Bees!!!

Yesterday afternoon I was sitting at my desk trying to write a humanities paper and I looked out the window and saw stuff flying through the air. At first I thought it was pollen, and then at second look realized it was honey bees. Alot of them. I told my boyfriend and he said someone must have kicked a hive. I got up and went in the living room abd looked out the big window and there were thousands of bees, like a big cloud of them and they swarmed up on my patio! I am on the 3rd floor and they all seemed to gather there. Our neighbor from the 1st floor called because he saw them and he said they flew across the parking lot in a big cloud and then went straight for our patio. There were layers of bees all over the rails, the windows, the roof EVERYWHERE! I was so scared. There is nothing on our patio to attract them. So I don't know who I made mad but it was unreal. I was worried they were gonna get inside through the dryer vent or something. We called the office and the answering service was answering, they said they couldn't do anything until tomorrow. I pleaded with them to get pest control out but they would help. After about 10 minutes the quantity of the bees went down and I thought they were starting to leave. Our downstairs neighbors (2nd floor) came home from out of town and there were bees in their apartment coming through the light fixtures. They called the office as well but didn't get any help. They told her to buy a can of raid! Well after about 10 more minutes they seemed to be gone. Boy were we glad, well 5 minutes later they started swarming again and crawling out of crack between our patio and the wall. There were sooooo many of them. They formed what looke dlike the shape of a hive right there hanging off my rail. A million bees all clustered together in a ball. At that point there weren't many flying around anymore, I assume they were making a hive??? I ran downstairs where a few neighbors had gathered to "admire" the scene. A police officer stopped and appologized he couldn't help but was amazed at the sight. He suggested we call an exterminator ourselves and give the apartments the bill. We called all over looking for one open on a Sunday and the one that was open wouldn't come out because we don't own the building and they would need permission from management at least. Finally I remembered one of our neighbors in the other building was friends with the manager. I went over and he called and the apartments owner came out. At the same time a maintenance guy showed up with 1 can of wasp spray. We all laughed at him. But he went up there and started spraying and clumps of bees fell down all over the place. He had to leave and get 2 more cans. That solved the situation on our patio with the big ball of bees, but they are still in the wall and under our floor. So our downstairs neighbors hear buzzing all over their ceiling! The exterminator is coming out today. The owner was very appologetic that it took so long to get help. He said the answering service probably thought we were exagerating, but he could see we were not. I had never in my life seen anything like it, it was soooo weird.

Dori (my one year old kitty) was looking out the windows and chirping like crazy! That part was kind of funny. I had her carrier and stuff out and ready to go in case the bees got inside. I was going to bring her to work with me today just in case something happened before the exterminator got there. But my boyfriend took today off and promised to take care of her. I just hope they get rid of all the bees and SOON!

one bee is bad enough for me, but a swarm, aaaaaaaaaaargh!.

Rosie would have loved them!

If it's not too late Dori should really not be inside when the exterminator sprays. I had my apartment done a few years ago and the exterminator told me to keep gus out for 8 hours

I was assuming that my boyfriend would ask to exterminator when he came about that since he is there with her. But now that you mentioned that I am wondering if it is safe to assume he will think to ask I better call him and remind him!

Holy cow, I would have freaked out soo much. I can't stand any insect that flies, especially ones that sting to! I would probably end up taping every little crack shut, like vents and windows. At least you finally got the owner to see whats going on.

The bees were swarming, looking for a place to establish another colony. If this happens again, look in the Yellow Pages, under "Beekeepers". Most of them will gladly come and remove the swarm and transport them to their own hives.

That sounds very scary and dangerous, especially your downstairs neighbor's problem with the bees actually getting into their apartment.

I hope you don't have anymore problems like that!

OMG that is scary. My mum is extremely alergic to bees & wasps, and I've never been stung so I might be as well. Good luck today let us know how it goes. *hugs*

oh my.. i would get so freaked out!! Living over here, we hardly have such huge amount of bees around... i would probably run for my life if I see so many of them!

I shudder at the thought!!! I am so afraid of bees, reading that got me all worked up.

