Canberra Residents Face Sticky Situation

It was only when a leaking waterbed forced them to pull up the carpet that a Canberra couple, Dorothy and Rhys Barron, discovered they had a bee problem.

Under the carpet was a trail of honey leading into a bedroom cupboard. When they pulled the wall panelling off inside the cupboard, a 23kg hive of honeycomb, honey and dead bees confronted them.

The Barron’s had recently called in a pest controller to block off a small entrance to their roof space when they saw bees buzzing around outside the house.

However, they had expected it to be a small nest in the roof cavity, not  a monster hive sandwiched between the bedroom and bathroom walls.

Their pest controller recommended lime and eucalyptus oil to combat the overpowering smell of sickly honey. The odour took weeks to disappear.

The Beekeepers Association of the ACT  said September to December is high season for bees to swarm and search for nesting sites in roofs, wall spaces and trees.

One local pest controller told the Canberra Times they attended a call to evict bees about once a week, and even more often in summer.

The controller warned residents not to try to move bees or wasps themselves. Bees sting once, but wasps can sting multiple times so it’s best to call in the professionals to avoid any injury.

Source: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/sticky-situation-for-canberra-couple-20130728-2qsze.html