Colony of bees safely removed from gas station

WICHITA FALLS, Texas (KAUZ/Gray News) - A colony of honey bees took over the wall of a 7-Eleven gas station in Texas, and bee experts were called to safely remove them.

“There’s a possibility that they’ve been here for three years,” Honey Bee Patriot employee Cheryl Hazelton said.

Hazelton said it can be dangerous when bees form a colony.

“Bees can form combs within like three weeks, a good size portion of combs. So, after they’ve been here for about three years, they’ve actually kind of made this wall their home. If you start using machinery like lawnmowers, weed wackers or anything that creates a vibration, then you can agitate them and that’s when you really start running into problems,” Hazelton said.

One exhibit curator said if bees feel threatened, they’ll use their defense of stinging.

Before the work started, Hazelton talked about the process of removing the bees. She said the first step was a pipe had to be blocked to prevent the bees from getting inside the building.

“And once we get that done, we’re going to start removing it brick by brick and once we get enough bricks off we can determine how big the colony is. Then, we’re gonna actually start removing comb and putting it into a box,” Hazelton said.

After they removed the bees, they treated the area so that the bees would not return.

Copyright 2023 KAUZ via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.