Field guide: storm cleanup
Bees after a hurricane in Miami-Dade: when the storm opens a hive
Wind that splits an oak or peels back a soffit can leave a whole colony hanging in daylight. Here is how to work around it safely while the rest of the yard gets cleared.
Updated
What the wind actually uncovers
Plenty of colonies live for years without anyone noticing them. They sit in a hollow limb, behind the old fronds of a palm, inside a soffit box or in the void of a frame wall, and the only clue is a thin line of bees at a gap. A hurricane takes the cover off. A trunk splits and you see rows of pale comb. A gutter rips away and the soffit sags open on a cavity full of bees.
That is different from a swarm. With a swarm there is no wax at all, just a temporary cluster parked somewhere for a day or two until it picks a cavity and leaves. An exposed colony has comb, honey and developing brood, so the bees have every reason to stay and guard it. If you see wax, assume the colony is staying put. The palm and tree colony page covers trunk and crown nests, the soffit and eave page covers the roof edge, and swarm pickup explains the comb-free clusters.
Why a storm-hit colony is short-tempered
A UF/IFAS bee specialist has noted that colonies which ride out a storm can be weakened by days with nothing to forage, because high wind and rain strip flowers off plants that are still standing. Now picture that colony with its roof gone: comb baking in the afternoon sun or soaked by the next band of rain, honey dripping where ants and robber bees can find it, and nothing blooming nearby.
Add the genetics of the region. UF/IFAS first documented African honey bees in Florida in 2001, and they now occupy the southern half of the state. A UF/IFAS comparison sheet says a European colony may answer a disturbance up to 20 feet away with 10 to 20 guards, while an African colony may send several hundred at a disturbance up to 120 feet off, and a second UF/IFAS publication adds that African bees may chase an intruder for 400 yards or more. You cannot tell the two apart by looking, so treat every storm-exposed nest as the defensive kind.
Chainsaws, blowers and the first day of cleanup
The first sunny morning after a storm is loud. Generators, chainsaws, pole saws and leaf blowers start up on every block, and vibration plus noise is exactly what sets off a guarding colony. UF/IFAS advises checking an area before running noisy power equipment such as mowers, blowers and chain saws. After a hurricane that advice matters more, because the nest may now be sitting in the very limb you planned to cut first.
Walk the property slowly before anyone starts an engine. Look at broken limbs, the base of palms, the roofline and any section of fence that took a tree. If you find bees, flag the spot with tape and tell every crew that comes through, including the neighbor helping with a borrowed saw. If the colony is wrapped up with a downed electrical line, report the line to FPL first; county guidance says not to call 911 for downed wires. Bees with a person being stung nearby are an emergency call, any hour.
Found comb in a broken limb?
Snap one picture showing the comb, the break and how close it sits to the house. The phone is answered day and night, and the response guarantee is 24 hours.
Keep the hive out of the debris pile
Miami-Dade County's hurricane recovery guidance asks residents to pile storm debris on the right-of-way, clear of fences, mailboxes, storm drains, manholes and low-hanging wires. A limb still carrying comb does not belong there. Dragging it to the swale moves an angry colony next to the sidewalk, where children walk to school and collection crews have to reach in by hand or machine. Leave the bee-covered wood exactly where it fell and cut around it at a distance, or not at all, until the bees are gone.
Two related county rules are worth knowing. Where homes and businesses share land, as on the ornamental plant nurseries of the Redland, the county asks for residential and commercial debris in separate piles; the nursery and grove page deals with colonies on growing operations. And for gated communities on private roads, the Department of Solid Waste Management collects only after the association or management company has filed a Right of Entry agreement, renewed each year. Managers juggling that paperwork can read the HOA and property manager page.
When the opening is in the house, not the yard
Sometimes the tree is fine and the house is what opened up. Lifted roof tiles, a torn drip edge, a split fascia board or a cracked stucco seam can expose bees that have been living in the structure since long before the storm. They may also be new arrivals, because a gap that appears in August is an invitation to any colony that lost its own home nearby.
Before anyone pries more siding loose, it helps to know how far the comb runs. A thermal camera shows the warm mass of a colony through drywall or block, which is explained in what thermal imaging shows about a hive. From there the work follows the same path as tile and flat roof hives or bees in block and frame walls: open the smallest section that reaches the comb, take the bees out alive, and close it back up. The roofers, painters and licensed contractors who close the opening work for us directly, so the storm damage and the bee opening can be fixed in a single repair rather than two.
Cutting comb out of a downed limb, step by step
On a fallen limb or split trunk the comb is often already in view, which makes the job more direct than a wall opening. The beekeeper calms the bees with smoke, cuts out each comb, and ties brood comb into frames so the young bees keep developing in a hive box. Loose bees are gathered with a gentle bee vacuum, and the effort goes into finding the queen so the colony settles in its new box. The bees then go to a beekeeper and are relocated; they are never exterminated.
Every scrap of comb and honey is cleared from the wood and from the ground under it. Left behind, that wax smells like a ready-made home to the next swarm; the field guide piece on repeat colonies explains the scent trail. For larger messes, such as honey soaked into a fallen soffit panel, comb and honey cleanup is its own step. Once the bees are gone, the limb is ordinary storm debris again and can go out to the curb with the rest.
Storm history in the south county, briefly
Miami-Dade has been through this before. Hurricane Andrew, a Category 5 storm, came ashore just northeast of Homestead on August 24, 1992. In Florida City more than 120 homes were demolished, and the worst of the wind damage reached as far north as Kendall. In September 2017, Hurricane Irma brought gusts of 99 mph to Miami International Airport and left roughly 80 percent of the county without power, and much of its wind damage in the county was limited to fences and trees. Fences and trees are precisely the places where hidden colonies get uncovered.
Officially, the Atlantic season opens on June 1 and closes on November 30, and its peak falls in late summer, centered around September 10. So an October storm, and the weeks of yard work after it, still belong to the season.
Questions people ask us
Is spraying the bees on a fallen branch and hauling it off a good idea?
Please don't. Spraying an exposed colony usually sets off the guard bees before it does anything else, and the dead comb and honey left behind rot and draw new bees. Storm-stressed colonies in this region should be assumed defensive. Cutting the colony off the branch alive solves both problems: the wood is clean afterward, and the whole colony gets a second life with a beekeeper.
The bees are just hanging in a ball on my fence. Is that a hive?
Look for wax first. If none shows, those bees are most likely a swarm, or a colony whose storm-damaged nest failed, resting while scouts search for a new cavity. That kind of cluster may leave on its own in a day or two. Keep people back, avoid spraying it, and call if it starts building comb or sits near a door or play area.
Will the county debris crew take a branch with bees on it?
Do not put it out to find out. County guidance places piles along the right-of-way, where crews and neighbors pass close by. Have the colony removed first; once the bees and comb are gone, the wood is ordinary vegetative debris and can go into your pile like the rest of the storm cleanup.
What does it cost to remove a colony the storm exposed?
Price follows height and repairs. Bees in a limb lying on the lawn or in a trunk you can reach from the ground fall around $300 to $400. When the bees are in a torn roof edge or a wall and the opening has to be repaired, it can run into the thousands. Expect a higher rate for a call at night or on a weekend than for a weekday visit; the quote itself is free. See what removal costs for the details.
Our association has downed trees everywhere. Can you work with the management company?
Yes. The business is licensed and insured, and a COI naming the association can be emailed to whoever signs off on vendors. If the board wants a record per location, ask for photos and an itemized invoice covering each unit or common area. Use the request removal form to list each location.
Removal pages that go with this article
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