey Bees from Houses

Honey bees are great until they move into your house. The Bartlett Bee Whisperer David Glover is a hive remover and beekeeper. He talks about the process he uses to remove bee hives from houses. David says if you suspect you have a bee hive in your home look at the bees, if they are black and yellow, they are not honey bees but hornets or yellowjackets. Honey bees are muted colors.

When he arrives at a home, David uses a thermal camera to find the hive in the walls. Bees keep their brood at 94 degrees and that can be seen. Most hives are in the ceiling and they are removed from the inside where repairs are easier. When the hive is removed the comb that contains the brood is saved and put into a hive box, the honey is harvested, and the queen is found and captured to be placed back into the hive later. The bees are collected with a vacuum into buckets which are later put into the hive box with the brood.

If you have a beehive in your home the worst thing to do is spray them with a pesticide. The pesticide will kill at least some of the bees and make the honey inedible. The pesticide will be absorbed by the first comb and the bees will find another way out and keep growing the hive. If the bees are totally killed by the insecticide they will stink, and the honey will start to drip down inside the wall, or through the ceiling, causing structural damage. It will also attract other animals. Without pesticides, the bee remover will be able to contain the honey and clean the comb out of the structure with minimal damage. As side benefits, they can harvest the honey and save the bees.

Related Videos:
Removing Bees from Walls
Controlling Nuisance Honey Bees
Honey Bees and Beekeeping

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