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I just noticed that a swarm of bees is crawling inside a hole in the side of the house. The wall is stucco, so I don't know how they made a hole in it. The hole is about the size of a nickel.
I am going to get a ladder and patch the hole, but I wanted to know if I need to cut the wall out to remove the dead hive or if I should just leave it there.
I think I'll bang on the wall for a while and try to scare out as many live bees as I can before I seal it up.
Any advice?
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Edit,
I called the local beekeepers and I'm going to try to find a safe way to get rid of the bees.
Last edited by Charles22; 07-14-2010 at 12:17 PM..
Are they staying and setting up shop, or is this a one day relocation swarm?
Also you have to be careful because if they are Africanized, you (and anything nearby) can be the target of their attack. I would leave it to the pros just in case.
THe beekeeper will charge you $300-1500 to remove the bees unless he is a hobbiest, then he might do it for free.
If you plug the hole, they will just find another way in and out. Possibly through your home. You have to remove or kill the bees.
You can get a foam spray that will fill voids in your walls and coat the hive and kill all the bees. If you know where the hive is, you can have it treated with microwaves or ultrasound to kill the bees. If they are honeybees, they will leave honey inside your walls and you will get ants or more bees. Honey will not spoil or turn smelly or anyhitng, but the ants or bees who come to eat it might make you unhappy. Ultrasound or microwave treatment shold melt the beeswax and allow the honey to run ot the bottom of the wall. Whether it will drip out depends on your wall.
Are you sure they are not in your attic? If they are in your walls and you have a mature hive; leaving it will also leave the honeycomb smell. If you don't have the protective over garments, mask, goggles...whatever , you obviously could get stung! If it were me, I'd try to find out where the hive was and go from there. If its in the attic, the you have to gear up; if they are in the wall, then you can just drill a small home in the wall from the inside and spray in some poison.
Killing the bees is pretty easy considering all that. Just get some cans of bug spray and blast it into the walls. Just don't breath it yourself !!
Good for you calling the beekeeper. Do be careful about the honey. I had it dripping out of my soffit once in a house in Pittsburgh. The bees come back if it isn't all cleaned up.
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