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beth_leonardTonight is going to be a 3 Hershey bar night. I've already finished 2 and the only thing keeping me from a third is that they're in the kitchen and I'm sitting at the computer in the bedroom.
Two weeks ago tomorrow (Monday) I noticed a bee in our kitchen. Because I hadn't opened any windows or doors recently I had no idea where it had come from and went outside. Outside there were a large number of bees going into a small opening in the corner of our roof where two stories come together.
The following day, there were 4 bees in our kitchen and significantly more at the opening outside. No more procrastination, I called the city of Sunnyvale Pest control and got a list of bee removal places in the area. Of the 6 phone numbers they gave me, 5 were still valid. One said they didn't do bees and two others gave me a call back. One of those two sounded like a general pest removal place and didn't seem to know much about honey bees specifically, but they'd come out and spray them for $200. The other guy asked questions and seemed to know what he was talking about with respect to bees. He'd remove them live for $260 and be there the next day (Wednesday) between 9:30 and 10 am. I decided to go with him
Unfortunately he never showed, and I went through a week of "I'll be there tomorrow" before I started calling my list again and got a place that could come on Thursday between 8am and 4pm.
By the time they showed up Thursday the hive had been active for at least 10 days, possibly longer. I was napping when they arrived and Jon was tutoring. It was $50 for the estimate, and then they said they could either spray for $125 total, killing the bees and giving us a 30 day guarentee, or they could remove the hive live for $325.
We didn't really want to spray if possible (being 8 months pregnant does that to you) but for $200 it seemed like the correct option and they didn't seem to be pushing live removal or giving it any pros over killing the bees. They said to wait three days after spraying for all the bees to die and then we should stuff steel wool into the opening and seal it up with foamy sealant. Three days later means today, so today was remove and seal in the bees day.
Neither Jon nor I enjoy or take pride in home repair projects. When push comes to shove I dislike it least, so I spent today on the ladder taking apart a corner of my roof so that I could remove the built up dead bees and look for the actual hive and honey. Something I read on the internet implied that if a hive has been in your wall more than 2-3 days, it's best to open up the wall and remove the hive and honey, because if you don't then you're risking having the comb melt in your wall and the honey seep out through your floor boards and cause a big mess. I've got a call in to my friend's dad, who is a hobbiest beekeeper, to see if he agrees with this advice or thinks we'll be ok just following the pest-control company's advice and sealing the hole.
I wanted to take apart the easy part of the roof and decide just how difficult a task this was going to be. If it was easy for me to just open up the roof, scoop out the dead hive, and then put the roof back and re-seal the hole, I intended to do that. Unfortunately, once I got the roof off, all I found was massive amounts of dead bees. Certainly hundereds, possibly thousands. Many many scoopfulls with my BBQ spatula with the long handle. This is in addition to all the buckets of dead ones that were already on the ground.
[Writing that paragraph was enough to get me into the kitchen for the third bar of chocolate.]
I did not however find any hive or honeycombs. And while I was working a live but struggling bee dropped down from the wall above. Now I know where the massive pile of dead bees came from and I have a better idea of where the hive is. It does not look easy to get into at all. But if there are still live bees in it I don't think I can seal it up tonight.
At this point, given that it looks difficult and expensive to take apart the wall any more than we have, I think we'll assume that there won't be any more problems from what hive the bees were able to build in the time they had there, and if there are problems we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. I don't think things would be significantly more expensive to take a wait and see approach.
But now I have mass-grave bee images flashing in my head much like the fallic symbols spliced into the movies by the crazy guy in "fight club." And I need comfort food. Thus the chocolate.
--Beth
Two weeks ago tomorrow (Monday) I noticed a bee in our kitchen. Because I hadn't opened any windows or doors recently I had no idea where it had come from and went outside. Outside there were a large number of bees going into a small opening in the corner of our roof where two stories come together.
The following day, there were 4 bees in our kitchen and significantly more at the opening outside. No more procrastination, I called the city of Sunnyvale Pest control and got a list of bee removal places in the area. Of the 6 phone numbers they gave me, 5 were still valid. One said they didn't do bees and two others gave me a call back. One of those two sounded like a general pest removal place and didn't seem to know much about honey bees specifically, but they'd come out and spray them for $200. The other guy asked questions and seemed to know what he was talking about with respect to bees. He'd remove them live for $260 and be there the next day (Wednesday) between 9:30 and 10 am. I decided to go with him
Unfortunately he never showed, and I went through a week of "I'll be there tomorrow" before I started calling my list again and got a place that could come on Thursday between 8am and 4pm.
By the time they showed up Thursday the hive had been active for at least 10 days, possibly longer. I was napping when they arrived and Jon was tutoring. It was $50 for the estimate, and then they said they could either spray for $125 total, killing the bees and giving us a 30 day guarentee, or they could remove the hive live for $325.