Well, the apartments sent a beekeeper out yesterday. They came in all dressed in a white protective suit and pulled some boards off the bottom of the wall on my patio. A bunch flew out, apparently they have set up camp there and are trying to make honey comb! The beekeepers want to set up a bee trap and one of us, my boyfriend or I, (it won't be me) has to spray sugar water on the trap once it has been set to attract the bees. I am not sure what they will do if that won't work. I just say get rid of them, the sooner the better! I am very nervous about Dori being at home alone today. They so far have not gotten into our apartment. But they did get into the downstairs neighbors through the light fixtures. So they are under our floors (we are on the top floor). I don't know how the apartments are built so I don't know if it is possible for them to travel through the walls to the ceiling and get in our fixtures, or even if it is possible for them to get into the ac system. Tomorrow and Thursday I will be the only one in my office I am planning on bringing her to work with me just to bee safe.

I'd be freaking out right now if I were you!!!!! Good luck with getting rid of those bees....I wouldn't be able to even sleep there knowing how close they are......

You may already know this, but I just wanted to share this link about bee stings since you are still having problems at your apartment building. http://www.mckinley.uiuc.edu/health-.../beesting.html You didn't say if either you or your boyfriend are allergic to bees, but I have been told that even if you're not allergic being stung quite a few times can be fatal. My son is allergic to bee stings, and a nurse once told me that if a person is going to have a severe life-threatening reaction to a bee sting it will occur within 20 minutes after being stung, and the person needs to get to an ER immediately.

Lori, thank you for posting that link. It's good to know what to do in case one of us got stung. Neither I or my boyfriend is allergic to bees. If we had been I probably would have taken up the apartment complex on their offer of letting us stay in one of their corporate apartments until the situation was resolved. The bees seem to be staying in the wall, there have been probably only been 10-20 swarming around the hole in the wall (enough to keep me from using my patio). I say only because it is better than the thousands on Sunday. I brought Dori to work with me today. She is acting a little unsettled because she is away from home. She is just walking around meowing. I feel bad for her, but hopefully she will settle down soon. I work in a nice office with lots of windows for her to look out of. It's much better than her being there when the beekeepers go into the attic today. My biggest fear is they are going to open it and as soon as they do bees will swarm inside. I just can't wait for this to all be over.

I saw this story on the news and immediately thought of you. At least your problem isn't this bad....yet!

http://www.9news.com/acm_news.aspx?O...7-c589c01ca7bf

EWWWW! 50,000-100,000 bees! That's alot.

I did find out that 5-6 years ago they had to remove all of the siding on the backside of my apartment building. Thousands of bees were at work making honeycomb. They said by the time they were done they had removed 6- 5 gallon buckets of honey comb. Since they removed those bees they haven't had any problem. Since this problem arose, I didn't even know bees would settle in buildings. I assumed they lived in trees or something. I also never knew that thousands worked together either. Dumb me was living on the images of Winnie the Pooh stealing honey from hives with only 20-30 bees!

This story reminded me of a (much less dramatic!) incident at our home a few years ago. We were having our chimney fixed/redone, and had called in a couple of burly, strong men to do the job. The dog was going nuts seeing the guys on the roof, and hearing them thumping around, so I decided to take her for a walk. When I got back, my mother had a big grin on her face as she told me she heard a great commotion on the roof and saw one of the guys waving his arms and making a real attempt at imitating a ballerina. When they came down and it was time to pay, she asked the guy if the total price included the "danse folklorique" (folk dance), and the guy looked up at her, a big red bump on his nose and said "you have bees".

Last summer my boyfriend and I were painting his house and noticed a hive in the brick foundation..call us dumb and dumber on this...we-or I should say HE and my sorry butt followed along. Anyways, he gets the water hose and I get the can of bee spray (notice I get the hard job). Figuring we can scare them out and spray them with the spray, kill them, caulk up the hole and we'd be on our way..

Several bee stings later we decide that wasnt all that great an idea after all, ran for cover, waited for them to calm down and just caulked up the hole to trap them inside and they would all die..(again HIS plan and I followed ) wrong again...they came thru the wall of his house and into the basement within a few days he had a beehive forming between the walls. I called an expert to come deal with them.

If you hear buzzing after they are done, you need to call back soon..I didnt know bees would come through the walls if they were trapped.

This whole thread is giving me the willies.

I watched the news cast thing and I think I would move out of that place dream home or not if I had bees like that in there!!

I HATE BEES!!!

I am sooo ready to move. We JUST signed a 12 month lease 1 month ago. They did not even go out to our apartment yesterday. This is a holiday weekend and I am sure everyone will be closed. I felt like I was very patient and understanding with the whole situation and now they are dragging their feet on fixing it. How would they feel if they had bees buzzing in their walls Sorry to get so mad but I hate it when they don't take care of what they say they are going to!