PEST UK / Featured / How a PEST UK technician extracted a bee nest

How a PEST UK technician extracted a bee nest

Bee nest extraction

In November 2022, one of our technicians, Rick Pellen, attended a property in Oxfordshire with two live bee nests in the roof space over a downstairs cloakroom. The nests had been there for several years and honey was seeping through the ceiling into the rooms below. The weight of the nests was making the roof bow which was causing rainwater to cause damp inside the roof space.

Bee nest extraction is only permitted if the nest is located somewhere inconvenient or dangerous for people living or working nearby, or if it’s causing damage to property. In this case, the roof was suffering from damage caused by the weight of the nests and the ceiling was disintegrating because of the honey seepage.

It wasn’t possible to rehome the bees as an attempt to treat them with insecticide had been made previously so the remaining bees were contaminated.

What does a PEST UK technician do to extract a bee nest?

To access the nests Rick had to remove the roof tiles. He then scraped out all the honeycomb which weighed 40kg. After the debris and honey had been removed he treated the roof space with a biocidal spray.

Rick replaced the roof tiles and ensured there was no points of access to the roof space to protect

Why is it necessary to extract a bee nest early?

If the bee nests had been dealt with professionally earlier the bees could have been rehomed. There would have been less bees to deal with, less debris and honey to remove, and less damage to the property caused by the honey and weight of the nests. The extraction w0uld have required less disruption to the structure of the property as the nest would’ve been smaller.

For more information see the page on Bee Nest Extraction