Homeowner finds second bee hive in home in less than 2 years

Image 1 of 9

No homeowner wants an infestation, especially when it comes to bees, but a DeKalb County woman has had it happen now twice within two years.

App users: View full article here

Lisa Ohrmundt made a worldwide buzz after FOX 5 Atlanta first told her story of more than 120,000 honey-makers making a home in her ceiling back in May 2017. A bee expert removed 150 pounds of honeycomb with 60 pounds of honey in it.

"Did the first hole in the ceiling and it was a little bigger and a little bit bigger and a little bit bigger and it ended up being about 6 feet long," Chaisson told FOX 5 News back then. "Definitely this year it ranks up there in the top two that we have done."

RELATED: Massive beehive found in DeKalb County home

Since then, it has been pretty quiet on the home front until about a month ago when Ohrmundt was mowing her lawn. She noticed bees being particularly interested in one side of her home.

She called her now good friend, Bobby Chaisson with Georgia Bee Removal who came out Friday to check things out. He found the bees were coming in a different way and made their hive just 25 feet away from the massive hive he removed a year and a half ago.

"For some reason, they love our house!" Ohrmundt wrote FOX 5 News.

Thankfully, Chaisson found a fraction of the bees in her home, only about 4,000 to 5,000 this time.

"I noticed them much sooner this time," Ohrmundt wrote. "It turns out there was an old hive in this section of the wall and apparently the bees could smell it."

Ohrmundt said this is in the same section of the home which had a bee problem 10 years ago when she first moved into the home. The company she used at the time told her spraying and sealing the section of the home off was the best plan. It's something Ohrmundt has since learned from Chaisson isn't a good idea.

"Bobby said it's very important to have hives removed, instead of the hives being killed inside the wall because it still smells and new bees will eventually find it," Ohrmundt wrote.

Like last time, Chaisson removed the bees and will relocate them to a bee farm. The honey will also be harvested, but Ohrmundt said she wants no part of that.

"Personally, I'm not interested in eating honey that came out of my ceiling!" Ohrmundt exclaimed.

Chaisson learned his beekeeping trade through the University of Georgia Beekeeping Institute.