Bees are extremely important to our ecosystem, pollinating both flowers and food crops that are essential to our economy. Beware of using pesticides and insecticides that might harm them or their food sources.

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This year, when my dad died, my parents’ Kentucky home became my responsibility. Unfortunately, in the past few months, I’ve discovered not only termite activity and a brown recluse spider infestation, but a honeybee hive within the walls of the house.

Resolving these insect problems properly is of critical importance — not only to me, but to the bees and, by extension, to our environment.

Essential pollinators

Bees are essential to the production of our food. From apples to zucchini, bees are responsible for pollinating the fruits, vegetables, seeds and nuts essential to our diets.

While honeybees are not native, they provide the heavy load of pollinating our food sources, making possible $15 billion in value of U.S. crop production — half of the country’s agriculture industry.

Use and misuse of pesticides

Pesticides are also important to agricultural production. Pesticides include herbicides necessary to reduce weeds and control invasive plants, as well as insecticides to combat species that destroy crops or transmit disease.

Typically, it is the misuse and overuse of pesticides that lead to negative ecological and human health consequences. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is charged with balancing the risks and benefits of pesticide use.

Insecticides that are toxic to termites, spiders and mosquitoes also kill native bees, European honeybees, and other pollinators.

Plants we have deemed “weeds” that are treated with herbicides in yards and fields may serve as food sources for honeybees as well as food sources and/or larval host plants for wild pollinators, including monarch butterflies.

Ill effects on bees

According to EPA scientists, honeybees are exposed to pesticides through direct contact and consumption of tainted nectar or pollen. This exposure can affect individual bees and entire bee colonies.

The Xerces Society reports that a study shows more than 90% of pollen samples from bee hives in agricultural landscapes are contaminated by at least one pesticide.

Why is this a problem? Honeybees are social creatures with a complex set of behaviors. Forager bees identify pollen and nectar sources, return to the hive, and communicate the food location to the colony. Nurse bees participate in brood rearing and care.

Of concern are published reports of chronic neurotoxicity to bees posed by the widespread use of the neonicotinoid family of pesticides in particular. Bees exhibit a wide range of sensitivities to the different neonicotinoid compounds, which affect their brains.

Additionally, pesticide direct spray and soil application methods affect the queen bee’s strength and forager bees’ lifespans.

Therefore, it was important to me — and it is incumbent on us all — to protect these valuable and vulnerable creatures.

Needed: beekeeper and new hive

So, before I could tackle the spiders and termites, I had to find a beekeeper to safely remove and rehome the bees that had been living in my father’s house since at least 2019.

The beekeeper, a member of the Kentuckiana Beekeepers Association, was experienced at removing swarms from inside structures.

Although we noticed the bees entering through a gap between the brick and the wooden molding around an exterior window, he suggested removing the bees from inside the house due to predicted inclement weather.

With an infrared heat sensor, he spotted a warm area above the dining room window that he identified as the hive. Bees keep the nursery between 91°F and 97°F during much of the year (much warmer than the ambient air temperature).

Moving honeybees (carefully)

The beekeeper set up a plastic sheeting barrier from floor to ceiling to create a partition in the part of the dining room where the window was.

Next came the scaffolding to allow him access to the area above the large double window. Finally, he donned a protective bee suit (and provided one for my husband in case of an emergency).

Once he cut into the drywall, he found an extensive honeycomb filling the entire cavity — at least seven feet across and 14 inches deep with approximately 10,000 bees. (As a note, this was not the largest hive he had ever extracted.)

Wearing protective gear and using a vacuum, he sucked the bees into a portable temporary hive box. The bees were docile at first. He then removed the portion of the comb with the honey and stored it in a plastic bin.

He finally extricated the comb where the young (eggs, larvae, and pupae) were being cared for by the nurse worker bees. The bees became more agitated the closer he got to the queen.

Both inside and outside the home in the area above the window, he sprayed an almond oil concoction that makes it difficult for the bees to breathe; however, it has a very pleasant scent to humans. The purpose of the spray is to repel the bees from returning to the same location.

New home for the bees

He had a six-hour window to get the bees and honeycomb nursery into frames in a permanent manmade hive, which was on his property, about 30 minutes away.

He wasn’t able to determine if the queen had survived, ensuring a successful colony relocation, until several days later. Of the approximately 10,000 bees, he found only 50 had died in the removal and relocation process. The latest report is that the colony is thriving.

Now that the bee colony is safely ensconced in its new location, a professional exterminator can tackle the termite and brown recluse problems, which will require the safe and labeled use of pesticides.

Note: Thank you to Mike Hofelich of “Save the Honey Bee.”

Lela Martin is a Master Gardener with the Chesterfield County office of the Virginia Cooperative Extension.

She invites everyone to learn more about the importance of pollinators at the 10th annual Bumblebee Jamboree on June 18 at Maymont Children’s Farm.