A toddler's parents were in for a surprise when their daughter kept complaining about hearing "monsters" in her room for the past eight months. Upon checking things out, they were not expecting the shocking discovery that they found: a beehive housing more than 50,000 bees right inside their daughter's bedroom wall.
Ashley Class, the girl's mother, told NBC News in an interview that she called in a beekeeper, Curtis Collins, after initially discovering just a few bees in the attic of their century-old farmhouse.
The beekeeper used a thermal camera in the 3-year-old's room, and what he found was a beehive weighing more than 100 pounds. "I kid you not, it lit up like Christmas in the wall right next to my daughter's closet," Ashley recalled. "When I first thought it was like, a man in the wall, I was really startled."
Curtis then began his efforts to extract all of the bees while also trying to save them. His process included three waves over the course of several days. He said the beehive was twice the size of any other one he's removed.
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“It was like an apocalypse, is all I can think about,” he recalled. “It’s just all these bees started flying out.” But he was adamant on being able to save the hive.
"It's all a process to try to save the bees, and keep the hive going," he told NBC News. Ashley recorded the entire process, which is now on her TikTok. You can see dead bees all over the ground, honey oozing from the ceiling, and other damage done to the home.
Unfortunately, insurance won't cover the estimated cost to repair the damage, which amounts to more than $20,000. "That's good that we saved all of those bees," Ashley said. "But I'm ready for them to be evicted."
The first day, the beekeeper removed 20,000 bees and a 100-pound chunk of honeycomb. "We sealed off the room and he came back the next day. He took out another 20,000 bees," the mother told People. "Now the hole in the wall is covered by plastic and we still keep getting bees coming in. We think there are another 20,000 bees now, so he's coming back, anticipating removing another 20,000."
Curtis ended up removing 50,000 bees and even found the queen bee, which were all moved to a bee sanctuary. "We've had a couple of thousand that died because their queen is no longer here, so that's sad. We've been leaving the window open, hoping the remaining ones fly out, but many will die without being able to smell the queen, as I understand," the mom explained. "So we've been cleaning up thousands of dead bees every single day, and I've learned that bees can still sting you when they're dead. It's like a landmine, with thousands on the floor. We have to wear rubber boots to walk around and not get stung."
As for their daughter, Ashley says they made sure to let her know the "monsters" problem was taken care of. "We told her, 'We found the monsters, you were right.' Then we introduced her to the beekeeper and she was like, 'No, he's a monster hunter.'"
