'My Jaw Dropped': Woman Discovers What Drew Hundreds of Bees to Her Garage

A California homeowner has described the moment her "jaw dropped" upon seeing the extent of a bee infestation at the back of her property.

Joy Chew, from Orinda, told Newsweek she began to grow concerned there might be a problem after seeing "some bees gathering on our roof, where it touches the neighbor's."

However, it was only after a professional showed her footage of what was going on in the space between her and her neighbor's garage that she realized the extent of the issue—and also the origin of it.

As of 2022, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated the number of bee colonies in the U.S. stood at 2.92 million. Despite this, the humble honey bee is thought to be in decline, with organizations like Greenpeace calling for more to be done to protect the species.

When Chew first learned that there was most likely a bee colony around the back of her garage, she was keen to do everything she could to protect the insects.

"I consulted the neighbors, who had lived here longer than I have," she explained. "They've dealt with one or two hives before. We called the guy they used the last time to remove the bees."

Chew had been left confused as to what had drawn the bees to the back of her property. It was only when a bee removal expert went in with a camera that everything became clear.

As the video showed, the expert from Bee Friendly Honey soon discovered that alongside the new, thriving hive was an old abandoned one from years gone by.

"My jaw dropped when I saw it," Chew said. "It was beautiful and surprising. I had assumed it was only a little hive. It could only have been a month or two that the bees were there."

Chew decided to share the footage to Reddit in an attempt to show "how beautiful the honeycombs are and to provide a little more education about bees." The clip proved popular, racking up over 11,000 upvotes.

Though she credits the fact it's a "very striking video," Chew wanted to share the clip because it taught her why, in an infestation situation like this, it was important to not just kill the bees.

"My dad had suggested just spraying the entrance with some poison to eliminate the bees," she explained. "But the bee remover explained that it would result in the hive attracting tons of pests, the ball of bees rotting and smelling, and the honey releasing and oozing down inside the walls."

Chew added: "The old hive had attracted the new hive, so killing the bees would not solve that problem. You'd get more bees coming still. It's likely there have been one or two hives in the same wall before. Who knows how many generations of bees have been attracted to the same area."

Thankfully, the situation has now been resolved. The bee remover painted the walls where the hives were to block scents and sealed the entrance where they came in. Chew estimates it took him around 10 hours to remove the bees and the hives.

Chew said there's not much homeowners can do to prevent bee infestation, other than to be vigilant of any cracks in their property and seal them where possible. She did, however, stress there was a right way to go about dealing with the bees, should you discover a hive.

"Don't just kill them," Chew said. "Call someone professional to remove and move them to somewhere safe."

This isn't the first time bees have gone viral on social media. A video showing bees swarming a dumpster full of Krispy Kreme donuts previously proved popular, while another clip showing a man discovering a huge beehive in the window of his holiday home also racked up millions of views.