West Knoxville family faces a sticky situation

West Knoxville family faces a sticky situation

May 19, 2007

By MELISSA DiPANE
6 News Anchor/Reporter

KNOXVILLE (WATE) -- It could be mistaken for a scene out of a scary late night movie.

But the swarm of bees coming from underneath the roof of the Erickson family home is not a Hollywood prop.

"We noticed many dead bees in my husband's office. Many more than you'd ordinarily see," says Elaine Erickson.

The family didn't see any live bees inside the home, but noticed several bees going in and out of the attic.

The Erickson's knew something was up and sought help from a local bee keeper.

"There's a very serious problem with bees disappearing," says Erickson. "So we didn't want to kill them, but we didn't want them in the house."

Danny Peters is a hobby bee keeper and told the family they had a potential disaster on their hands.

"He told me within a matter of weeks they could create 500 pounds of honey up there. It could sour and drip into the house," says Erickson.

Peters says that's exactly what the bees were doing.

"They've probably been there since early spring. There are probably 50,000 bees," says Peters. "There are a couple quarts of honey in there now."

Peters pulled at least 10 good chunks of honeycomb out of the roof and placed it inside a hive box in order to move the entire population.

"We'll leave it overnight. Hopefully the queen is in there," says Peters.

If she is, then the entire colony can continue in their new home.

If not, the queen will realize the eggs and honeycomb are gone and find the box.

Erickson says she doesn't have a problem with bees.

"They just don't need to be here. They need to be in a hive."

Tens of millions of honey bees across 22 states are disappearing.

It's called colony collapse disorder.

Scientists at The University of Tennessee don't believe it has hit Tennessee.

Bees play a big role in the food chain, pollinating 80% of our crops.

Without them crops suffer.

Honeybees pollinate more than 90 crops, including apples, nuts, broccoli, and strawberries.

One-third of our diet actually comes from plants pollinated by insects.