Honey Bee Removal in Spokane and North Idaho
Honey bees are the one pest we don’t want to kill. We’re beekeepers, and we’ve kept hundreds of colonies over the years. When bees swarm into your yard or move into your walls, we take them out alive and give them a new home in our apiary.
Or call 208-889-9222. Monday to Friday 9 to 5, emergency call-outs available.
Found a swarm? Call us.
A swarm is a group of bees that has broken off from its colony. They’ve left home and are resting on a branch, a fence or the side of your house while scouts look for a permanent place to live. A swarm in the air is a dark cloud and the noise is loud and awe-inspiring, but a resting swarm is as gentle as bees ever get.
Bees swarm for a few reasons. Usually the queen is aging or the colony has outgrown its home, so the colony raises new queens (yes, more than one) and the old queen leaves with half the bees. Call us at 208-889-9222 and we’ll come get them. We move them to our apiary, where they keep doing what bees do best: pollinating and making honey. Capturing the swarm also keeps them from picking your wall as their new home.
Bees in the wall? Don’t spray them.
When bees move into a wall or roof, they get busy immediately. They can build a surprising amount of comb and honey in a few days, and a colony can store more than 100 pounds of honey. The bees keep that wax at about 94°F. Kill the bees and nobody’s keeping it cool. The wax melts, and honey drips through walls and onto floors. Honey and wax left in a wall draw ants, rats, cockroaches and, sadly, more bees. That’s why most pest companies that will kill bees make you sign a waiver for the damage left behind.
We do it differently. We open the wall and remove the bees, the comb and the honey, so there’s nothing left to melt or attract pests. It costs more than extermination, and the peace of mind can be worth far more.
Why did the bees choose MY house?
Bees like dark, cool spaces with a small entrance and plenty of room to grow. Wall and ceiling cavities are perfect. A colony needs a hole no bigger than a pencil to get in. If you hear humming in a wall or see steady bee traffic in and out of one spot on the house, that’s a colony, and the sooner you call the less there is to remove. We’ve taken bees out of walls, roofs, yard decorations, tractors, police cars and National Historic Monuments.
What to expect
- Inspection and quote first. Every bee job is different, so we look before we price it, and you know the cost before we start.
- We open the wall. Removing a colony means opening the drywall or siding. We’re not drywall contractors and don’t do the repair, but we know people we recommend.
- The bees go to our apiary.
- Is it a honey bee? Fuzzy, round and golden: a honey bee or bumblebee, and we save those. Smooth, shiny and narrow-waisted: a wasp or yellowjacket, which we handle on our wasp page.
Ready to rescue some bees?
Or call 208-889-9222. An owner does every service, and there’s no sign-up fee. Serving Spokane, Coeur d’Alene, Post Falls, Hayden, Rathdrum, Sandpoint and the Silver Valley.