A little girl thought there were monsters in her wall. It was actually 50,000 bees

Three-year-old Sawyer Class told her parents “she heard monsters in her wall,” according to People. It turned out to be over 50,000 bees.

A family in North Carolina had recently watched “Monsters, Inc.” together at their century-old house when their little girl started complaining of monsters in her bedroom, according to People. Mother Ashley Class told People how her toddler then started having “night terrors” and would not stay in her room.

When Class and her husband noticed several bees entering the attic of their century-old farmhouse, they contacted pest control and beekeepers, People reports. Multiple beekeepers told her that there was nothing to worry about, but one brought in a thermal camera, which revealed a large honeybee hive behind one of the toddler’s bedroom walls.

Class told People that, at first, “I thought it was a body. I was like, ‘What is that?’ And he says he thinks it’s a hive. He didn’t even have his bee gear on yet, but he took a hammer and knocked into the wall. Bees came swarming out like a horror movie.”

According to The Guardian, the endangered honeybees had spent eight months building the hive inside the wall and it took several extraction efforts to remove the entire hive. Over 100 pounds of honey were removed, along with over 50,000 honeybees.

The bees had also caused $20,000 in damage to the electrical wiring.

Class documented the progress on her TikTok account, where she said that, after the initial removal process, they found another hidden hive in the wall. Her videos show the large hole in the wall and the thousands of bees hiding in their honeycombs.

It took over a week before most of the bees were safely removed by professional beekeepers. In one extraction, they were able to take out 20,000 bees.

What should you do if bees start living in your house?

According to the University of Georgia, honeybees often create their hives in holes found in old trees, but the open voids found in houses (such as within a wall) are an available alternative to the bees. But not all “bees” one might find in their house are bees.

Per Iowa State University, 90% of inquiries about bee infestations were actually yellow jacket wasps. They say that both look almost identical, except honeybees will have a fuzzy body with a golden yellow color, while wasps have a shiny yellow body.

You will need to identify which insect it is before calling the appropriate beekeeper or exterminator.

If you do happen to find bees living in your house, according to Iowa State University, professional beekeepers and/or exterminators will need to be contacted to remove them. A beekeeper will most likely try their best to remove the bees and the hive to save the colony, but this could take time depending on the nest and where it’s located.

Exterminators will come kill the bees if they are a threat or are unable to be extracted from the house.