My family has a 100 year old farm house south of Abilene that I discovered a bee hive in the wall this weekend. Bees were coming out of the hole for the electrical wire for the porch light.

I sprayed in the morning with Bifen I/T when they were still inside from the cold. Sprayed it all around and into the hole. Result was a bunch of dead bees on the porch and even more coming out of the gaps in the walls in the basement. That was a surprise, I had not seen bees in the basement. They were piling up dead against the wall and window. I don't think they have been there for long, I was out there about three months ago and didn't see any, but it was still pretty cold and they might have been hibernating. I'm concerned they will come back if there is a honeycomb in the wall. I plan to spray some expanding foam in the exterior hole and most of the cracks in the basement (leave a space to spray more poison in the wall) and then continue to retreat with the Bifen I/T every quarter to prevent a new hive. The Bifen I/T has 30+ day residual and is really effective.

Any other suggestions?

had bees in an exterior garage wall.

I found a guy willing to remove them. He cut down the sheetrock and closed the garage behind him. The next day the bees were docile enough and sticking to the exposed comb he vacuumed them into several 5 gal bucket. He took most of the comb for the bees to have something to eat. Came back the next day and replaced the sheetrock.

Did all this over three days and only charged me for the sheetrock...

I'll 2nd Gator. Bee guys will come and do the work for you so they can get the hive. Honey bees are in a huge decline and beekeepers want them.
We had a hive in a storage building here at the ranch. I contacted our FSA office and they had a list of bee keepers in our area. The first one I called was at the house in two hours. He did his deal and got the entire hive, honeycomb and all. He did all the work and charged me nada. He just wanted the bees.

To note you do need to remove the hive, not just kill the bees.

You will have repair costs as they have to open the wall to get the hive and queen out.

I used 1% tempo powder on a pretty large wasp infestation in my house a few years ago, like 30 ish sentries at the opening. Got a little squeeze ball sprayer and coated the entry hole one evening. They will track it back in to wherever the nest is, worked well.

But yeah, if it was bees I probably would have looked into having someone come get them.

Unfortunately that is what I thought the answer would be. Tearing into this old house is also kind of a risky undertaking. The walls are paneling, built before drywall became a thing. I live in Dallas and being there for a multiple day event requires some planning.

Like some of the comments above, I had honey bees in the walls of the ranch house a few years ago. I found a guy on the link below in my county to come out and remove the bees and the entire honeycomb by cutting open the exterior wall (and screwing back on).

Overall it worked out well. He relocated the bees to do what bees do and it wasn't that expensive.

https://txbeeinspection.tamu.edu/bee-removal/

ShinerDunk93 said:

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Unfortunately that is what I thought the answer would be. Tearing into this old house is also kind of a risky undertaking. The walls are paneling, built before drywall became a thing. I live in Dallas and being there for a multiple day event requires some planning.

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You're looking at damage no matter what. Kill the bees and now you have a sugar source for insects and rodents. You just have to decide what has the least cost, repairing the outside or the inside.

Repairing inside buys you time as you don't have to worry about weather exposure.

Thanks for this

So you are saying honey, that doesn't spoil or go bad, in the walls is a bad thing?

Didn't think about that, Thanks

Had this in a similar age home - removed the paneling from the outside , removed the bees , then replace the plywood underneath - can't see any evidence of the removal

Dad had to deal with a hive of Bees in the wall of the old UP train station near Alamodome on San Antonio. Beekeeper came out first and captured the bees. Hauled them off and returned with another hive. Over the course of a few days the second hive had completely removed the honey from the wall and put in their own hive.. then hauled them off and construction crew removed honeycomb.
Pretty cool and easy process.

Honey kept in a sealed container in the dark will 'never' spoil.

Honey that is in comb in a wall that is poorly ventilated and somewhat exposed to the elements as well as bugs and vermin will 100% rot.

Quit spraying them with poison and get someone to come capture them. This has been covered on this board a number of times.

We need bees if we want to eat.

Not needed. The message was conveyed

Call an exterminator.

My son heard humming in the pantry wall. He later started seeing single bees in there so he found a local bee keeper to come remove the hive. They accessed the hive from an outside wall, removing the wooden panel. Didn't want bees all in the house accessing from inside.

They located the queen, isolated her in a small container and the hive ended up going along with her. Went real smooth, even had some honeycomb as a treat! If you can, relocate them, don't kill them. They're too valuable.

I had some bees behind the soffit of my house they might have been in the attic too. I tried to get them out and save them (long story) but it didn't work so I used a bug bomb on them. Someone told me that if I didn't get the comb and honey out I would have all kinds of bug problems but never did and the bees never came back.

Also I didn't want anyone tearing my house up.