£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?

I agree they’re protected. Are you sure he’s a beekeeper?

Legal Status: Bees are not protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act or the Animal Welfare Act. However, killing them with DIY pesticides is highly discouraged and often illegal based on how the chemicals are classified.

thats a lot of money to pay out. I assume most was on scaffolding. If he wasn’t going to do the repair he should have told you that you need to get it filled in. I had bees in a previous house, and they came back every year, so it’s important to ensure they can’t get in.

Erm, Contact them and tell them they didn't do their job properly

Oh OP! That sounds so stressful and expensive.

Did you discuss the situation with him and assure yourself that he was reputable and was insured specifically for the type of work he was proposing?

Did you ensure that he had experience of ‘cut outs’ and, most importantly, carries adequate public liability insurance?

Did you agree a price for the job before commencing work and ask for references from previous customers?

This site has a list of some organisations and companies who may be able to help with established honey bee colony removals from buildings.

I can second this, we had wasps in an air brick on our ground floor, Dh put ant powder into the brick and the wasps went and never came back

A relative had a bee saga a couple of years ago. What she discovered is that:

a. Everyone has a bright idea as to what to do. These ideas are often based on services that no longer exist, or are not feasible.

b. People you call, because A said they would deal with it, generally don't want to know.

c. If they do, think of a number. More than double it.

d. After removal the nest / honey / whatever needs to come out or you will have various problems.

She eventually dealt with it from the inside, but the access was challenging, buying protective kit and legal poison. Whether you can do this I don't know.

Poison???? No!

Some home insurance policies cover their removal.

We've had bees before and the local Bee group come and get them for free as they are so valuable. Finders Keepers rules in their community, certainly in the country anyway.

This is what happened to us. You can, and often have to, kill them. But you have to ensure you kill them in situ. You can not have bees swarming covered in poison or even spreading poison on pollen sources. That's one of the reasons Bees are struggling.

If you just seal them up, then they will chew their way out.

It is illegal to use ant killer; there are only a few approved ways of exterminating them as otherwise the poison can get into the food chain.

We had them in our brickwork (shared block), due to access issues it was bloody expensive but shared between us.

They had to actually relocate the hive- can't remember if it was just because they were bees or a special type of bees.

I'd be inclined to get a second opinion.

If you have only just moved in, I think you should contact your solicitor. The vendors should have told you that they had a long running bee problem in the roof. I think you could probably claim any expenses from the vendors

We’ve had this problem - if they start to swarm near our eves now I light a fire in our bbq underneath and put lots of fresh cut grass on it - I keep it going all day till dark. The smoke puts them off and they disperse. To be fair it’s a few years since I had to do this ….the smell/pheromones/left over comb has obv dissipated. They did once more recently manage to nest in a chimney and sadly had to be exterminated as they posed a danger as we were repointing at the time!! There are certain situations where it is legal to do this.

Same here.

Nb - the bbq & smoke plan will not work if they’ve been there a while, only if they have just started swarming!

Yep, and where they can be saved they absolutely should be - but there are situations where they swarm/nest somewhere entirely inaccessible and then the bee keeper cannot extract them!

Im a beekeeper. You need to make sure any comb they made there is completely removed as it attracts other swarms.

bpca.org.uk/a-z-of-pest-advice/bee-control-how-to-get-rid-of-bees-bpca-a-z-of-pests/189185

We had bees in our loft once, they got in through a gap in the eaves. We left them and they stayed for the summer and then went. They don't use the same hive again.

Ours were bumble bees and not honey bees.

I would leave them until Aug/ Sept when they go. Then get a roofer to sort and block up.
Honey won’t rot rafters btw.

Currently going through this. We’ve “left the swarm to it” for a few years now. This year there is literally millions, I’ve had a bee keep here for 8 hours today (who is also insured to do building work) because normal bee keepers won’t touch them if they are inside.

he explained it very well. He did half the bay window roof today but will need scaffolding to completely clear it, but he said until he’s been able to get access to remove all the honeycomb AND wash the honey away they will keep coming back! Thankfully it’s just our small bay window roof which is separate from the walls but we are already looking around £1000! He saved some but killed a lot.

people saying just leave them don’t realise the damage they can cause!

The guy saw you coming! Most beekeepers/apiarists are happy to come and rescue a swarm and take them away (for their own use).

I actually contacted someone locally when I found a swarm near a church and he was happy to just come and take them for his hive!

I wouldn't poison them. Bees are precious. They should be able to be moved safely.

three years ago we had a swarm coming out of loft/roof (can’t remember exactly what- thinking hornets/wasps?)

We were charged £65 cash. The guy was here all of 5 minutes, got his very long ladder out, presuming sprayed something and took his money. I thought we were robbed for literally less than a five minute call out.

Will the bees have left bee pheromones that will attract more bees to come to our roof?

When I noticed we had bees trying to move into our chimney @maureenponderosa I looked up what to do about them, and lots of websites said that they do leave a pheromone which can attract others to the nest. I am normally a let bees live person, but they were coming down the flu into the living room, and then we had huge numbers appear outside the living room window. I lit a smoky fire in our wood burner which was not fun as it was mid July and very hot, and it made them move on from the chimney. We did have stragglers for a few days afterwards but touchwood they've not returned.

I looked up to see if their nests can cause damage as I thought honey was a preservative, but it appears they can damage roofs quite significantly. I hope you, or the bee keeper, manage to get on top of this nest and you have no more issues from the bees.