Pennsylvania family finds bees in their house, honey dripping from the walls

Alicia Vitarelli Image
Tuesday, July 14, 2020
Bucks family finds bees in their house, honey dripping from the walls
A Bucks County family was dealing with a few thousand uninvited, messy house guests on Monday.

PERKASIE, Pennsylvania -- A Pennsylvania family was dealing with a few thousand uninvited, messy house guests on Monday.

The Isabell family discovered they had a big bee problem.

Friday night, after the Tropical Storm Fay moved through the area, they found dark stains dripping down their walls. They assumed it was storm damage, but got closer to see for themselves.

"My husband felt this really sticky, syrupy stuff we were brave and smelled it and he said, 'This is honey! This is honey pouring down our walls," said Andrea Isabell.

Isabell said the family was shocked.

"I have three boys and they were they were wondering if we could set a tap up so we could just pour honey on our yogurt and granola in the morning. I wish we could. I wish we could share it, but they need a better home where they're safe and happy and not living with us," she said.

Isabell says they did a little detective work and traced the bees to the top the house.

She says they had seen a rogue bee now and then near the attic, but never thought much of it.

They called in Allan Lattanzi from Yerkes Honey Farms in Collegeville, who is affectionately known as "The Bee Man."

He came out for a thermal scan and an assessment.

He believes there's a colony in there and will come back for an extraction.

"The bees become my girls," Lattanzi says. "I will take them home and they will become a honey producer for me. I will make a colony."

The next step is removal, or what he calls a "cutout."