Sara Weaver and her husband knew their newest home purchase in Pennsylvania needed some extra love and attention — but what they didn’t know is that an estimated 450,000 bees had been living in the walls for almost 35 years.
Weaver bought the 1872 farmhouse in Skippack, about 30 miles northwest of Philadelphia, in December and told CNN the seller’s disclosure mentioned there were bees in the wall. But since the couple bought the home in the winter, she said the bees didn’t seem to pose much of a threat at the time of purchase.
“On the seller’s disclosure it said ‘bees in wall’ and that was it and I think because one, we didn’t see them and two, we were just so floored that we actually found land in the (school) district that was within our price range that I didn’t really ask any questions about those bees. I didn’t think it would be that big of an issue. It didn’t even cross my mind but when spring arrived that’s when we started to see them.”
“The seller’s husband passed away and I’m not sure what exactly happened but she wasn’t living there, the condition this house was in was horrendous,” Weaver said. “It was so dirty and now that I’m thinking about it, I originally thought it was dirt on the windows that I cleaned but it was probably honey because there were drip marks.”
Honeybees’ greatest importance to agriculture isn’t a product of the hive, according to the FDA. The agricultural benefit of honeybees is estimated to be between 10 and 20 times the total value of honey and beeswax, data from the FDA says.
Beekeepers across the United States lost 45.5% of their managed honeybee colonies from April 2020 to April 2021, according to preliminary results from the 15th annual nationwide survey conducted by the non-profit Bee Informed Partnership.
More than 20,000 species of bee exist throughout the world — and they are dying, thanks to climate change, pesticide poisoning and plant loss.
The couple didn’t do a home inspection and Weaver admits they probably should have opted for one —
but she and her husband had been waiting patiently for a home in the neighborhood to hit the market, so when the farmhouse popped up on their radar, they jumped at the opportunity.
