Welcome to SJBR
San Jose Bee RemovalsIn case the cell phone is off (driving, working, flat battery, forgot to turn back on etc) you can either leave voice mail or email. Useful information is an explanation of where the bees are located, means of access, degree of urgency, address and phone number to call back. Digital photos attached to an email are helpful.
Comcast now requires a security code to send an email via the Contact link above. Efforts to enter the code from many PC and Mac browsers will be rejected, it only works for readers browsing with Explorer 7 or above. It is much less aggravating to email BeeRemovals at yahoo dot com .
Readers who want to purchase raw, local honey can place orders at Local Harvest.
Bees in a swarm form a cluster around their queen, and are calm because they have no home to protect. The swarm leaves within a few days after arrival to build a nest about a mile away. If left alone the swarm is not a danger, but the bees will defend themselves if they are pressured. If the swarm is at 10' or higher there is little reason to remove it. Similarly, there is more cause to remove a low-hanging swarm from a sidewalk tree than one in the backyard which can be left undisturbed until its departure.
See SWARMS for information about why they occur, and how they behave.
Bees can be a nuisance, but the nest itself is a bigger problem. The combs in the nest store honey, pollen and brood. The death or extermination of a colony means that without bees to care for the nest, the comb eventually collapses. Warm honey can seep through sheetrock in ceilings and walls, leak out under baseboards, and even penetrate between the stories of a house. There are tens of thousands of bees in a strong nest and not only do dead bees stink, they can be a health risk as they are a magnet for ants, rodents, roaches and other pests.
Bees nest in attics, chimneys, soffets, and partitions such as those in garage walls, garden sheds, older houses without insulation, and freestanding walls.
See ATTICS for information about the behavior of bees in high locations, and the difficulties facing a homeowner who wants to see them removed.
Trapping is a non-destructive alternative to removal. It takes several weeks and is costly because of the labor-intensive nature of the task. The benefit to trapping is that the nest does not have to be exposed, so it is non-destructive.
See TRAPPING for more details on the method of trapping colonies.
It is easier and cheaper to remove a nest when the bees are alive. Removal of a nest requires exposing it so that bees can be vacuumed off and the combs removed. Honeycombs are placed in buckets. Brood combs are tied into frames so they can be installed into a hive.
The largest nests tend to be found in the joists between floors of multi-story homes. The entry point is typically around the unsealed flanges of a kitchen or bathroom exhaust. Removals are done from below, by cutting out the sheetrock of the ceiling between the joists. Honey drips cause a mist which is deposited everywhere in the room, so the floor and furniture must be covered before removal begins.
Nests in the partition wall of a garage or shed are easier to remove. The sheetrock between the studs is cut out, and only the area of floor immediately around the partition needs to be covered. Underfloors are difficult, there is little space under the house, so removal may require cutting out a section of flooring between beams.
See ARRIVALS for information about ways to handle an arriving swarm that has entered a partition.
The costs associated with a removal are not compensated for by the removed bees. To do a job correctly is time-consuming, the price of gas is high, and the beekeeper runs the risk of introducing diseases and pests if the removed bees are mixed with his own stock.
Every removal varies (see EXAMPLES ), and the actual cost is affected by type of removal, distance, travel time (portal-to-portal), job time, difficulty involved, preparation (the floor and perhaps the walls need to be covered inside a house), height above ground, etc. The ranges for the services below are indicative only, and do not include repairs.
- Collect swarm of bees.......... $ 75 - 200
- Remove bees from wall........ $ 300 - 500
- Remove bees from above....... $ 500 - 1,000
- Trapping a colony of bees.... $ 500 - 1,000
- Clean up exterminated nest.. $1,500 - 3,000
A site visit which is fruitless (swarm call but swarm gone, wasps not bees, etc) is $100 plus travel time.
Estimates, evaluations, reports et al are provided at a cost of $100/hour plus travel time.