£1000 paid to remove bees from roof 2 weeks ago. We now have bees again.

[maureenponderosa]

AIBee-ing Unreasonable?

YABU - calm down, pay again and trust the beekeeper
YANBU - get a second opinion

Any bee experts here?

We had bees in our roof a few weeks ago. They were going in through the tiles and building comb between the tiles and the membrane. Paid over £1000 for scaffolding and bee removal. The nice beekeeper man put the tiles back on the roof for us.

Unfortunately, he didn't finish cementing up the tiles on the side of the gable (right at the apex of the roof), leaving a fairly decent-sized hole (I think 30cm across and 4cm high).

We noticed last Friday that we had a lot of Scout bees going in and out of this hole. We tried covering this hole with a towel but bees were still able to go in through there, but were now also trying to get in through vents (which have got grills on the other side to prevent bees getting into the loft) and between our roof tiles.

By Sunday, the whole swarm had returned. On Monday, the beekeeper came and said there's no rescuing these bees. He cemented up the hole and put poison in the vents.

It's now Tuesday and there are still a lot of bees trying to get in by any means. What started as them trying to get in through a gap left by the beekeeper/bee remover man, has ended up with them trying to invade by any means necessary.

The beekeeper man has said he'll come back and put down more poison and put grills on the outside, but now I'm worried: have these bees left us open to more swarms coming back?

Questions for any bee experts:
Will the remaining bees be building honey comb that could damage our house?
Will the bees have left bee pheromones that will attract more bees to come to our roof?
We've only just moved in but if we're on the hook to spend £1k a month on bee removal, we'll have to sell up.
Is this our cost to carry, considering this new swarm initially made their home in the hole that he left, even though they are now trying to get in through other ways?

They will damage the membrane. Source: my roof membrane 2 weeks ago.

Looks like we need to get a roofer.

Dear lord this house is costing us an absolute fortune and not for the reasons we thought it would.

Is he actually a bee keeper or just some idiot who bodges work and makes a shit job of it?
I think I would be taking legal advice with regards to the 'repair work' and couping some costs. Plus contacting a proper bee keeper who knows what they are doing.

A bee keeper is not a builder or a roofer to be fair

No it's not, but noone with half a brain cell makes that amount of mess of a repair. I was referring to the fact it he had made a better job of his 'repair' the bees would have less likely to have gotten back into the roof.

I had wasps and I think the removal was free. Or maybe very cheap - I was definitely asked whether they were bees or wasps as removing bees was crazy money as they couldn't be poisoned and so had to be carefully enticed away, whereas wasps were really easy as they just murdered them.

But I've definitely read posts from people who keep bees offering to collect any unwanted swarms, I believe free of charge. Would it be worth posting on facebook to see if you have anyone locally, OP? Or is that what you did and they've just come straight back?

Depends where the bees are hanging out as to whether they can be removed free of charge

A swarm on a tree branch - easy
A massive hive that has spread throughout your cavity wall - no

Thing is the bee keeper has also likely broken the law. If you poison bees you need to seal off all exit points, as otherwise the bees escape. And it can cause a huge biohazard, impact other bees and get in our food chain. Not doing it properly can be Really big fines for you and him

Before you do that try the ant powder. It was tricky and involved ladders, long gloves etc... do it at dusk when they are settled for the night. You don't need much as they will eventually track it into the queen, once the queen is gone the rest die or leave

Also, not all bees are the same as far as being great pollinators. Modern honey bees are not all great pollinators as they go from single flower source to their hive (aka your roof) and they are not endangered. Obviously no one wants to destroy a bee swarm but you may not have any other choice.

And everyone saying leave it, they swarm off - well that's not true. Nor is it true that a beekeeper can just 'remove them' - not when they're deep in your roof they can't!

£1000????? Good grief!! The bee man should come back and do the job properly for free.

Beekeepers around here collect for free

We had wasps in our kitchen extension roof last year. We could hear them in the walls. They weren’t really bothering us so we left them alone and they’ve gone this year.

And here too.
That includes swarms in roof and cavity spaces, up trees and in chimney spaces.
I think OP’s ‘beekeeper’ is a con quite frankly.

Then he should make it clear, and perhaps combine his services with a roofer

That's cheap!

We've got honey bees in the roof at work. The cheapest quote we have is around £6k; if we want a guarantee the bees won't come back it's £8k.

To rehome them safely we need:

1. Scaffolding (and a scaffolder who doesn't mind getting close to the bees)
2. A roofer who can take the roof apart and put it back (again they need to be okay with bees)
3. A bee expert to remove the nest, clean up the honeycomb etc.

It may be in the cavity walls too, in which case we need a builder too.

You can kill honey bees, but you have to make sure you have a reputable place because if you use the wrong poisons then they can take it back to other hives and you get poisoned honey. But the reputable people say "these bees can be saved so we won't poison them".

Edited to add that we've contacted local beekeepers and they'll happily take them for free if they're swarming outside the nest, but won't either open up nor fix the roof afterwards,

Well, he is a beekeeper, not a roofer.... so Im not really sure what you expected?

OPs case was more complicated due to the position of the bees nest

No, you are not allowed to poison bees, as doing so manually or incorrectly is highly restricted and often illegal. While most bee species (including honeybees and bumblebees) are not technically classified as legally protected species in the UK, the laws governing chemical use make poisoning them a legal minefield.

Surely your buildings insurance would cover ethical removal and reinstate the roof properly. No one wants a swarm of bees in their property, but bees are valuable, are under threat and it hurts my heart to read about poisoning them. If he didn’t remove the queen, that’s down to him, but from every thing you’ve posted, you’ve got the wrong man for the job and he sounds an idiot. I was going to write he sounds a cunt, but I might be over invested in the bees.

As far as I know you shouldn’t kill bees

I keep bees. If they are difficult to remove and causing damage I would consider leaving ant powder near the entrance. Don’t underestimate the increasing weight of the honey and the other pests attracted to it. I remove bees locally for free, but won’t climb up buildings - standing on a chair is my limit.

Our building insurance offers up to £500. - less than 10% of the quotes we've had.

Look for UK bee removers.
They have a map and people fully insured and trained.

If there’s not 3 different people/ companies involved it’s a con and a waste of your money.
You need someone for scaffolds. Someone to open & close the roof. Then a beekeeper - you can probably get one for free as long as other 2 are taken care of.

No, insurance doesn't cover bee removal as they are not classed as pests