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Thousands of Bees Infest North Texas Home | The Post
Stephen Ross with Ross' Rowdy Bees talks with The Post about a recent infestation of bees at a Princeton, TX home.
PRINCETON, Texas - A Princeton homeowner thought there might be bees in a bathroom wall. It turns out, there were just a casual 15,000 bees in there.
Ross’ Rowdy Bees
Stephen Ross sees a lot of bee problems like this one in Princeton.
His company, Ross’ Rowdy Bees, is the company that handles safely removing bee hives in homes.
He said even though he’s seen homes with larger hives, this one was unique because of all the honey. There was so much that he had trouble recording video. His hands were too sticky.
"What was really shocking about this hive was just the amount of honey that was found inside the wall of that bathroom. And you can be as careful as possible removing that honey, but it’s gonna get all over you. I mean, it’s part of the business. It’s just very difficult to not come out of a situation like this all sticky," he said.
What happens to the bees after they are removed?
With massive projects like the home in Princeton and a similar case in Plano earlier this year involving 30,000 bees, Ross said his team will use a vacuum to suck up the insects.
Because they have a critical job in nature in the community, they are relocated rather than destroyed.
"When it comes to honeybees, our job is to relocate and save those bees. Because they do, they play a vital role in our ecosystem, pollinating many of the fruits and vegetables that we consume," he said. "So, our goal in all of this is not just to put the homeowner at ease, but also to make sure that the honeybees are taken care after the removal process. And we normally relocate them to one of our bee yards."
The company has roughly 20 locations around North Texas where it moves bees.
How do the bees get into homes, and what should people do?
Ross said in most cases, the bees make their way into the walls of a home through small exterior holes, loose brick, or cracks in the mortar.
"I always recommend that homeowners go around their home at least once a year just to check for any gaps or separation within the structure of the home. Here in Texas, with the type of soil that we have, we run into a lot of shifting. And it's important that we maintain the integrity the structure of our home as much as possible, whether that means just going around and caulking gaps or going back and putting in mortar where mortar had separated from the brick, you know, just things of that nature," he said.
Homeowners will often only see a handful of bees flying around outside of their home. But the hive itself could be much, much bigger.
"The customer believed that the bees may have been there for about two weeks. And once we opened that up, it was obvious that they had been there for a few years, without a doubt. At times, normally, the homeowners are quite shocked themselves, because you're only seeing a few bees fly in and out of that area. You're not seeing thousands," he said.
How many times have you gotten stung?
The first-generation beekeeper who started as a hobbyist said it’s pretty much a daily thing.
He personally wears a beekeeping jacket and doesn’t like wearing a full suit. It’s just easier to move around in, and it’s too hot in Texas to wear a full suit.
"The beekeeping jacket itself is much more cooler," he said. "The bees do tend to sting us through the jeans, often. And that's an area that we often get stung. But they also find ways to get into the suit. You know, we wear these suits until they're basically falling apart. And once we realize that the bees are able to gain easy access into the suits, that's when we put on a new one."
The Source: The information in this story comes from an interview with Stephen Ross from Ross' Rowdy Bees.