Yesterday, a professional came to remove the honey bee colony in my walls. It was fascinating. He looked at the colony entrance outside, but then came inside and did all his work there.
He used a thermal imaging camera to find where the bees were, and then cut a hole in the inside wall of my house. It was higher up than I thought:
The colony was young, so it wasn’t very big – only two combs about a foot square each.
The technician used a vacuum to suck up the bees:
After the initial vacuuming, things got serious, and he took off the hat.
The bees didn’t attack him at all. They trusted him.
After the bees were all safely in the vacuum box, he scraped out the rest of the wax from the wall, then sealed it up:
He also plugged the hole outside:
During the day, I had a long phone conversation with someone from the company and asked him what they did with the bees they rescued. He said there were various ways the bees were taken care of. He said mine would probably go to a big bee-keeping operation near San Diego that uses their bees to help pollinate agricultural crops.
WOW! People are incredible – they have exactly what they need to do the job right. That is so impressive, and I’m glad you spotted the hole before the colony got any bigger. Can you imagine the nightmare? You would have had a new doorway instead of that window.
This is right up Beth’s alley! With her bee knowledge, our thermal imaging camera and my willingness to cut holes in things, I think a new business venture is on the horizon…..
Yes!
…and didn’t you once study apiaries or becoming an apiarist (sp?) yourself? With that one comb you could have started your own bee colony…in your spare time. 😉
Glad the solution was so speedy and respected the fact that we all depend on those little buggers more than we realize. Nicely done.