We didn't really want to spray if possible (being 8 months pregnant does that to you) but for $200 it seemed like the correct option and they didn't seem to be pushing live removal or giving it any pros over killing the bees. They said to wait three days after spraying for all the bees to die and then we should stuff steel wool into the opening and seal it up with foamy sealant. Three days later means today, so today was remove and seal in the bees day.
Neither Jon nor I enjoy or take pride in home repair projects. When push comes to shove I dislike it least, so I spent today on the ladder taking apart a corner of my roof so that I could remove the built up dead bees and look for the actual hive and honey. Something I read on the internet implied that if a hive has been in your wall more than 2-3 days, it's best to open up the wall and remove the hive and honey, because if you don't then you're risking having the comb melt in your wall and the honey seep out through your floor boards and cause a big mess. I've got a call in to my friend's dad, who is a hobbiest beekeeper, to see if he agrees with this advice or thinks we'll be ok just following the pest-control company's advice and sealing the hole.
I wanted to take apart the easy part of the roof and decide just how difficult a task this was going to be. If it was easy for me to just open up the roof, scoop out the dead hive, and then put the roof back and re-seal the hole, I intended to do that. Unfortunately, once I got the roof off, all I found was massive amounts of dead bees. Certainly hundereds, possibly thousands. Many many scoopfulls with my BBQ spatula with the long handle. This is in addition to all the buckets of dead ones that were already on the ground.
[Writing that paragraph was enough to get me into the kitchen for the third bar of chocolate.]
I did not however find any hive or honeycombs. And while I was working a live but struggling bee dropped down from the wall above. Now I know where the massive pile of dead bees came from and I have a better idea of where the hive is. It does not look easy to get into at all. But if there are still live bees in it I don't think I can seal it up tonight.
At this point, given that it looks difficult and expensive to take apart the wall any more than we have, I think we'll assume that there won't be any more problems from what hive the bees were able to build in the time they had there, and if there are problems we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. I don't think things would be significantly more expensive to take a wait and see approach.
But now I have mass-grave bee images flashing in my head much like the fallic symbols spliced into the movies by the crazy guy in "fight club." And I need comfort food. Thus the chocolate.
--Beth
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no subject
Date: 2007-05-07 01:05 pm (UTC)Newt
no subject
Date: 2007-05-07 03:31 pm (UTC)My neighbors were disturbed to see me jogging at 30 weeks, I cannot imagine their reaction to seeing me on a ladder at 36. It probably would have involved actually having me committed rather than just yelling "girl, you crazy" as I passed by. And I think they'd have been kind of right. The thought of an extremely pregnant woman on a ladder dealing with not-dead bees disturbs me even more than the image of all the dead ones. Be careful, and take care of yourself.
Getting the hive out is important. And it sounds like a big one, what with thousands of bees, but maybe that's the quantities bees come in - I don't know. Just - make Jon do it. Or hire a pro. Call one up and guilt trip if you must. Explain that you are very pregnant, and claim that Jon is allergic to bees and therefore it is urgently necessary that you hire someone to do this. Perhaps your friend's dad who is a hobbiest beekeeper could be of service, particularly as there may still be live bees. You are obviously a major superhero, and you deserve all the chocolate in the world, and you should not go back up there.
no subject
Date: 2007-05-07 08:50 pm (UTC)Getting the hive out is important.
Out of curiosity, what makes you say that -- this is our big question we're debating right now. Just how important is it? $200 important? $500 important? $1500 important? My initial investigations reveal that if I had a professional take apart the wall to do this (and put the wall back together again), it would be at a minimum a $500 job, and my guess is the total bill would be closer to $1500 if not more.
What things can go wrong if we just leave it in there and patch up the enterance very well? How much more expensive would the $1500 job be if we chance leaving it in there, and only paying the $1500 if something goes wrong?
We live in the Silicon Valley where even apprentice handymen command $40/hour plus materials, if you want the job done right. Looking at how my house is put together I can't imagine opening up that 2nd story wall taking less than 10 hours to open, remove the hive, and then put back together.
--Beth
no subject
Date: 2007-05-08 03:23 am (UTC)Handymen are always expensive. You have my sympathy.
bees
Date: 2007-05-07 06:07 pm (UTC)Re: bees
Date: 2007-05-07 08:41 pm (UTC)I've been on enough camping trips with my scouts where we've been near a yellow jacket nest or other beehive bothering us while we ate that I've got nerves of steel near bees. In front of my scouts I can't even act afraid or they'll flip out, and after enough trips like that I don't even need to pretend.
However, if you and dad want to come down this evening and finish patching up my roof, you are more than welcome to finish the job :-)
Love,
--Beth
Re: bees
Date: 2007-05-07 08:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-07 11:43 pm (UTC)