“Well, do you happen to know of a good honeybee removal service?” The young, athletic, blond woman asked her two older visitors. She and her husband had just moved into the neighborhood, and a couple of friendly ladies had stopped by to say hello. She and her husband had gotten really lucky, finding this beautiful home for an extremely low price, in a well-established subdivision. Sure, it was a home they bought directly from the bank, who had foreclosed on the prior homeowner. Her new neighbors had filled her in on the details, including a prior homeowner who moved away suddenly, hadn’t said goodbye to anyone, rented the house out to someone, and then failed to make the mortgage payments even though he received rent. His tenant got wind of that last part and quickly found herself another place to live. Eventually, as happens all too often these days, the bank reclaimed the home, and sold it.
Unfortunately, since the home had been left vacant for several months, there were a lot of little problems with it. Including the need for honeybee removal. The new homeowner looked at her neighbors and asked their advice.
They thought they knew better, though. They glanced at each other knowingly. “Do you mean wasps?” There had been a huge boom in the wasp population lately, and every homeowner in the neighborhood was fighting them off – spraying down children’s play sets, knocking down wasp nests, tending to those who were unfortunate enough to get stung.
Not wanting to offend her new neighbors, the young woman bit her lip and said, “Well, maybe. But, they look an awful lot like honey bees.” She grew up in a rural area. She knew the difference between wasps and bees. But, she humored her guests. “Would you like to see?”
Good-naturedly, her guests agreed, although one suggested they take wasp spray with them. She led them around the side of the home to a window and pointed up to a window on the second story. Sure enough, honey bees were everywhere, swarmed around the window frame and disappearing inside the wall. Her neighbors had never seen such a thing. One of them realized her mouth was still open in shock.
“I’m so . . . well . . . sorry. I had no idea. Did you know about this before you moved in?”
“No, the bank sells foreclosed properties as-is, and we didn’t see this during our walk-though. No one told us we needed honeybee removal.”
“Are they inside the house?” Her astonished new friend asked.
“No, thank heavens. But, I think it’s only a matter of time, don’t you? I mean, with the new baby and everything, I don’t want to take a risk.”
“OK,” the oldest visitor exclaimed, taking charge of the situation. I know just who to call. Allstate Animal Control can send someone to take care of honeybee removal.”
“Wait, shouldn’t I call a bug removal service, instead?”
“Not with honeybees. They’re special, protected, and have to be removed just so. And, by the way, I’m so sorry I sounded so smug when I thought you were talking about wasps.”
“No problem. You can make up for it by getting me the number for Allstate Animal Control so I can get them to remove the honeybees.”
“Consider it done!”
