Honeycomb Removal
Why is honeycomb removal so important in any bee removal or bee control process?
Immediately on arrival at a selected site for colonization, African worker bees begin excreting beeswax from their glands and start building honeycomb structure, they do this very quickly. Some of the African worker bees begin foraging for pollen, nectar and water and the queen is positioned in the comb and begins laying eggs. An African queen bee can lay up to 1000 plus eggs a day, and the first bee brood will begin emerging in 19 days. It is common for African honeybees to build 3 or 4 pieces of hanging honeycomb structure within the first 24 to 48 hours after arrival. Much structural damage can be avoided, if a newly arrived African bee colony is removed during this critical period.
Honeycomb is filled with bee brood and condensed honey in the honeycomb cells. The honeybees work very hard to condense and maintain the honey and keep it intact. If extermination is improperly performed and the bee colony is damaged or if the honeycomb is not removed quickly, honeycomb will immediately start melting down, called honeycomb meltdown, and ferment and the bee brood will rot furthering the structural damage. Also, dripping honey and melting honeycombs carry heavy pheromone content. Without a proper honeycomb removal, as honeycomb meltdown occurs, bee pheromone scent is spread further throughout the structure and saturates building materials causing failure of structural materials and significant structural damage. Further, rotting bee brood and fermenting honey create a very undesirable odor and attract other pests and vermin that can cause even more structural damage to your home and create health concerns from other pest infestations.