Bees in Your Roof in Miami: Barrel Tile, Flat Tile and Parapet Roofs

What you may be seeing on the roof

• Foragers landing at the open mouth of a single barrel tile by the eave and vanishing inside, all day long.
• Bees crawling over a cracked or slipped tile, or around a gap where the ridge or hip cap has lifted.
• On a flat roof, bees working a seam in the parapet cap, a loose flashing edge or the space around a roof drain.
• A hum you can hear through a ceiling that sits right under the roof.
• Dark, sticky streaks running down the tile, the stucco under the eave or the inside of a ceiling.
• A cluster hanging off the roof edge that never moves on after a day or two.

What is going on behind it

Honey bees look for a dry, dark cavity with one small way in, and a tile roof is full of them. Each barrel tile is a curved cap over a curved pan, and the hollow under it runs uphill like a tunnel. Flat tile leaves a thinner gap above the underlayment. A flat roof hides its cavity inside the parapet or between the roof deck and the ceiling below. Once a swarm moves in, the workers hang sheets of wax comb from the underside of the tile or deck and fill them with brood and honey. The brood nest is held in the low-to-mid 90s Fahrenheit, which is why it glows on a thermal camera. Comb left under sun-baked tile with no bees to cool it can soften and leak honey into the roof.

Barrel tile, flat tile and flat roofs need different handling

On an S-shaped barrel tile roof, the colony can follow the channel under one row of cap tiles, so the comb may run a few feet upslope from the entrance. The tiles over it have to come off in order, get numbered and stacked, and go back in the same courses so the lines match.

Flat concrete tile lies tight to the roof, so a colony there spreads sideways in a shallow layer and the comb is thin and wide. Breakage is the risk, which is why any tile that cracks is replaced with a matching profile rather than left in place.

Parapet roofs give a colony three hiding places: the hollow of the parapet wall itself, the space under the coping, and the gap between deck and ceiling. Sometimes the cleanest way in is from the room below, through the ceiling, so the membrane on top stays untouched. When the only way is from above, the roofing is cut, the comb comes out, and the membrane is patched and sealed. Hives that started at the roof edge often belong on our soffit and eave page instead.

Why a roofer has to close the roof in Miami-Dade

Miami-Dade sits inside the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone of the Florida Building Code, which carries stricter requirements than most of the state. A roofing product approved by the Miami-Dade Product Control Section carries a Notice of Acceptance, and a copy of that notice goes in with the building permit application. Florida statute also treats roofing as its own contracting trade, covering the install, repair and alteration of every kind of roof.

For you, that means your tile should go back on under a licensed roofer, not just whoever lifted it. Our own licensed roofers reset the tile, replace broken pieces and repair felt or membrane so the roof stays a proper roof, not a patch left by a bee crew. Repairs after removal covers the wider set of trades we use.

Leaving the comb up there costs more later

Killing the bees and walking away is the version that goes wrong. With no workers left to fan it and guard it, the wax softens in the heat, honey seeps down through the underlayment and into the ceiling, and the smell draws wax moths, beetles, ants and roaches. It also tells the next swarm that the spot was a good home. That is the reason we take out every piece and clean the cavity. The field guide on repeat colonies explains the scent trail, and the comb and honey cleanup page covers the scraping.

How the colony comes off the roof

1. Scan before lifting anything

   A thermal camera, pointed at the tile from the roof or at the ceiling from inside, shows where the warm brood nest sits so we open only the tiles over it. See what a thermal scan shows.

2. Lift and number the tile

   Tiles over the colony come off one course at a time, are marked for position and stacked safely on the roof or the ground. Cracked pieces are set aside for matching.

3. Move the bees out alive

   Brood comb is cut out in pieces and banded into frames while a low-suction bee vacuum collects the workers off the tile, then a beekeeper takes the whole colony. Where it ends up is covered under colony relocation.

4. Strip and clean the cavity

   All comb and honey is scraped off the tile, battens and felt, the area is wiped down, and the residue that would call in the next swarm is gone.

5. Seal, reset and close the entry

   Our roofers repair underlayment or membrane, reset tile in its original courses, replace broken pieces and close the gap the bees used.

What we put back afterward

On a tile roof, the putback is the tile itself: every lifted piece reset in its course, matching replacements for any that cracked, felt repaired where comb or honey damaged it, and the eave opening the bees used closed off. On a flat roof, the cut is patched and sealed and the parapet or flashing gap is shut. Inside, any stained ceiling can be repaired and painted by our own contractors and painters. Our workmanship is warrantied on roof work as well: should bees settle again behind tile we closed, a crew comes back to your roof.

Where roof colonies come up around Miami-Dade

• Coral Gables

  The city was planned around Mediterranean Revival design, so tile roofs are the norm here. Matching an older tile profile can be the hardest part of the reset. More on bees in Coral Gables.

• Miami Beach

  The Architectural District holds Streamline Art Deco buildings, a style known for flat roofs, next to earlier Mediterranean Revival tile. A condo building may ask for insurance paperwork before anyone goes up.

• Miami Springs

  Pueblo Revival design shaped the Glenn Curtiss and James Bright development here, with flat roofs behind irregular parapets. Hollow parapet walls and roof edges are where a colony gets in. See Miami Springs.

• Miami Shores

  The Shoreland Company built 118 Mediterranean homes in the village, a style known for red tile roofs. On an older tiled house, check the eave line first. More on Miami Shores.

Questions people ask us

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