Over the past week, I’ve noticed a few dying or dead bees inside my house – maybe 5 or 6. I’ve never had anything like this before, and I really wasn’t sure what to do. Looking on the internet I couldn’t find a clear recommendation, so I decided to call some professionals. I figured I’d share what they have to say but I’m still not sure exactly what will happen.
Exterminator #1 – I did a quick Google search and on the list of local exterminators was someone who didn’t have a website, but was the first name that came up. I gave a call and the guy who answered didn’t say the name of the company I saw on the web – not a great sign. I asked if he was an exterminator and he said “yes”. I told him I had some dead bees or nearly dead bees on the ground by my back patio door. He asked if I had a basement. I said “yes”. He asked if it was finished. I said, “yes”. He asked if I had a suspended ceiling and I said, “No”. He said that based on his 30 years of experience he was guessing that I had a bee hive inside the house, somewhere in a soffit in the basement and the bees are working their way into the ventilation ducts and likely coming up to the main floor through the vents. He said I would have to wait until it warms up a little more for more of the bees to come out to track down where the hive is. He suggested in the meantime I put a screen in the vents to see if that keeps the bees from coming to the main floor.
The thought of a hive in the house is a bit frightening.
Exterminator #2 – recommended by a family member. I gave a call and spoke to what is probably a receptionist. She sounded like she’s been there a while. I explained the situation and she said that it sounded like it was yellow jackets that we had. She said this is not the time of the year to worry much about them. She said the most likely event is that the wasps had managed to get between the walls, probably somewhere near our roof line, and built a nest between the walls. She thinks that the winter didn’t manage to kill off all of the wasps and that a few of the eggs are hatching now and those bees are making it inside the house. She said that the nest won’t be re-used by the bees so the few eggs left will hatch bees that would probably quickly die. She explained that they do offer a service where they will do a preventative treatment for bee hives around the end of April / beginning of May where they treat the roof eaves and areas where nests are likely to form. She said that now is not a time to be particularly worried about bees. She said if it was later in the year and we had this problem, we would have to track down the hive by finding where the bees are entering and leaving.
I’m hoping exterminator #2 (their receptionist) is correct. As it warms up, I definitely don’t want to be finding a whole bunch more of these bees, especially if they are alive and likely to sting. I suppose time will tell as the weather gets warmer.