Shock for gran as bees infest home

A GRANDMOTHER of 12 was shocked to find “hundreds of bees” inside her home after they found their way through her fireplace.

Elaine Morgan, who lives in Maerdy with husband Alyn, struggled to contain a huge influx of the insects last week and claims housing association Trivallis gave her very little help.

The grandmother, who was not sure when they first nested in her home, said: “It was an experience I wouldn’t like to go through again.

“What if my grandchildren had been there on that day? If you get stung you wouldn’t know if you were having an allergic reaction until it hit you. It could have been a life-threatening situation.”

Elaine, who has arthritis and asthma, moved into the house with Alyn in 2010 and said she had never had this sort of problem before.

Elaine, 58, and Alyn, 70, described how they saw “hundreds” of bees drop in through their fireplace, completely unexpectedly. She said: “I saw something on the wooden floor and so put on my glasses and thought it was a bluebottle.

“It was making a buzzing sound but I quickly realised what it was. We have got a spider catcher so my husband caught it with that.

“I thought because we’d had a few nice days recently it was one that had strayed in through the window.

“But then I heard lots of dropping onto the hearth and saw all of these bees looking a bit shocked, like they had fallen from a distance. They shook their bodies before flying over to the window.

“Alyn was catching some of them with his fly catcher but there were just too many. So we called our son over who helped patch up the fireplace with recycling bags.”

Luckily, no-one was stung and Elaine believes the problem has been sorted after they used a pesticide to kill the insects – but the couple still have the fireplace patched up in case the problem recurs.

“I wouldn’t want anyone else to go through that sort of thing,” said Elaine.

“You don’t know whether they are going to attack again or anything like that.”

She said housing association Trivallis’ response had been “poor”.

She explained: “All they told me was that they didn’t put the bees there themselves so anything about really.”

A spokeswoman for Trivallis said: “We can confirm that we received a call via our out-of-hours service in relation to one our customers reporting an infestation.

“In these situations we advise our customers to refer to their tenancy agreement as it is the responsibility of the tenant to report any rodent or insect infestation to the local council and make the necessary arrangements directly with them.”

Elaine said by the time contact had been made with Rhondda Cynon Taf council, its help was no longer needed. they it. couldn’t do It’s shocking,