[Stinging Insects] Not So Sweet

A honey bee is a wonderful insect, but when it moves into a home it soon becomes a problem. In the spring, honey bees swarm while looking for a new home to build a nest. This is the result of a larger colony having split up and needing to find a place to nest.

A queen bee works to build a nice healthy colony. A few years later she gets too old to continue running everything. This forces the colony to start making queen cells. They take a worker egg, with the addition of royal jelly, and transform it into a queen.

With this new queen on the way, the old queen knows her days are numbered.

The older queen leaves with about half of the bees (which can be as many as 40,000) all looking for a nice cozy place to make a nest. The swarm could land on a tree limb, the side of a building or wherever they want to go. When it has landed, the swarm appears to be large pile of bees or a cloud of insects swirling like a tornado.

A swarm of honey bees, normally very docile, rarely attacks without being provoked. However, if you do not want to deal with them yourself, talk to a beekeeper and he or she can come and remove the bees. The beekeeper will then purchase a new queen and keep the hive going. At that time the bees are in a hurry to get the colony enough food to make it through the winter.

When the honey bees leave the colony they usually fill their stomachs with honey, knowing it may be a while before their next meal. They look for a good place to set up. If they go unnoticed for a long time, it is possible to have a thriving colony of honey bees in a home. (Some homes I have been called to have had bees for years and the nest had become extremely large and heavy before the homeowners even knew it was there.)

A honey bee nest is made of beeswax. Once the wax is made, it is filled with their complete winter food supply (honey). By then they have claimed the home as theirs, and once they have moved into a wall the only way to deal with that situation is to exterminate them.

A nest discovered in May or June can easily have 40 to 60 pounds of honey (or even more) if the group has been there for a long time. (I have removed two different nests of more than 300 pounds of comb and honey and more than 70,000 bees). Each house is unique, but in the last 20 years I have opened up hundreds of walls to remove honey bee colonies.

The main thing bees are looking for is a void they can fill. Once you remove the honey and comb the space must be filled with insulation. If the void is left unfilled, a new group of bees may move in the next spring because the area is now marked as a good place for other bees to nest.

Although there are some customers that will not let you take the siding off or cut into the bedroom wall, I believe just treating without removing the nest is not the best way to treat this situation. It can get risky if you are in an area of the country where temperatures climb higher than 90 degrees. The comb and honey could melt and drip. This is a mess you don’t want to deal with coming through a ceiling. The unattended comb and honey draws other insects. A new swarm next season may find the honey and comb and move in. If you remove it you are far better off. So where do you start?

TAKING CONTROL. You must identify that you have honey bees and not yellow jackets. Identification is not hard to do, but you must get near the entrance to identify the species. Honey bees are different from yellow jackets in many ways. One of these differences is in their appearance. The honey bee is brown and a little bit fuzzy, but the yellow jacket is smooth and a vibrant yellow. The honeybee has a rounded abdomen, but the yellow jacket is slender and pointed. The honeybee has hairs coming off of its back, but the yellow jacket does not.

The entrances to the nest also differ. Both may resemble an airport, but sometimes the honey bees will have a large group of bees gathered there, fanning the rest of the colony to cool it. Seeing this group clearly identifies them as honey bees. Once you have identified the problem as that of honey bees you must now figure out what it will take to solve it.

First, you must find the entrance to the nest. Common points for this are under siding, above bay windows, utility service entrances (where electrical wires enter the house), dryer vents, or air conditioning lines through the wall. Also, many times they are between the first and second floor where the siding may meet brick.

Once you have located the entrance you need to treat it. For this it is possible you will need to grab your bee suit.

I live in St. Louis where there is no threat of Africanized honey bees, making it possible to often remove swarms with bare hands and a baseball cap. Treating a nest in a wall void is a different story. In that situation I wear a special bee suit that was designed for killer bees. Made of a thick mesh, it does not allow the stingers to get through. (I purchase these suits at Golden Bee Products in Louisiana.)

When treating a honey bee colony and removing the comb, you must first identify the colony size. I do this by drilling holes in search of the outside perimeter (the places where you no longer see honey). This allows you to determine how much material will be needed to deal with the entire population.

A micro-injector or Actisol machine can then be used to shoot a material into the void, which will exterminate the bees. When beginning this injection, a loud roar will erupt. As the noise dies down you can be sure that it is now safe to open the void (the way to access this void will vary upon location). If you are opening a ceiling, use a drywall saw. If accessing the bandboard between floors, use a sawzall. Behind a chimney you may need tools to remove mortar. Whatever you do try your best to not damage the comb. You do not want the honey to drip.

When you open the void you will see many layers of honey. With a sharp instrument, cut the comb away from the part of the home to which it has been attached.

As you cut through these layers you will see that the exterior layers are normally filled with honey. The closer you get to the center you will begin to notice the brood chamber (where the queen lays the eggs).

After you have removed the entire nest, any spilled honey must be removed with an absorbent, such as kitty litter. Do not forget to use insecticide dust before going any further.

FINAL STEPS. Once the void is empty, clean and dusted you are ready to fill the void with insulation. After the void is filled you may begin repairs. My company does not do anything after this point and recommends a carpenter or mason be used to repair the void entrance appropriately. Normally I preschedule an appointment for the customer so the entire ordeal can be completed as soon as possible.

If the nest is in an exterior wall, try to choose the best approach, whether through the inside or out, before beginning the process of dealing with the nest.

Honey bee nest removals can be fun and quite a chance to learn. Each one is unique and must be treated as such. With this process of identification to complete removal and repair you will be able to have the greatest possible success in dealing with honey bee problems. Understand each step and the job can go smoothly.

The author is president of Holper Pest & Animal Solutions, St. Louis, Mo. He can be reached at jholper@giemedia.com.