Homeowner in Scotland Shocked to Find 180,000 Bees Living in His Ceiling

One busy Scottish beekeeper recently wound up with an un- bee -lieveably big job on his hands- and no, I'm not just "pollen" your leg.

It all started last week when a homeowner called the beekeeper for help removing a bunch of bees that had settled in his ceiling. The homeowner knew he had a problem, but neither he nor the beekeeper could have imagined how big the swarm would actually end up being. The estimated grand total of bees living in this man's ceiling easily topped over 100,000- and as you can imagine, it made for a pretty unsettling discovery.

On TikTok, @abc7la shared the beekeeper's spine-tingling video footage as he opened up the ceiling, revealing the enormous hive inside. He had cut a huge strip out of the ceiling, and the bustling, busy bee hive stretched all the way down to the outer wall. At that point, the bees and their hive must have acted as free insulation for the home!

Related: Bee Keeper Shares Her ‘Secret’ Remedy For Painful Bee Stings

According to The Scotsman , the home's owner was a grandfather from Inverness, Scotland, who contacted Andrew Card of the Loch Ness Honey Company for help. The buzz around his home was, well, that there was a buzz around his home. No, seriously: his grandchildren had complained of hearing buzzing at night while trying to sleep. Grandpa knew then that he had bees in his ceiling, he just didn't know how many bees there really were.

Andrew Card reportedly claimed to have found three enormous bee colonies in the grandfather's ceiling, each with a rough population of 60,000 bees, putting the total estimate at around 180,000 bees. The Scotsman wrote that the colonies had likely been living in the bedroom ceiling for several years, with the family none the wiser until very recently!

Fortunately, everyone in this story got their happy ending. The family got the enormous bee infestation out of their home, and the bees themselves got relocated to temporary hives. Card told The Scotsman that the bees will be monitored for parasites for several weeks, after which they'll be used for honey production . Back to bees-ness as usual!

Save the Bees, Save Your Home

Bees are important pollinators that play a crucial role in the health and continuance of our eco-system, and conservationist efforts like the " Save the Bees " campaign have made the public more aware of the plight of the honey bee . That's why honey bee colonies shouldn't be exterminated like common insect infestations, but handled by humane professionals.

That's not to say you should ignore a bee infestation, either. Though swarming bees are usually docile, they will attack if they feel threatened, potentially putting the home's occupants at risk. Large hives can also cause serious structural damage, especially ones as big as the hive in this Scottish home!

If you've got a bee infestation, but don't want to kill them, think twice before instantly hiring the first pest control company that pops up on Google. Some exterminators simply kill bee swarms rather than humanely relocate them, so do your research before you call. Better yet, consider calling a bee rescue or bee removal expert who will safely relocate the bees to a new hive where they can keep doing their part to support our ecosystem.

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