Service Overview:

Welcome to Hive Pro Bee Removal, your bee control experts serving southern California.  We are capable of solving any issue related to flying stinging insects, whether its a swarm of africanized bees, yellow jackets nesting in the ground, or a honey bee hive in your roof.  We specialize in chemical-free live honey bee removal and long term solutions to bee infestations, but we are also a licensed exterminator.

Honey bees make colonies in structures, trees and other spots that consist of thousands of bees and a large wax honeycomb.  Hive Pro Bee Removal provides several services (discussed below) to deal with these colonies and other similar insects

BEEHIVE REMOVAL AND STRUCTURAL REPAIRS:

When we’re performing a bee hive removal, we not only remove the actual bees, we remove the honey-comb that they’ve made as well. Honeycomb is made of a waxy hexagonal structure that holds liquid honey and bee larvae called brood. Bees start to make honey-comb a day or two after arriving at a hive location. After just a week, bees can make more than a pound of honey-comb. When bees have been working on a hive for a few months it is typical for the hive to weigh 10 to 20 pounds, and if a bee hive has been around for a year or more it is not uncommon for it to weigh hundreds of pounds. Hive Pro removes all the honeycomb, cleans the hive space and treats the area to eliminate odors of the honey-comb and bee pheromones.  The service comes with a warranty insuring that the bees will not come back.

When we remove bee hives from buildings, we repair any openings made to extract the hive, and completely seal the structure as a final precaution. Hive Pro’s expert technicians have years of experience repairing stucco, drywall, plaster, carpentry, siding and roofs (roof repairs are guaranteed leak-free).  Our structural pest control license entitles us to do repairs and modifications associated with pests.

THE IMPORTANCE OF REMOVING HONEYCOMB

There are a few reasons it is necessary to remove the honey-comb, even if all the bees have been removed or eradicated. Bees have a very fine sense of smell, and the odor of an old hive will attract bees in the surrounding area for years. If they smell honey-comb they will attempt to re-occupy the site. Even if the hive space is sealed, bees will make hives in other parts of the structure, or in nearby trees. Honey is an attractive food source for many other pests such as rats, roaches, and ants, as well. These pests will also try to get into the abandoned hive to feast. Lastly, the honey itself can cause damage to the building: if there are no bees present to tend to the hive and maintain the temperature of the honey-comb, it will melt and seep into building materials. Hives in roofs are especially problematic, as the honey will start to drip through the drywall ceiling.

NOT ALL BEEHIVE REMOVAL IS EQUAL:

As discussed above, to get rid of bees for good, it is necessary to remove the odor of a hive.  Occasionally we get calls from people who have had a hive removed from their structure by another bee company only to get bees back in the same spot the next year.  Just because someone has pulled 40 or 50 pounds of comb out of a wall or roof doesn’t mean the odor has been eliminated.  The hive must be removed very thoroughly, and the hive space must be cleaned and treated.  Below are a couple of photos illustrating this point.

This is the inside of a roof void from which another company poorly performed a beehive removal.  The white substance that looks like tire tracks is waxy honeycomb residue that has attracted a new swarm of bees which is clustered up into a ball and will begin making a new hive.

LIVE REMOVAL AND GREEN METHODS:

Hive Pro is committed to using the most environmentally friendly methods of bee control.  We perform humane bee removals.  This means that we keep the bees alive as we move them from your property to farms throughout southern California where they are tended to by bee keepers.  Live bee removal is just as effective as methods used to exterminate bees, and it has several advantages.

WHY RELOCATE BEES:

There are two main reasons that we prefer live bee removal.  First of all bees are living things and a vital part of our ecosystem.  When a bee is collecting nectar from a flower, it transports pollen from that flower to the next flower it lands on.  This transfer of pollen from one plant to another is how plants make seeds and reproduce.  Without bees many plants, including crops that we depend on to feed ourselves, would not be able to reproduce.  It is estimated that if bees were to become extinct, humans would perish four to five years later.  Bees also make honey and wax which have many uses.

The second reason we focus on bee rescue is that some of the chemicals used to kill bees may also be harmful to humans and pets.  For obvious reasons pesticides are not tested directly on humans so it is difficult to know the exact consequences they have on our health.  Another problem with pesticides is that they can seep into ground water and pollute streams and drainages which lead to the ocean; this is especially true when chemicals are applied in dust form.  With these considerations in mind Hive Pro takes an approach that minimizes our society’s use of pesticides.

BEE PROOFING AND BEE REPELLANTS:

Hive Pro offers a preventative bee proofing service.  This means that we seal up any cracks, crevices, or holes on your structure an eighth of inch or larger so that bees cannot get into any structural voids to start a colony.  In the case of vents such as dryer vents or chimney tops we use a fine mesh that still allows air to pass through.  Bee proofing is great because it stops a bee problem before it starts, does not harm any bees and can keep other pests out too.  It can be expensive though (especially on a large structure) so it is usually reserved for buildings that have reoccurring bee problems.  In many cases if bees have occupied a location multiple times it will be impossible to completely eliminate the smell of honeycomb and pheromones and bees will chew through materials like silicone or foam to re-enter the old hive site. When we bee proof an area that has a history of bee infestation we typically use materials such as metal, mortar, or strong wood that bees cannot chew through, although it is fine to use materials like caulking on parts of the home that are not close to past infestation sites.

Hive Pro also provides a bee repellant service.  When bees are scouting out a potential location to make a hive we will apply a repellant that drives them away.  The repellant is safe for people, does not harm the bees and is guaranteed to do the job.  We do not apply repellant to plants that bees are simply using as pollen sources.

BEE EXTERMINATION:

In certain instances it is necessary to exterminate bees.  For example if overly aggressive bees have a hive in an area with a lot of people, it will not be safe to perform a live removal.  If a bee hive is inside a structural void that cannot be opened, it will usually not be possible to do a live removal.  Hive Pro Bee Removal is a fully licensed bee exterminator.  We use an insecticide that is derived from chrysanthemum flowers.  The U.S. department of agriculture considers it to be the safest insecticide for humans and other mammals (such as cats and dogs) but it is very effective at killing bees.  The service involves sealing up the entrance holes the bees are using, and injecting the insecticide in vapor form into the hive.  The insecticide is confined to the hive-space and the home does not need to be evacuated while an extermination is being performed.