For a self-described “bee whisperer,” heaven might be a giant hive—who knows? Sometimes here on earth though, a beehive can be almost too big.
David Glover calls himself “The Bartlett Bee Whisperer” because he lives in Bartlett, Tennessee, and he makes his living wrangling bees—that is, he removes their hives from unwanted locations.
Generally, he is serving homeowners who do not relish the thought of sharing their property with swarms of stinging insects.
But there can be too much of a good thing.
“Every once in a while I get a call that makes me cringe,” Glover said on his Facebook page.
Every once in a while I get a call that makes me cringe. Sometimes the bees are way up high, and sometimes it's bricks….
Опубликовано The Bartlett Bee Whisperer Пятница, 28 сентября 2018 г.
“Sometimes the bees are way up high, and sometimes it’s bricks. I prefer to be minimally invasive when removing honey bees from buildings. I don’t like taking out bricks.”
His reaction when he had to remove a giant hive from behind a brick wall of a house in nearby Germantown, Tennessee?
“As much as I dreaded removing the bricks, the final view of the hive was AWESOME!”
Glover described the hive as “one of the largest single pieces of comb I’ve ever seen!”
Well, the large red spot is the brood area of the hive. The thin red line on the left is the weep hole entrance.
Опубликовано The Bartlett Bee Whisperer Пятница, 28 сентября 2018 г.
A Delicate Process of Controlled Destruction
As a Bee Whisperer, David Glover can’t go barging in doing damage—he has to work carefully to preserve the human home and the bee’s home.
At this house in Germantown, Glover had no idea how big the problem might be. He did know the hive was between an exterior brick wall and an interior wall, so some demolition would be needed.
Apparently the homeowners had hired an ordinary exterminator to kill the hive. Glover says on his Facebook page that the wax seemed to have stopped the spread of the poison. So—The Bee Whisperer got the call.
Glover started by taking an infrared picture of the hive so he would know where he had to work.
He then found the bee’s access point—a tiny hole between two bricks. He shot smoke into the hole to anesthetize the bees, then got out a drill and started punching holes in the mortar.
More holes, more smoke, some judicious application of a Sawzall, and finally Glover could start gently removing the wall, one brick at a time.
Removing a slice of brood comb holding seven of the thirteen queen cells. On the left side of the hive I found a large…
Опубликовано The Bartlett Bee Whisperer Пятница, 28 сентября 2018 г.
It didn’t take too long for Glover to see that the hive was four feet across. A few more rows of bricks later and he could see it was even taller than it was wide.
Glover found 13 queen bees in the hive, busily producing the next generation. He gently cut up and removed the queen-bearing combs, and then cut up and pulled down the rest of the gigantic hive.
This is what I mean by AWESOME. The comb wasn't overly-attached to the bricks AND this is one of the largest single…
Опубликовано The Bartlett Bee Whisperer Пятница, 28 сентября 2018 г.
The whole process took him more than four hours. When he was done, the house was bee-free, the bees were ready to set up hives in some place where they were welcome, and the Bee Whisperer had nary a sting.
In fact, getting stung might not be the worst part of having a hive like this in your house.
Mitzisb05 asked Glover on his YouTube page, “Curious…how much would a removal like that cost? Would be worth every cent!”
Glover replied, “’I’m cheaper than an electrician.”
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