Some termites cause more than $500 million in damage to propertyin Louisiana annually, according to the LSU AgCenter, but few knowbees are destructive to property as well.
“You can have problems when there are openings into the house,”AgCenter Entomologist Dale Pollet said. “What the homeowner needsto do is walk around their home and caulk any open areas into thehome.”
Pollet said mites have killed off many area honeybee colonies inthe last few years because they eat the bee larvae. This year,because of USDA genetic engineering efforts, the bees are moreresistant to mites and their populations are flourishing.
The genetically-altered bees escape from bee keepers to begintheir own colonies and increase the population in the wild.
While the population is not out of control, Pollet said, thebees have caused some problems for area homeowners.
In the LSU AgCenter publication “Bug Biz,” Pollet wrote thatonce the bees find a way to enter a structure, they can and willdevelop a colony in the walls. If that happens, the homeowner mayhave to remove an entire wall.
“To remove bees properly, the beekeeper must open the wall toremove the entire colony,” Pollet wrote. “After the [honey] comb isremoved, wash the walls with either ammonia or bleach to remove thepheromones the bees have put on the wood and the wax left in thewood.”
If these pheromones are not removed, more bees may be attractedto the wall to re-colonize.
Pollet said bees also may enter a home at night because they areattracted to light.
“They may trickle in just a few at a time and later enlarge theoriginal opening and come in — in larger numbers,” Polletsaid.
If bees do colonize in a wall, he said residents should let aprofessional handle the situation because even if all of the beesare removed, the honey left behind could become the source ofadditional problems.
The honey left behind can extract moisture from the air and itssurroundings. This causes fermentation and, once soaked, the honeyrapidly decomposes or breaks down the wood structure, leading tothe potential of severe structural damage, Pollet said in thearticle.
“In a short time, a colony can build enough honeycomb to spanthe open spaces between several wall studs and have it extend fromthe top of the wall to the floor with two or three layers of combper section,” Pollet said in the article. “This much storage canhold a considerable amount of honey.”
The homeowner can determine if they have a bee infestation inmultiple ways, Pollet said. If a wall is suspected of infestation,the homeowner can tap on the wall and listen for buzzing or touchthe wall to feel for warmth. An infested wall will feel severaldegrees warmer than a wall which is not infested.
“The process of removing honeybees from walls in a home iscomplex,” he said. “Most people think they only have to spray andkill the bees. If they see bees in the wall, they need to call alocal bee keeper.”