Getting bees out of Coral Gables homes the city has to approve

Coral Gables was laid out on paper before most of it was built. George Merrick turned roughly 3,000 acres of groves and pine woods into a planned city in the 1920s, and the plan called for Mediterranean Revival buildings almost everywhere. A century on, that gives honey bees a very particular set of homes to choose from: curved clay tile with open channels underneath, porous limestone walls, deep stucco eaves, mature shade trees and miles of seawall.

It also gives you a particular problem once the bees are gone. Roof and paint jobs here can need a design sign-off from the city, and a re-roof permit asks for color photos of the tile you already have plus the make and color of what goes back. So the question is never only how to get the colony out. It is how to open the house in a way your roofer, your painter and the city can all live with afterward.

Where colonies settle on a Gables property

Notes on Gables neighborhoods and districts

• Cocoplum

  The city keeps a tidal monitoring station at the Islands of Cocoplum on the Coral Gables Waterway. A dock permit in Cocoplum Section II has to include a copy of the section's dock plan, so a hive in a dock box or piling is best handled without touching more of the structure than needed.

• Gables by the Sea

  Unarmed guards work from guardhouses around the clock here. The original security district reached across into the Village of Pinecrest, and in 2022 the county took up a plan to divide it into a Coral Gables district and a Pinecrest district. Tell the gate which side you live on and that a bee crew is expected.

• Snapper Creek and Hammock Lakes

  Both appear on the city's list of security districts. Expect a gate or a patrol to ask who you are, so give us the name on the guard list and any vehicle rules before the visit.

• Kings Bay and Old Cutler Bay

  These two are on the same city list of security districts. Ask the gate or patrol how service trucks are logged, and pass that along when you book so the crew is not held at the entrance.

• Granada

  The city's Granada Golf Course on Granada Boulevard sets the tone: fairways and big trees with homes along the edges. A colony in a yard tree near the course is reached from your side of the property line, not across the fairway.

• Country Club Prado

  The Prado is a landscaped boulevard the city has funded its own planting work on. If bees are in a tree or planter on the public part of the street rather than your lot, it is worth asking the city first.

• The Biltmore area

  The Biltmore Hotel opened in 1926 and is a National Historic Landmark, with its 18-hole golf course alongside. Nearby homes and buildings share the same tile, stucco and mature trees that make bee work slower to close up neatly.

• Downtown and Miracle Mile

  Miracle Mile cuts through the business district, with City Hall on Biltmore Way. Storefronts, offices and mixed-use buildings here usually mean a property manager, a COI on file and a time slot when foot traffic is light.

• The 1920s themed villages

  Merrick's planners built small villages in Italian, French and Dutch South African styles to stretch the city's look. Their odd rooflines, chimneys and decorative gables offer bees nooks that a standard barrel-tile house does not have.

• Near the University of Miami

  The university's Coral Gables campus sits on land Merrick donated in 1925. If you rent a house near campus, our tenant and landlord guide explains who should make the call.

The city cares how the patch looks

Coral Gables is known for strict zoning, and its Board of Architects meets every Thursday morning to look at things most cities never ask about, from pools and pavement to roof tiles and exterior colors. For you, that matters after the bees leave.

The city's permit checklist for a new roof or re-roof asks for color photographs of the existing tile, the area of work and the whole front of the house, along with the tile or material to be installed and its color. A residential repaint needs a color submission with the paint maker's reference code. The roof list also names approval from the City Architect or the Board of Architects where it applies.

So plan the opening with the closing in mind. Lift as few tiles as the comb allows, stack the originals for reuse, and keep a clear photo record. Repairs come from our own licensed roofers and painters, and you can ask for photos plus an itemized invoice to hand to whoever is pulling the permit. More on that side of the job is on the repairs after removal page and the tile and flat roof hives page.

Coral rock, the stone in the city's name

The Merrick family home was named Coral Gables because its walls were Miami Limestone, known around here as coral rock, and its roof was coral-colored Ludowici tile. That stone is an oolite, made of tiny rounded grains with fossils mixed through it, and it is softer and more porous than it looks.

You can see how much of it sits under the city at the Venetian Pool, which opened in 1924 inside an old limestone quarry. Walls, pillars and planters built from the same rock often have hollow cores or mortar gaps behind the face. A colony inside one may show only a single small entrance.

