Unwanted visitors not easy to evict once settled in

Bee hive a reminder to inspect property, and take care of issues early

Somewhere around Halloween, in a flurry of cleaning, I noticed the bathroom ceiling fan cover was dusty. I got out my trusty stepstool and took the cover down to wipe it off when I discovered a bit of a surprise.

There were 12 dead bees inside the cover.

Part of my brain suspected this was a bad thing. Bees are supposed to be outside, doing their pollinating thing and making honey – not dying in my bathroom fan.

I then took apart the recessed light in the bathroom, and found some more dead bees.

I had a LOT of questions. Where did they come from? How did they get in the light and the vent? Did they have friends?

However, I had no answers. Had they been up there for 3 days or 3 years? I had no idea. I don’t know what a freshly dead bee looks like in comparison to a long-dead one.

For the moment, I paused my concerns and went about life.

Then, Thanksgiving rolled around, and once again, I had bees in the light fixture. And now, we had the occasional bee on the floor in the bathroom.

Again, I thought this wasn’t a good sign.

So I inspected the bathroom, and realized there was a little weep hole in the window frame.

AHA! I found the culprit. I got out some caulk, sealed the weep hole, and again, went about life.

And, readers, that was my mistake. I should have called the experts in then. But of course, hindsight is 20/20, right?

We hit the new year

(no bees), and then the Super Bowl rolled around, and suddenly it was clear. We officially had a bee problem.

They were no longer limiting themselves to the light or the fan. They were stretching their wings and going for some investigative flights. Days would pass where I didn’t see any, and then suddenly, I’d find anywhere from 4-6 dead bees on my bathroom floor.

Fortunately, the little guys stayed in the bathroom where I could close the door and keep my family safe.

I called our pest control company, who jumped right in. But boy, the news wasn’t great.

The bees had built a lovely extensive home in the exterior wall of the second floor of my house. To get to them, the guys had to cut a hole in the stucco exterior, remove what they could see of the hive, and then cut another hole, remove more hive, and so on, until they had pulled out all the honeycomb.

I wanted to do this humanely, sparing the bees. After all, it wasn’t really their fault they set up shop in the wrong spot.

But after making some calls around Yuma, it was clear that because of where the bees were located, that wasn’t an option.

The pest control company did a great job, but it was stunning to see just how big the hive was. It apparently doesn’t take all that long for bees to build an extensive mansion!

Now I know what to watch for in the future. And I plan on spending a few hours walking our property with a caulk gun in hand, looking for cracks that need to be sealed to prevent future bee invasions.

And, readers, based on the damage we experienced, that inspection is one I recommend everyone do periodically. Bees are amazing, but when they build in your home, it’s not easy to evict them!

Unsigned editorials represent the viewpoint of this newspaper rather than an individual. Columns and letters to the editor represent the viewpoints of the persons writing them and do not necessarily represent the views of the Yuma Sun.