The sight of bees dancing over your flower gardens can be such a lovely thing to look at. But, what if these bees decide to dwell into your home? Would you be willing to share your home with them? Of course not!
Except when you want to become a beekeeper then you’re going to invest in beekeeping equipment that will allow you to grow your own colonies of bees within your property but not within your home.
Honey bees are the only insects in the whole world that are capable of producing food that we humans can consume. Interesting, right? But not when they decide to build hives within your walls, floors or roofs.
These bees are hardworking insects that are willing to harm anything or anyone that gets in their way of making their colonies survive. In other words, once you notice the signs of bee infestation in your property, be wary.
In this article, we present some of the ways these bees can cause damage to your property.
More Insects and Pests
When honey leaks into the walls of your home, it will attract some other insects due to its sweet smell. Think of ants and rodents getting into the walls of your home so they could feast on any leftover honey.
This problem could be ignored if you will only be thinking about a single rodent or a few ants regularly visiting your bee infested walls. But, what if you’ve got thousands of bees hiding behind your wall structures?
What makes things worse is when these bees decide to abandon the first nest they built in order to build a new one somewhere nearby. The wax and honey they have left behind could become a feeding ground for other insects to feast on.
Flies, ants, rodents, moths, etc. will soon come to your property to satisfy their sweet tooth. Unfortunately, these insects also have their own way of causing further damage to the structure. The result would not only be ugly looking, but weakened walls as well.
Note that it would take more than 550 worker bees to be able to produce at least one pound of honey. And, one hive will contain at least 20,000 bees and healthy colonies will have about 100,000 bees! Just imagine how much honey they can produce and how many other types of insects they could possibly attract.
Ugly Dark Lines and Holes on Walls
Most of the time, home owners will have no idea that they have uninvited house guests. It is only when they see dripping honey down their walls that they start to suspect the occurrence of bee infestation.
The stains and odor caused by honey leaking into the exteriors of the walls is not at all a sweet sight to witness. A bee hive hiding in an attic or behind the walls will reveal dripping honey or melting wax forming into stains that look like dark lines. These things not only make your home appear dirty and ugly but these stains can also ruin your walls aesthetics and integrity.
Damaged Insulation
Another significant damage that bee infestation can do to your property can be seen in your home or building’s wall insulation. This type of damage may not occur right at the onset of bee entrance to your property. The damage could become apparent at least a week after they have entered your premises.
But if left unnoticed, these bees will soon develop a hive which can grow so fast that they would quickly damage the moisture or vapor barrier between your walls. They do this either by chewing on the felt that serves as moisture barrier or the growing hive and population of bees could literally push through these barriers.
In turn, the felt, wood, stucco or whatever material your walls are made of could be damaged in no time. The damage occurs not only due to the bees themselves but it can also be due to wax moths also growing in number as they penetrate the wax comb.
Compromised Structural Integrity
Imagine a deep hive weighing 80 pounds hiding behind those walls or beneath the surfaces of your floors. This weight alone can already compromise the integrity of any structure.
When these hives expand, their weight will put pressure to the roof, chimney or walls. The weight becomes heavier as more honey, more wax melting and more waste products have been released by the bees.
When their nests become too congested, these bees will try to split their workforce and let the other half work on creating another hive along the nearest area that they could find.
Moreover, if you have carpenter bees taking their residence into your property, you can expect to see more holes into any wooden structure that you have. These wood boring bees can cause the wooden part of your home to weaken as they keep drilling holes as their nest tunnels.
When this occurs, the walls may begin to bulge, the ceilings may dip and the floors may sink. The same thing may also happen if these carpenter bees choose your rooflines, untreated wooden deck, shed, fence and eaves as their residence. Consequently, the frame of any wooden structure that they choose as nests will warp, gradually weakening its integrity.
When their existence becomes unnoticed, they will continue to fill every cavity or any hiding place that they can find. This could mean they would fill your walls or floors from edge to edge.
Thousands of bees will keep going in and out of your property, building hive after hive which will eventually make the structure prone to leaks and molds. All these damages can make the structure become weak thus the need for professional bee removal services.
If you notice some signs of these damages in your property and suspect that bee infestation is the culprit, call on the professionals of bee removal services. You will never know how much damage they have already done and you can get hurt in the process of removing them yourself. Call an expert and stay safe. Remember, you don’t need these bees just to make “A Home, Sweet Home”.