Residents Find Solution to Growing Bee Problem

Residents of an abandoned Fair Oaks home are not finding any warm welcome from their neighbors. In fact, the neighbors want them out all together.

The long-abandoned Brookhill Drive house has been host to a growing number of bees. Neighbors want the pesky tenants out and it looks like they’re finally going to get their wish.

“The owner’s family has hired a family friend, who is a contractor for Elite Construction,” said Brookhill Dr. resident, Meg Helton in an e-mailed response. “According to (the representative), Elite Construction ‘is willing to remove the lava rock and tear apart the wall.'”

Helton went on to explain that she has been informed by the county a beekeeper, along with the construction firm, has been employed to remove the seven (and counting) queen bees from the property.

The news seemed to come as somewhat of a surprise to Sacramento County’s Agricultural Commissioner and Director of Weights and Measures, Frank Carl.

“We’re continuing to see what authority we would have to abate the problem,” Carl said. “Typically when we address these types of issues, we work with the homeowner to try to deal with it.”

In this case, though, the homeowner had not been available, Carl explained, and only until recently the responsible parties hadn’t been willing to make the appropriate expenditure to abate the problem. All of that has since changed.

“Hopefully between Elite Construction, the bee keeper who is willing to donate services to the transplant the colonies, and then On Target Pest Control who is willing to donate services to maintain pest control for up to a year, we should have a bee-free neighborhood,” Helton said.

For Ted Nevin, owner of On Target Pest Control, finding the solution could sound easier in theory in practice.

"It's a big project," Nevin said. "This one is unique in the magnitude and size of the problem, just because it had never been addressed. Had it been addressed years ago, it would have been an easy removal process." 

Carl explains beyond a hefty monetary expense, the resolution of such a problem isn’t going to be simple.

“It’s going to be a considerable expense,” Carl said. “It’s going to involve more than just killing or removing the bees. The structure will have to be completely cleaned – it will have to be opened up so the bees don’t return and since they’ve been there for so long (Carl says they bees have been there for at least 10 years), it’s not going to be an easy process.”

Carl explained that reports filed by county code enforcement explain that had been involved in the issue.

“Apparently they (code enforcers) had interviewed neighbors and they commented that the bees had been there for some time,” Carl said. “The complaining parties had only been there a short time, though, so it’s a new problem for the neighbor who attracted the attention.”

For Helton the nuisance began around the time her and her family moved to the quiet cul-de-sac neighborhood in November of 2010. It didn’t take long for her and her family to discover why the vacant house across the street had been called the “bee house” by her neighbors for the past 10 years.

“This information was not disclosed to us as a neighbor nuisance at the time of the purchase of our home,” Helton explained in a letter.

Other neighbors have been aware of the issue for some time.

“We hate it,” said longtime Brookhill neighbor Bryce Johnson said. “But you can only go so far to tell someone how to live. “

For Helton, she’s just relieved the situation is finally being resolved.

“I am so grateful to the media for bringing light to such a scary situation for my family, to all of the companies willing to donate their services, and also to the owner and her family who saw how deadly this could have been for my family and took action.”