Many years ago we both worked hard at our jobs and were seldom home on weekends, so not there much during the day. One Saturday I was in the family room and noticed a buzzing sound. Investigating, we discovered there was a hive of bees inside the outside wall. We also got the occasional bee coming into the house through the pot lights.

The reason we didn't know about them was they were quiet at night when we were home, and noisy during the day when we weren't.

Beekeepers had nothing to offer, so our solution was to take a vacuum cleaner and suck up the bees. I held the canister-type Electrolux while Mr. Tbend was up on the ladder with the business end of the hose.

When they moved next door, our neighbor even used duct tape to set up his vacuum cleaner semi-permanently in an attempt to gather the majority of them.

Ultimately, though, they had to be killed, so on ours, Mr. Troutbend used some kind of spray, and eventually they died and/or moved next door. This took a year or two.

Because of prolonged drought, the soil under our house settled some, and our front steps developed a gap. A little colony of bees settled in there. I don't think were the same kind of bees as around the corner inside the house wall, but we had to be careful when we went out to get the mail barefooted or in sandals because they'd come out from under the step and sting us.

A few years later I owned a rental house that had bees move into the wall. The local beekeepers weren't interested in those bees, and they were still there when we tore it down.




The kid running the demolition equipment saved the honey combs to take home.



It was sad to see the waste of those bees, but not much we could do.