2 swarms issued, but INSIDE the house

[D Coates]

I reviewed a possible cut out yesterday in a rural house that has been unoccupied for 2 years.  The realtor has to get the hive removed before putting it on the market.  The hive appears to be living in the basement wall and floor joists.  At some point they chewed through the ceiling tile and even built some exposed comb that's now abandoned.  It had to be HUGE at one time.  The hive either died and a swarm has moved in or they have swarmed so many times their population is down dramatically.  They are bringing in pollen so there's active larva in there.  The trafic flow to and from the entrance is that of a swarm and there are adult wax moths present in the basement.  Nonetheless while reviewing this there were what appeared to be 2 swarms that had issued and died inside the house.  The dead bees were in front of the windows, 2" to 3" deep and 8"-10" wide and 2' long.  Fortunately they'd been dead for a year or so, so the smell was gone.

My photos don't do it justice so I'll get more if I get the job.  It was creepy down there and I expected to hear, "It puts the lotion on it's skin or it gets the hose again" any second...    Has anyone seen something like this before?

[danno]

do you mean a swarm inside  house or a creepy guy wearing womens skin looking down a dry well?

[D Coates]

Oh heck, at my family reunions the creepy guy wearing womans skin looking down a dry well is common.  It's the ones that appear normal that raise my red flags.... ;)

[JP]

I see it on a regular basis. Likely an accumulation from years of bees getting inside, confused, can't get out and die by the windows.


...JP

[BlueBee]

I’ve seen some very run down foreclosed houses, but haven’t seen one with a bee hive in the basement yet!  Wow.  The foreclosure process is pretty long in Michigan and by the time the banks have full legal possession of the homes, many times they are destroyed by mold. 

[D Coates]

I see it on a regular basis. Likely an accumulation from years of bees getting inside, confused, can't get out and die by the windows.


...JP

Actually that makes more sense.  I expected to see at least some comb where the respective "swarms" clustered but there was none.  However, in both cases 99% of them were on the outside of the curtain not the inside by the window.  Either way it was creepy down there, but I've been in worse.