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Lately I've been pulling out videos that didn't create a complete story and had been essentially shelved due to my perception that they were lacking interesting content and/or any real value in the education or entertainment departments. Sometimes when you let videos or photos rest or age and then look back weeks or even years later, all of the sudden they seem interesting in some way. This is another set of just such footage.

This job began two or three years prior to the footage you're seeing here. I was hired to remove one hive from this home in the location of the front wall where we pulled that narrow soffit down. Upon my arrival and preliminary inspection, I found that there was a second hive in the door jamb of the storage room. I removed both hives but did none of the repairs. At that time the homeowner had a full-time maintenance man who was going to handle all build back and bee proofing. He and I had a long discussion in the presence of the homeowner as to what would be required to prevent a 100% guaranteed reinfestation. He assured me that he would follow my instructions to the letter. I was very thankful that three years later the customer recalled that conversation when she had to called me back out for this job.

You may be wondering how this could happen to someone's home. Between our first removals at this property and this five-hive job, the homeowner had relocated to Texas for a span of about two years. During that time, they kept the house but it remained vacant. They had a lawn company maintaining the yard while they were gone but there is really no grass to cut on this corner of the house and with it being vacant there was no one to notice when five separate honey bee colonies decided to set up shop in the walls and floors. This home is in incredibly good condition but there were gaps in the trim and all it takes is a small hole and a manageable space behind that hole to create the perfect recipe for a bee infestation.

These jobs were done in early July of 2022 in Diamondhead, MS when we were coming out of a strong Chinese Tallow flow and experiencing record high temperatures in Mississippi and several other southern states. The extreme heat and the scope of the jobs were the reasons for the lack of footage. It becomes extremely difficult to stay motivated to video record when you're worried about your own survival. We were having to take breaks every fifteen to twenty minutes and were drinking buckets of water. I personally drank two gallons per day while on site and still went home dehydrated. Yes, two gallons, no exaggeration.

Removal of all these hives, repairing the damage and packing all the customer's personal belongings back into the storage room took me and Pete two full days. We were also the ones tasked with unpacking the storage room. That was a chore in itself. There were some very heavy items in there that we initially thought we were going to try and work around or over.

I went back alone for a third day to caulk the house. I spent a couple of hours and used six tubes of caulk filling gaps and touching up trim and spaces where bees could get in. We are now a year and a half post repair, and this customer hasn't had any more problems. I will likely stop by sometime this summer and do a condition inspection to see if the house needs any touch up work. I'd rather keep my customers happy with an occasional small touch up service than have them call me for an expensive removal every few years. The drive by inspection will be at no cost as I'm regularly in that neighborhood.

As a final thought, I wasn't the first person to remove bees from this house. Someone else had taken two hives out of a different wall several years prior to my first service at this location. The only reason I got the call this time is that the other person had gotten out of the bee removal business. He must have been good at his job because he also did the repairs and no bees got back in the area he worked on. Here's a pat on the back to you, whoever you are.

Music is from Epidemic Sound
Fall Draws Near - American Legion
How to Carry On (Instrumental Version) - Wildflowers