Thermal imaging helps here because a living colony keeps its brood warm, and that heat can warm the face of the stone or stucco enough to show on the camera before anyone picks up a chisel. The thermal imaging guide explains what the camera can and cannot see, and bees in block and frame walls covers how the comb comes out of masonry.

A city that plants and keeps its trees

Coral Gables has held the Tree City USA designation for more than three decades and counts over 38,000 trees. Coral Way, the road Merrick laid out toward Miami, got 1,200 banyans down its median under a 1929 beautification program. Shade like that is good for people and good for bees looking for a home.

Two different things can show up in a tree. A swarm is a dense cluster draped over a limb, often fairly calm, waiting while its scouts hunt for a cavity. Swarms tend to move off after a short rest, and you can read more in the scout bees guide and on the swarm pickup page. A colony is different: bees flying straight into a hole in the trunk or a hollow limb, day after day. That one stays, builds comb and grows.

For established colonies in trunks, limbs and palm boots, see palm and tree colonies. If the tree stands in the swale by the street, ask the city before anyone cuts into it.

Forty-two miles of shoreline, and the mangroves on it

The city counts more than 42 miles of shoreline, from the Coral Gables Waterway to the bay edge. That is a lot of docks, seawalls, boat lifts and covered storage, all of it shaded and close to water, which bees need.

Mangroves add a rule worth knowing. The city notes that trimming most mangroves inside Coral Gables calls for a county-registered professional mangrove trimmer, and illegal trimming carries fines for each tree. If a colony is tucked into mangrove roots or branches along your shore, no one should simply saw the limb off. The plan has to work around the trees, or bring in the right trimmer first.

On the structures themselves, dock boxes, hollow pilings and gaps under seawall caps are the usual spots. The docks, seawalls and boats page walks through how those jobs run.

Behind the guard gate

In 2018 the county handed nine special taxing districts to the City of Coral Gables, and a main purpose is security: a manned guard gate, a roving patrol, or both. If you live in one, the visit starts at the gatehouse.

Give the guard the crew's arrival window and your name, and tell them a truck with ladders and bee gear is coming. If your neighborhood has a club or association that manages common areas, find out who signs off on work there. Proof of insurance (a COI) can go to the club, the association or the building manager before anyone sets foot on the grounds.

For common areas, clubhouses and shared walls, the HOA, commercial and property manager page explains the paperwork side.

What it costs in a city of tile roofs

Bees you can reach standing on the lawn, in a hedge, an irrigation box or a short garden wall, usually come to about $300 to $400. Once the comb sits under barrel tile, inside a coral rock pillar or behind a stucco parapet, the price climbs, and work that needs roofing and painting afterward can run into the thousands.

The things that move the number are height, how much tile or stucco has to come off, how much comb and honey must be cleaned out, and what it takes to put the surface back to a standard the city will approve. Emergency work at night or over the weekend carries a higher rate than the same job booked Monday to Friday. Each of those goes into a free quote, and the cost page lays out how they add up.

Closed up for the summer, or longer

A closed house is easy for scouts to claim, because nobody is home to notice the first few bees at an eave. If you are away for a season, ask the person checking on the house to look at the roofline and any coral rock walls for steady traffic in one spot.

The seasonal home guide covers what to watch for while you are gone. If bees turn up during a sale, the home sale and inspection guide explains how to handle them before closing, including the photos and invoice a buyer may want.

How a visit runs in Coral Gables

1. Photo and address

   Text a photo of where the bees go in, and tell us your street and whether you are behind a guard gate. From that we can judge how high the work is and whether the guardhouse needs your name.

2. Clear the gate

   Put the crew on the guard list or tell the patrol to expect us. If a club, association or manager wants a COI, it goes out ahead of time.

3. Scan, then open

   A thermal camera traces the colony's warmth through tile, stucco or stone, so we lift only the tiles or cut only the section that holds the comb. Original tiles are set aside for reuse.

4. Close up and document

   Bees go to a beekeeper, comb and honey come out, and the opening is sealed. On request, the job is documented in pictures and on a line-by-line invoice for your roofer or the permit file.

Matching removal work

Questions people ask us

Places next door