West Kendall bee removal where subdivisions meet the farm fields

Lakes, townhouse rows and planned subdivisions fill the county's southwest side right up to the farm fields, and locals call that stretch West Kendall. No municipality carries the name; the area is unincorporated and governed by the county, and it is commonly counted as seven census places: Kendall West, Kendale Lakes, The Hammocks, The Crossings, Three Lakes, Lakes of the Meadows and Country Walk. Most of it went up from the 1970s through the 1990s as planned communities, townhouse rows, apartment complexes and strip centers, many of them set around lakes.

What sets it apart for bees is where it stops. The county drew its Urban Development Boundary in the 1980s to hold building back from the Everglades, and on the western edge the subdivisions give way to farmland and open land. Wild honey bee colonies living out there send off swarms each year, and a swarm's scouts hunt for a dry, sheltered cavity. To a scout, a loose soffit panel on the last street before the fields works as well as a hollow tree. Add mature shade trees, HOA landscaping and buried irrigation boxes, and the suburbs offer plenty of choices.

Where colonies settle on West Kendall property

Notes on the communities inside West Kendall

• Kendall West

  A piece on the western edge, with farmland and undeveloped land to its west and north. Its population grew more than sixfold in the 1990s, so much of the housing dates from that wave of building.

• Kendale Lakes

  East of Kendall West, with the Turnpike along its eastern edge, and a bedroom community until the mid-to-late 1980s. Its country clubs hold lakes ringed by tree-lined streets, and mature canopy trees can hollow out with age.

• The Hammocks

  A planned community between SW 137th and SW 177th Avenues, south of Kendall Drive and north of SW 120th Street. Its western limit, SW 177th Avenue, is Krome Avenue, so the last streets here sit at the edge of the built-up area.

• The Crossings

  Made up of The Crossings, Devon Aire and Calusa, developed in the 1970s and 1980s. A mix of single-family houses and townhouses between Kendall Drive and SW 120th Street, bounded by the Turnpike and SW 137th Avenue.

• Three Lakes

  Deerwood, Bonita Lakes and Three Lakes itself, with Zoo Miami to the south. About a sixth of its area is water, so plenty of homes have a lake behind them and plantings along the bank.

• Country Walk

  Built by Arvida from 1978 to 1994; Hurricane Andrew flattened it in 1992, and the homes were rebuilt with concrete walls in place of wood framing. Roughly 1,600 homes sit in six sub-associations under a master association with its own clubhouse.

Removing bees inside a homeowners association

Much of West Kendall was built as planned communities, so many addresses answer to an association, sometimes two, a sub-association and a master. Before anyone opens a wall, a manager may want proof of insurance naming the association, and a gated section needs our name on the guard list. We send the COI on request and can talk to your manager directly, which saves you a round of forwarded emails.

Repairs are the other piece. If your association keeps approved stucco colors or roof materials on file, tell us when you book. Stucco, roofing and paint touch-ups stay in house, handled by our licensed tradespeople, so the color match is part of the same visit plan, not a second company you have to chase. On request you get before-and-after photos plus a line-by-line invoice, which is the kind of record a board likes to keep on file. Property managers looking after a whole community can start at our HOA and commercial page.

Block walls after Andrew

Hurricane Andrew hit this part of the county hard in August 1992. In Country Walk alone about nine homes in ten were destroyed, and they were rebuilt with concrete walls instead of wood frame. Block stands up to wind better, but its hollow cores are a ready-made nest cavity once bees find a crack in the stucco or a gap around a hose bib.

Taking a colony out of block is a different job from taking it out of a frame wall. The comb can run up one core and sideways through the next, so a thermal camera helps map how far it goes before anything is cut. The crew opens the face of the wall, vacuums the bees into a ventilated box, scrapes out the wax and stored honey down to bare block, and then the cavity is cleaned, filled and resurfaced. Leftover honey draws new swarms and pests, which is why bees come back to walls that were only sprayed. For more on this kind of job, see bees in block and frame walls.

When the colony straddles two homes

Townhouse rows make one question come up early: whose bees are they? The answer usually sits in your association documents, not with us. What we can do is find where the comb actually is, explain it plainly to both owners, and price one removal rather than two. If you rent, our guide on tenants, landlords and bees covers who should call. If the bees turned up while you are buying or selling, read bees found at inspection first. After a strong storm, a torn soffit can expose a colony that was hidden for years; our storm guide explains what to do.

How a visit runs in West Kendall

1. Photo and gate details

   Text a shot of the entry point along with the names of your community and sub-association. If there is a guard house, we will ask how visitors get cleared.

2. Papers to the manager

   If the association or a strip center landlord needs a COI, the insurance paperwork goes out before the visit, so no one is held up at the gate.

3. Find, open, remove

   The crew confirms the nest with a thermal camera, opens the smallest workable section, takes the bees out alive and pulls all the comb. Neighbors sharing the wall get a heads-up.

4. Seal and match

   With the cavity scraped clean, it is filled and closed, then stucco, tile or paint is matched to the colors your association approved, all by our own licensed contractors. The work is warrantied: should bees get back into a spot we sealed, a crew returns.

Matching removal work

Questions people ask us

Places next door