It was 60,000 bees.

When three-year-old Saylor Class began complaining of monsters in her bedroom, her parents thought it was just a figment of a child's overactive imagination.

But then a beekeeper discovered tens of thousands of honeybees above the girl's bedroom.

Saylor had complained of "monsters in the wall" of her room at their farmhouse in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Her mother, Ashley Massis Class, and her husband thought nothing of it...

But over the following months, Saylor became more insistent that there was something in her closet...

She and her husband contacted a beekeeper who noticed the insects were travelling towards the floorboards of the attic - right above her daughter's bedroom.

The bees had spent eight months building the monster hive.

The beekeeper brought a thermal camera to scan the walls in the three-year-old's bedroom.

"It lit up like Christmas," Ms Massis Class said.


The beekeeper said he had never seen a hive go that far down into the wall...

The beekeeper has removed between 55,000 and 65,000 bees and 100lb of honeycomb...

The honeybees and their honey damaged the house's electric wiring,.. She said her homeowner's insurance won't cover anything pest-related because they deem it preventable.

She estimates the bees have caused more than $20,000 in damages.

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"I drank WHAT?" (Socrates)

Doesn't take much to cause $20k of damage to a home. My slow drain leak from upstairs that trashed some kitchen cabinets and part of the dining room floor will likely come out at about that much. Insurance just shrugged me off with "slow leaks are a maintenance issue". So I'm supposed to have X-ray vision such that I can spot a leak inside a wall. Yeah, sure.

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Release the Kraken

My dad had a little house in Renton, WA. He was telling me one day when I went across state for a visit that he was hearing a humming sound in his bedroom when he was trying to go to sleep.
I went into his room sat on his bed and listened, nothing. Later that evening I went back in and only then could I hear the humming sound coming from the wall behind where the head of his bed was. The next day we went out and checked out the outside and sure enough within a few minutes found a small "knothole" where a knot had fallen out and left a hole maybe 1/2" in diameter which was perfect for the yellowjackets that were occasionally coming and going. He said he would get someone to check it out and deal with it. We went on with the visit and I left for home.
As it turned out he hired a guy that came over and injected a poisonous foam into the hole and then sealed it up, sure enough the humming stopped and Dad thought it was solved. Problem was that the area where the nest was eventually started turning the wallboard damp and Dad ended up replacing an area about three feet square. He broke into the area and found the dampness of the foam reacting with the bodies of wasps and their larval young was enough to create a problem for the old drywall. Dad had enough experience to fix the problem and repaint the wall, solved the issue but who would think getting rid of a yellowjacket nest would create that much trouble.
I used to have problems at the lake with grilling and yellowjackets bugging me, I hung up homemade traps that worked to keep them off me but there always seemed to be more than a few. I tracked them down and found they were living in the rocky area across the road and not lakefront property. I was talking to a buddy and he said just pour a cup full of gasoline on the rocks, that'll take care of them. I did and it seemed to slow them down, I eventually poured about a gallon on them and set it on fire, all safe and sound with hose and all ready for a problem. Then we dug around and found they had a nest that was built over years interconnected between rocks, etc. It was quite the complex, they were never a serious problem again. My wife was happy...

When we'd go deer hunting, my folks would usually get there 2-3 days before opening day. One of the reasons was to hang the yellowjacket traps. By the time we would have a deer in camp, the yellowjackets were pretty much gone. Which is good, because trying to skin a deer in a cloud of yellowjackets is an experience I do not recommend.

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The best I can with what I got

I wonder if she felt better knowing that she hadn’t been sleeping with monsters after all, but rather 65000 stinging bees ?

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the rules? there are no rules

My gf had a lot of trouble with yellowjackets in her garden as they had made a long, deep ground nest. Like your dad she called in an exterminator who injected a lot of foam into the nest. She is now really vigilant in the spring and tries to catch and kill any queen she finds. Yellowjackets (and bull-faced hornets) can be really nasty and aggressive. She leaves paper wasps alone as they rarely bother her and are good pollinators.

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"I drank WHAT?" (Socrates)

When I was a little tyke my Dad always had a hive of two of honey bees in the garden. He always said you don't mess with them and they won't mess with you.
I can remember how he would occasionally reach would out and grab one in midair. He would cup it in his hand and have me listen to it buzzing in his palm. The first time I tried it I learned about the difference between a worker bee and a drone.....

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Dean
SWCA #680 SWHF #446

LOL. At least they were "beneficial monsters". And our European honey bees only sting as a last resort as they die after stinging, although if you disturb that many there are likely to be a lot of "kamikazes." I hope they got some honey out of the disaster.

I helped my neighbour's son up the street move several boxes of combs one summer. I was in shorts and a t-shirt (!) but didn't get stung. A far cry from moving 65k bees out of a wall cavity, though!

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"I drank WHAT?" (Socrates)

Glad she didn't end up with them coming into the room. Then the monsters would be potentially dangerous.

We had a lake house for many years. It was built in the 40's and had a low ceiling with drywall installed sometime after the original construction. One day a friend and I went up for the weekend and I noticed what looked like a small wet spot on the ceiling. I reached up and touched it thinking it was a leak. Immediately a hornet crawled out of the small hole. I sealed it with tape and we went and got some spray. Not the best way to handle it but two young guys and a couple of beers add up to silly solutions. We poked that can up in the hole and sprayed till it was empty and they kept coming out. We covered the hole and left. Later that spring my dad got an exterminator to check it out. The nest was huge, spanned the joists and was close to 4ft long. We had no idea what we were dealing with and probably were lucky they had no access to us, or I am sure we would have gotten stung a bunch. I now approach what appear to be nest entry / exits of hornets and wasps with respect.

Had something similar: Hornets got into the sash weight pocket of a second floor window. That was solvable with a couple of cans of Raid.

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SWCA #3356, SWHF#611

Bee invasions happen a lot more than most realize.

Bees like baseball. Who knew?

Bee-ware! Swarm of bees causes delay at Diamondbacks-Dodgers game

The Arizona Diamondbacks game was delayed because of an invasion of bees that formed a hive in the netting behind home plate.

The game was halted during the first inning after the bees became so disruptive that players could not stay in the area near home plate without fighting off the attacks.
Fans in the front rows were also evacuated because of the swarm...

In 2014, a swarm of bees interrupted a game between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox.

Another game was halted in 2019 between the Miami Marlins and San Diego Padres.

Just last year in 2023, a game between the Colorado Rockies and Baltimore Orioles was delayed because of a swarm at Camden Yards, home of the Orioles...

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"I drank WHAT?" (Socrates)

I love the fact they let the beekeeper who came to deal with the bees throw out the first pitch.

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The best I can with what I got

The only thing worse than a Killer Bee is a Land Shark.

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

Would that be the Norfolk Land Shark*?





* So called because the oversize fin was all you could see above the hedges around RAF Marham in Norfolk.

Attached Images

NorfolkLandShark.jpg (146.4 KB, 53 views)

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Release the Kraken

Many years back we were chased out of deer camp, just too many wasps. Later found out about wasp traps, used them often later on. Also found that hot dogs will not work as wasp bait, No meat in them. Bacon, fish, deer guts all work just fine.

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Music/Sports/Beer fan