[Pinchecharlie]

A elderly woman in our area has asked for help removing a hive from the wall of her home. Apparently the hive is large and over wintered ( she said it was there last year also?) anyway the hive is located behind the exterior wall that is brick and she will not have brick removed to get to them from outside. So from construction I know that the cavity is the space between studs and sheeting / brick outside and insulation and drywall inside. I thought a guy could build plastic walls inside and do a cut out but theb realized there would be a big issue collecting all the bees from granny's house?! What about a trap out and then the cut out? I dono Iam new but have a life time of construction skills. Any ideas ? Thanks

 

[Riverderwent]

Hogan style trapout, then inside cutout if needed. A bee vac and your plastic sheeting will help with the bees inside. There are a lot of time and cost factors to weigh. Using an infrared thermometer and a mechanic's stethoscope may be helpful locating the bees.

 

[mattheritage]

Trap out. Then take a strong hive and put it next to the entrance. Put some honey around the entrance hole. Let the strong hive rob out the wall hive. Once they have taken everything they can there isn't much left in there to worry about. Close up the entrance and call it a day. No ripping walls, no huge mess, etc.

 

[RayMarler]

And perhaps throw in some wax moth larva just before you seal it all up.

 

[rwurster]

There's still time to do a trap out and have the new nucs beef themselves up before winter. The only problem I have at this time of year is getting mated queens back to their respective nucs, the chance of a queen getting mated and making it back to the hive are about 50% in July - mid August around here.

 

[tomkat]

I would not do a trap out in grannys house. I would do a Cut Out.
If not the honey, brood and wax is going to cause a mess in the walls and the smell is HORRID,

Use a Bee Vacuum to suck out the bees, if there is an interior door way to other rooms, seal it with a sheet of plastic and duct tape. Do not vacuum where open honey is located, it will drone the bees.
Seal any holes the bees are coming in, this will help keep the bees out of the house.

 

[justin]

you know how many trips are involved in mudding, taping, texturing, priming, painting, replacing some trim that needs to match the bedroom set. is that texture the same? whats that on the carpet? i don't know what i'd do. it would probably depend a lot on grannys temperment.

 

[Mr.Beeman]

Removal from the interior is the only correct option with the most positive results. It's not that hard to suck up all if not most of the bees.

 

[Sharpbees]

I do interior cut outs pretty often, I put up walls of plastic sheathing and use a bee vac, never have any problems. Keep the light low or off and uncover a window, the bees will go toward light if they are loose in the house.

 

[Michael Bush]

The first time I did an inside cutout, I thought there would be a lot of bees in the house. Actually if you keep the door to the room shut, it's not bad at all. The bees are more interested in their colony than the rest of the house...

 

[Michael Bush]

That said, though... they may be in the cavity between the bricks and the stud wall, and not in the cavity between the studs... so figuring out exactly where they are is essential in order to minimize the amount of wall you are destroying in the process...

 

[Daniel Y]

you know how many trips are involved in mudding, taping, texturing, priming, painting, replacing some trim that needs to match the bedroom set. is that texture the same? whats that on the carpet? i don't know what i'd do. it would probably depend a lot on grannys temperment.

No need for it to take that long. A wall patch is an hour or two and can be done in one visit.

I do not buy into that fact I came to fix a problem now makes me the problem. That is how you end up with someone that simply does not return to do the work even though you call and call and call and wonder why they never show up. It is the polite way for a contractor to say shove off. I will get there when you are my last option to make a dollar.

Another reality for someone that knows what they are doing. little old lady that does not want the work done right. and wants to pay nothing for it anyway. or the other guy that is waiting for you to get to work paying you fare rates and is aware of what the job takes to accomplish. Where would you be and who would you be concerned about keepign happy.

Do this stuff long enough and you will very likely find yourself in just that situation. I faced it this past weekend. I had a call about bees. the conversation was the typical is this going to cost me anything. I also had someone that wanted a planter built for a new tree. They offered me $150 for about 2 hours work. I could then spend another hour and a half delivering a full size hive and got $330. Guess where I was? Guess who is still waiting for me to call back. Need me to fix your problem. I can but I don't come cheap and you need to be ready to make a better offer than I already have.

 

[mathesonequip]

. some years ago a lady called to inquire about some electric work, she proceeded to tell me that she had too sue 2 or 3 previous contractors. I told her I was too busy, it was the dead of winter and trips to the grocery store were often delayed a little and limited in size. the lady would not take no for an answer, the answer stayed no... I later heard what a worthless so & so I was for not showing up for an estimate so she could get me down in price. the farmer who told me about her story said "smart move keep away".. some jobs it is better to walk away, sometimes run for your life.

 

[Ross]

I remove bees. I don't patch dry wall. Leave the repair to the experts.

 

[hideawayranch]

Just did this cut out Saturday, whew! Ended up having to "crawl" into the Crawl space under the house to finish the project. Of course the entrance to the crawl space is always at the opposite end of the house as to where the bees are located. Had to drag vac and equipment, quite the experience!