After spending Independence Day weekend with the in-laws, my family and I returned home, ready to settle back into our routine. I’ve been sticking to a ketogenic diet lately, so like usual, I fired up the grill in the backyard to cook some patties.
That’s when I noticed a bee hovering a bit too close for comfort. Normally, these things follow me for a few steps and then lose interest. Not this one. It tailed me all the way into the house. When I went back outside to flip the burgers, there it was again. Same thing happened later when I stepped out to do some light yard work during my lunch hour.
My wife came home after picking up the kids and sure enough, she was harassed too. We assumed it might’ve been a deer fly, since we’ve had a deer hanging around the property lately. But after dinner, during our usual evening walk, a few of them came at me again, bouncing off the back of my head. I bailed and headed inside. My wife kept walking, but not for long and she got stung on the nose. She came back in with a few of the pests still on her shirt and confirmed: honey bees.
The nearest neighbor is between a quarter and half a mile away and they keep bees. We’ve dealt with them before. They usually give us a heads-up when they’re treating the hives for mites because the bees get agitated. So we gave them a call.
Turns out, the neighbor’s son—the beekeeper—had recently transported the queen to another location across the state and accidentally dropped a bunch of bees in the process. Without their queen, the remaining bees were angry, disoriented, and had started harassing us every time we stepped outside. From what we researched, this kind of behavior could continue for up to two weeks until they died off. Problem is, we had things to do and we couldn’t spend two weeks under siege.
With permission from both the neighbor and her son, I was cleared to exterminate the bees. The plan was to do it around 9:10 p.m., once they’d returned to wherever they were nesting for the night. These bees were already doomed without their queen - I was just speeding up the process.
But first, I needed to find the hive.
I charged up the drone and flew it over the suspected area. The drone got swarmed, but I got it back safely and managed to spot part of a box where bees were gathering. I drove over to confirm, and the car was attacked too, but I had a fix on their location.
At 9:10 sharp, I suited up: overalls, sweatshirt, long gloves, and a headlamp. I grabbed my poison of choice: a mix I always keep on hand: water, surfactant, and Demand CS, a long-acting insecticide. It doesn’t kill on contact but works over the next few minutes or hours and stays effective for up to 30 days. It saved me from an elm seed bug invasion a month ago.
I crossed a low spot in the fence and crept into the tall grass, accidentally spooking a baby deer in the process. Found another low gap in the next fence and made my way to the box near a Russian Olive tree. No activity. Still, I sprayed the tree and the box thoroughly and flipped part of it over. Nothing. Sprayed again for good measure.
On my way back, I spotted a fence post absolutely swarming with honey bees. Jackpot! I sprayed it hard. As I turned to take some photos, they got loud, real loud. I sprayed again and got the hell out of there. One even followed me for a bit on my retreat.
The next day? Quiet. No bees. No one in my family has been bothered since.
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