Large bee infestation removed from apartment complex

The colony of bees has been busy.

They were removed Wednesday afternoon by bee czar Walter Schumacher.

“100,000 easy,” said Schumacher.

It’s estimated the bees have been living in the wall of a South Austin apartment on Anita Drive for awhile; two years - maybe even four years. It didn’t take that long to pacify the bees with smoke.

Read Residents at South Austin apartment tormented by bees

That made it safe enough to even grab a handful of bees from the hive.

Getting a glimpse of that on video made Ivana Coleman gasp. She rents the apartment unit and said she knew there was a problem - but not this bad. “A mixture of fascination and horror, because I’ve been walking past this for the longest time,” said Coleman. 

The bees had started swarming inside the unit.

Coleman said at one point had to climb out a back window to get out.

“And so, The danger to her was quite real,” explained Schumacher.

Coleman ‘s landlord tried to get rid of the bees himself. He sealed up an entry hole by the front door,
bought a protective suit for himself and even set up a box in an attempt to collect the bees. The box according to Walter really wasn’t helping to solve the problem but was actually making it grow.

Apparently the bees like the box and were using it to expand the colony. “What I’m doing, if you do it wrong, people‘s pets can die, people can die, again you don’t let an electrician come to our house without a license,” said Schumacher. 

Austin code officials came out to the apartment and posted this violation notification after FOX 7’s Jennifer Kendall ran a story about the problem.

That notice allowed Schumacher to move in and safely move out the bees. 

“Thanks so much I’m really grateful for the City of Austin, the fire department, Jennifer has been amazing it finally took an outsider to really say this is unacceptable why are you putting up with this for so long,” said Coleman who also declared Schumacher as her hero.

The bee colony was loaded up on In a truck and relocated to a ranch in South Travis County.

Coleman was left with some honey to remind her of those unwanted roommates.