6,000 Bees Removed From Inside Wall Of 100-Year-Old Home

Worker bees on a honeycomb

Photo: Getty Images

About 6,000 bees were recently removed from inside the wall of a couple's home in Nebraska.

Thomas and Marylu Gouttierre told the Omaha World-Herald that they initially spotted a swarm flying outside their kitchen window and about 30 bees in a second-floor bedroom of their 100-year-old Omaha home.

“If you put your ears to the wall you could hear the buzzing,” said Thomas Gouttierre, a retired dean at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, who had previously lead the college's Center for Afghanistan Studies.

The couple said they planted bee-friendly flowers outside their brick home, but were surprised to find them inside.

Gouttierre said they initially thought to call an exterminator, “but we’ve been reading and there are a lot of great shows on PBS ‘Nature’ about how important bees are to pollinating the world in which we live.”

Instead, the couple contacted two members of the Omaha Bee Club, Larry Cottle of Countryside Acres Aviary and Ryan Gilligan of Gilly's Gold, who relocated the winged-insects safely for a fee of $600.

Gouttierre said three honeycombs were discovered inside the walls, which he and his wife tasted, before Gilligan transported the bees to his acreage.

Gilligan said he's removed bees from numerous living spaces during the past seven years, which included removing 15,000 bees from the last home he responded to.


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