So, here’s a story, a little long, but something we have had to deal with since we have been here. The day we moved in, we get a knock on the door. An older man, maybe a welcome to the neighborhood, so we thought. The conversation went a little like this.
“Hi, I’m … I live behind you. You know that tree on the fence, well it has bees in it. If you get rid of the bees, we would like to go in 50/50 with you to remove the tree. The bees have been a problem for over 8 months and the tree is hollow, causing a problem if there is ever a storm. Since the tree is on your property line, only four feet from my house, it is a problem.”
Perfect. That is all we need is one more thing to have to deal with, on top of moving in, remodeling the house, and getting settled into life in Florida. We told him we would talk about it and see what we can do about the bees. Fortunately, there has been a paid pest control guy that has been treating this house for quite some time and was very familiar with the “bee tree”. So, we called the pest control guy and he came out numerous times to get rid of these bees, for free.
The day came that the bees looked like they were gone. So the wife from behind us comes over late one night, rings the door bell, and asks for our approval to remove the tree. “I would love to pay for this tree to be removed. All I ask of you is your permission to remove the tree, as it is on your property. It is such a bothersome tree, and it would be just great if we can get it removed.” We agreed, signed the letter saying she would pay fully to remove the tree off of our property.
A few days later, the tree removal company was in my yard, cutting down the tree … so we thought. They removed all the branches and got to the trunk when they discovered the bees were not gone. They asked me to call my pest guy out right away to treat for the bees so they could continue to cut down the tree. Well, of course, the pest control guy was busy and could not get here until the next day, but gave us a recommendation that we could try and kill the bees by setting the hole on fire. Of course, the MEN (I say men because what woman would do this) poured a cup of gasoline in the hole at the top of the tree trunk and set it on fire. The bees were not too thrilled with that, so they got aggravated and started swarming. Needless to say, the guy got stung and decided he would not remove the rest of the tree until the bees were gone.
Pest control guy comes out four additional times, bewildered why these bees are not dying. After about a week and a half, I was told by the neighbor that I needed to hire a true Bee Removal company to get rid of these bees, something I had already gotten estimates on that came to about $200. After talking it over, we decided to just do it and lets get this over with. So, I called a Bee Removal guy and he comes out. He looks at the tree and laughs.
What are you laughing at? I asked. “There is not an active bee hive in this tree. The bees that you see are just flying around scouting out the honey that is in the tree, but there are NO BEES IN THE TREE!” Great, this is costing me how much?! Luckily, the guy was super nice and only charged me $75 instead of $200.
Another call out to the tree guys and they are at the door the next morning. Mission accomplished, the tree has been removed to the stump. Now we have a big 10 foot hole in the fence between us and the neighbors.
So, welcome to the neighborhood Posti Family …
The tree that is full of bees, in the middle of the fence, between the two properties.
Setting the tree on fire to kill the bees.
End of day one, just the trunk left, which is still full of bees.
The trunk after it is removed. The 2nd picture you can see a solid barrier of dead bees. The 4th picture shows part of the trunk solid with honeycomb. The tree was hollow from the ground to about 25 feet up … full of bees!
POST EDIT: We have installed a new fence piece to cover the hole where the tree was standing!
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