Couple Shares Home with Millions of Bees

4 years ago Nature

What would you do if your home was filled with bees?

bees It’s like this, but in their friggin’ walls! Image by Chas Redmond

Would you freak out, call the exterminator, run screaming from the building?

If you’re Helen and Jerry Stathasos, you do none of these things. You just live in a house filled with bees.

The Stathatos family has been coexisting with the bees for several years now in their Virginia Road home in Sacramento, CA. There are so many bees that the walls literally drip with honey, but they don’t usually mind.

Recently they did have to call an exterminator, but only to remove the insects from the upstairs bedroom where they sleep. They called in bee removal specialist Dustin Mackey to vacuum the bees from an upstairs window and seal their bedroom floor against further infestations.

Mackey said he’d never seen anything like it. "You walk into the house and it smells sweet. I felt like I was in a jar of honey, "said Mackey.

The bees and the Stathasos have been living together in the house for almost twenty years, but both parties seem happy with the arrangement. Mackey said the family decided not to remove them after realizing interior walls filled with hundreds of thousands of bees would have to be knocked down. Helen Stathasos told a local newspaper: "They are making honey and we can't even get to it.”

One of the reasons for the bee infestation may be the Stathasos’ spectacular garden. According to Mackey: "They've got the most beautiful garden you've ever seen, with flowers all around the house. It's the perfect environment for bees.”

Info from Metro

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Written by: Chris

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Comments

Old Comments

NYPESTPRO says

Oct 28th, 2009 at 12am
This is crazy. Could u imagine having that many bees around you.

timekeeping software says

Jul 22nd, 2009 at 12am
First order of business! Free Honey! Yeah Mayor Bee! Yeah Mayor Bee! ! ! ...... oops, stung myself... By yall!

Uncle B says

Dec 19th, 2008 at 12am
Bees in the walls, worms in the verminators, guinea pigs, rabbits and chickens all over the floors! Home brewing, breadmaking, wineries abound, sauerkrauting, pickling, dry foods on shelves, baskets of onions and potatoes stored in the cold room, Are we looking at life in the 21st century , post (GRD) great republican depression era? Solar cells, LED lights, passive solar heating, super insulation, ground heat preservation, wind power cell phone networks, GMO'ed bug free super growth veggies, humanure, and lots of time off! Can I use public transport to get there? Unemployment here is killing me!

Barbra says

Sep 11th, 2008 at 12am
I once worked in a business office with honey bees in the walls. The bees were there for 1 1/2 years before they had a beekeeper remove them. At first it was rather unnerving, you would go to answer the phone and a bee would be sitting on it, or be talking to a customer and a bee would land on your desk. But in all that time, over a year and a half, no one ever got stung. I developed a whole new respect and understanding of the honey bee. I have since become a beekeeper myself, but I dont think I would care for them in the walls of my house. The honey dripping from the walls would be too messy! I would much rather maintaine a hive and be able to harvest the honey.

Heidi says

Mar 25th, 2008 at 12am
What a couple of honeys they are! And with the number of bee colonies lost already, these people are doing the world a huge favor! Thanks guys!

Steve N Lee says

Mar 22nd, 2008 at 12am
If only everyone and everything could co-exist like this! I've had 'pet' spiders in my bathroom before now that I've fed and taken a keen interest in, but I doubt I could live with a house positively overflowing with insects/arachnids. It's wonderful that this family can be so kind as to put up with the bees. I wonder if they ever interact or if they simply live in the same building but keep totally to themselves? Obviously a game of Monopoly would be out of the question (well, unless you are a sore loser, then a bee would be the ideal playmate), but could you train a bee to come to you for you to feed it or anything like that? Steve N. Lee eco-blog http://www.lionsledbysheep.com