What a BEE-utiful day...

gcvmom

Here we go again!
We have some squatters trying to invade our house right now. BEES. Hundreds of 'em. They are swarming up near a second-story window and about a dozen or so have found a way in through the weep holes at the bottom of the window frame!

So I got an oscillating floor fan and set it up on the top stair landing in hopes to discourge them from setting up house in our HOUSE! I squashed six or so, and plugged up one of the holes with some modeling clay. But the other window they are coming in cannot be reached without a very long ladder (it's up at the top of a very high hallway). So there are still a handful buzzing around the hall. They don't seem to be (bee?) concerned about me, thank goodness.

This seems to happen to us every year (but usually not this early). The last several years they've tried to invade the garage (sneaking in through the gaps on the side of the door). I managed to deter them the same way... with a fan on full-blast. They don't like it so windy, I guess!

Fingers crossed the fan works again! :anxious:
 

Wiped Out

Well-Known Member
Staff member
You sound so calm about it all! I would so be freaking out, I am totally scared of bees. I hope you are able to be rid of them soon!
 

gcvmom

Here we go again!
Bees only give me the hee-BEE-gee-BEES when they are buzzing around my head in my house :D Outside they don't bother me much -- I know they're not interested in me at all. I just worry they'll feel threatened when I start swatting at them with things (hmmmm, ya think?) and then I'll get stung. But really, the only time I've been stung is when I've been walking barefoot through the grass and stepped on one. :(

Well, the swarm eventually scattered once the sun went down. We have about a dozen dead bees on the stairs and I swatted a few more on the wall with a magazine!

I'm keeping the fan on for a few more days just in case they come back and manage to sneak in again. I don't think they liked it too much.

It looked like they were very interested in a spot under the eaves. I just hope they weren't able to get into the attic -- that would just be LOVELY (NOT!) I hate to call an exterminator because honey bees are so desperately needed in our state and many of them have fallen victim to some kind of hive death over the past few years -- it's actually a very serious problem.

There's a few local hobby beekeepers whom I've been able to call to come remove swarms in my yard (once had one in a compost bin) for free (they keep the hive for their own use and I just pretend they weren't at my house so there's no liability issue).

But I'm afraid if the hive sets up inside my house anywhere, I'd have to resort to a professional and $$ out of pocket :(
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
mother in law had that problem. She used some sort of calking around the windows and such. Then sprayed a bee/wasp killing pesticide on the calking. mother in law's were wasps. ewwwww
 

Star*

call 911........call 911
GCV Mom -

Please BEE careful. What you are describing sounds like Africainized Honey Bees. aka (Killer Bees) not joking = very serious. I have seen them get into houses, harm dogs -kill chickens.

Our neighbors raised honey bees for years, and fortunately we are too far North to get the KB's - but even regular honey bees can become aggressive, but....not like you are describing.

There has got to be a specialist /exterminator in your area. I'm not being Henny Penny (no offense if any of the chicks are called Henny) but I am worried for certain.

Give us the buzz later...
 

Lothlorien

Active Member
I'd be freaking out. I am allergic to them.
There's obviously something attracting them to your house, each year. I used to live in an apartment building that had this gigantic Holly tree just outsite my front door. The first Spring I was there, there were swarms of bees around it. I couldn't leave my apt or get into my apt in the afternoons. I had the landlord trim it down considerably and they left it alone.
 

DaisyFace

Love me...Love me not
GCV--

I'm with you...I'd hate to have to exterminate them. Bees are in short supply in my area, too. Hopefully, they'll move on peacefully.....or else would be eligible for a move with a bee-keeper. I think too many people are quick to pull out the bug-spray--and we can't afford to lose any more honey bees!!

--DaisyF
 

gcvmom

Here we go again!
There's obviously something attracting them to your house, each year.


I just figured it was my sweet-as-honey disposition! :tongue:

Star, these were not aggressive, honest. They were clearly the scouts looking for a nifty pad for their queen to set up house. We are backed up to a wildland area with few trees, let alone hollow ones for the bees to live in. The November fire destroyed one tree in the canyon that we know had an active hive, and there was another hive in an abandoned car stuck in the creekbed, but they seem to have moved to a nearby oak tree that's got a hollow in it.

I think our neighborhood is just the closest thing in proximity. As for MY house, it's really not that special with the bees. The next door neighbor had them in their chimney one year!

Anyhow, it's foggy this morning and cold, so if they come back at all, it won't be until later in the afternoon if and when it warms up (yesterday was very warm). I'm keeping the fan running just in case...
 

Star*

call 911........call 911
Put a poster of Barry Gibb on your house - THAT should scare them away.

(still laughing)

ahhh ahh ahhhh ahhhh - Stayin away *ug* Staying away!
 

gcvmom

Here we go again!
Well, the bees were back today once the fog burned off and the sun came out. Not as many IN the house this time, but they are still hanging around the upper corner of my second story.

I'm worried they may have found a way into the attic through a vent. I'll have to get a flashlight tonight after they've gone to sleep (and thank goodness they DO sleep!) to see if they're hiding in there. I s'pose we could set a fan up there if I find them...

Even my neighbors are a bit freaked out by it. The neighbor's son got laid off work and was home today -- he was so upset by it he called his mom at work to tell her about it, and she called ME from the hospital where she was visiting her ailing father! Apparently they had to bring their dogs in yesterday afternoon because they were being "bugged" by the insects.

Gee... snakes, coyotes, tarantulas, bobcats, owls, hawks, chickens, lizards, and now bees. Where's Noah when you need him to round 'em up?
 

gcvmom

Here we go again!
Well, I finally had to call an exterminator to come out and get rid of the bees. They are all in the attic now -- I could see them crawling through a small space between some boards under the eaves of the house. There were TONS of them today. Ugh.

They can't come until Monday, though...

I feel bad that they'll have to kill them. I feel annoyed that it's going to cost $100 or so to deal with this. Not liking this at all. :mad:
 

Lothlorien

Active Member
Yikes! Make sure you cover up where they came in, so that doesn't happen again next year. Can you call a beekeeper to lure them out? With all the loss of bees, it'd be a shame to kill them.


When I was a kid, we had a nest get into the area between the floor and the ceiling of our two bathrooms (one bath was over the other). For months I kept telling my dad there was a nest somewhere. All winter long, I'd kill slow ones between the shade and the window. There were bees getting into the light fixture downstairs. Then the dog got stung a few times. One warm Spring afternoon, my neighbor called to tell us there were bees swarming in the back of our house. My Dad sprayed and killed them. About a year later, he gutted the upstairs bathroom to remodel. In the floor joists was this huge nest that was the size of a king-sized pillow!

All the while, I was seriously allergic to bees, though I didn't know it a few years later when I got stung. My bedroom was right next to that bathroom! Gives me shivers to think about it.
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
We have snakes, bobcats, foxes, the occasional brown bear and bee's...but we dont do fires and earthquakes, and mudslides. We just have hurricanes and they can warn you about them...lol. I dont think I would like CA.
 

gcvmom

Here we go again!
Well, it's raining hard today, so the bees will lay low, thankfully.

The thing about hurricanes (and tornadoes, for that matter), Janet is that they come EVERY YEAR in some areas east of the Rockies. At least we don't have earthquake SEASON! :p
 
Top