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In case the cell phone is off (driving, working, forgot to turn back on etc) you can either leave voice mail or email BeeRemovals@yahoo.com Useful information to leave is a description of the problem and where the bees are located, means of access, degree of urgency, address and phone number to call back. Digital photos attached to an email are helpful. The more information, the easier it is to estimate the likely cost.
Bee removal is not always difficult. A swarm of bees has no home, the colony has vacated its nest and clustered on a branch, bench, against a wall, etc while scouts look for a suitable cavity to become a nesting site. If the swarm is low down, capture is straightforward. Once the bees have moved inside a cavity and developed a nest, things become much more complicated.
The primary reason to use a bee removalist rather than an exterminator is to be confident that proper attention is paid to the side effects of removing a bee colony. The nest (or hive) is the bees' permanent home, and is filled with comb to store the honey and the eggs laid by their queen. Unlike wasps and hornets, eliminating honeybees from enclosed areas does not solve the problems associated with the nest itself.
Exterminating bees can create a problem that costs more to deal with than a live removal. Without bees to care for the nest, the comb eventually collapses. Honey can seep through sheetrock and baseboards, even between stories in a house. Dead bees and brood stink (there are tens of thousands of bees in a strong nest). The mess of a dead nest can be a health risk, and it becomes a magnet for ants, rodents, roaches and other pests. To avoid this kind of calamity, the nest contents must be removed while the bees are still alive.
Bees are attracted to nesting in cavities. Although one tends to think of cavities in trees, it is more common to find honeybees nesting in partitions such as garage walls, garden sheds, older houses (no insulation), freestanding walls, etc. Another common nesting site is inside the roof or soffet because the eaves provide protected access and the large air space has plenty of ventilation. When bees have been undisturbed for years there can be multiple nests. Roof nests are difficult to deal with because the restricted space requires access through the ceiling below.
If a homeowner is willing to take the time, some removals can be achieved by trapping the bees. The primary access point is given several one-way exits and other access points are blocked. A hive is installed near the one-way exits to encourage the returning bees to take up residence. The hive requires regular attention to make sure the added bees do not cause overcrowding, to check that the one-way exits are not blocked by dead bees, and to verify that the bees have not found new access points.
After there is no more activity (6-8 weeks), the hole is reopened. The bees return to rob their original nest of honey, and all that remains will be dry wax. Since wax does not generate the same kind of health risk as honey, the opening can be blocked. The use of expanding foam to prevent re-occupation is not a good idea as undisturbed honeycomb has surprising strength and will block the foam from filling the cavity - it may even cause the walls to bulge for lack of expansion room. Although trapping bees is more costly in time and labor than destructive removal, it may be less expensive in total because there are no repair costs.
Every removal varies (see examples ), and the actual cost is affected by type of removal, distance, travel time, job time, difficulty involved, preparation (the floor and perhaps the walls need to be covered inside a house but not for outside), height above ground, etc. The ranges below are indicative only, and do not include repairs.
- Collect swarm of bees.......... $ 75 - 200
- Remove bees from wall........ $ 300 - 500
- Remove bees from roof........ $ 500 - 1,000
- Trapping a colony of bees.... $ 500 - 1,000
- Clean up exterminated nest.. $1,500 - 3,000
Please note that the costs associated with a removal are not compensated for by the removed bees. To do a job correctly is time-consuming, and the cost of gas to drive over is way up there. Swarms and nests of wild bees are NOT highly desired. The beekeeper runs the risk of introducing diseases and pests if they are mixed with his own stock.
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