On Sun, 23 May 2004 14:52:01 +0100, SusieThompson wrote:

I am putting up this topic on behalf of good friends of ours. They have
had a colony of honey bees in their roof for a long time and have not
been able to get rid of it, even with the help of our local bee keeper.
This morning a new, larger, noisier colony has moved in, making the
problem even worse. The bees are coming into the house, down the chimney
indoors and worrying their next door neighbour.

Honey bees are protected, aren't they? So is there any kind or natural
way of persuading them to move out and stay out? Our friends are
talking about having to demolish both chimney and stack, and maybe even
some of the roof or end wall of their house to both get rid of them and
prevent them coming back. Our friends have just about had enough so any
constructive help or advice will be more than welcome. TIA.

Wasp and hornet nests inside one's walls roof or attic, being
made from paper and generally only of annual duration, are one
thing, but honeybees' perennial hives of wax and honey are quite
a different story. It is my understanding that having a honeybee
hive in one's walls is a fairly serious matter. Sooner or later
the hive will die out and you are left with a mass of wax and
honey which will itself eventually decay and cause an incredible
mess inside the wall. And this is a semi-fluid mess which can
soak through plaster, flow down into lower levels, and so on. No
trifling matter.

I suggest your friends find an experienced, reliable pest-control
service to remove or exterminate the hive, and then undertake the
deconstruction necessary to remove the actual structure of the
hive.

They would also do well to have a building contractor seal up the
structure of their roof so a re-infestation cannot occur.


--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
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