JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Thousands of bees infiltrated a second-floor apartment on West 14th Street in the city’s Mid-Westside neighborhood, and a bee expert believes there may be a massive beehive inside one of the concrete walls, according to the tenant.
On Tuesday, a News4Jax crew saw a swarm of bees flying and crawling outside the apartment. On the inside, there were bees -- some dead and some alive -- in the windows and on the floor.
After News4Jax reported the issue, Jacksonville city code enforcement got involved.
Right after the story was published, city code enforcement gave the property owners a warning citation and said the problem needed to be fixed.
The bee infestation got so bad that for the past couple of nights, Eugene Hodges and his family were forced to sleep in a hotel.
Hodges said this has been a growing problem since March.
“Over time, since March, all the way up until now, they have produced thousands. The guy that came yesterday pulled at least 30 to 40 thousand out the wall, which filled four or five crates,” he said.
Hodges said when he spoke with a bee expert that visited on Monday, he was told there’s possibly a beehive within the cinderblock wall of his daughter’s bedroom.
Prior to that professional assessment, Hodges said his daughter first noticed the bees flying from under her bed.
“We found out four days ago they were coming through the floorboard. We thought it was cracks in windows and around the room. Sealed everything, and she kept saying they’re flying from under her bed,” Hodges said. “So I moved the bed, and one crawled right in front of me from the baseboard.”
Lifestyle Rentals, at Texas-based company, owns the property, so News4Jax called them on Tuesday to find out why it’s taking so long to finally rid the apartment of bees but got a voice recording. We have still not heard back.
Hodges says the number of bees in the apartment is starting to decrease while maintenance crews try to fix the problem, but bees are still coming inside, which is why he and his family continue to spend their nights in a hotel room.
Despite the slow process, Hodges says he grateful code enforcement saw the News4Jax story and got involved.
“That probably put a little bit more fire up under them due to the fact that they had a hard time during the pandemic to get a beekeeper out here, pest control or whoever,” he said. “That’s what prolonged this whole process, but in the meantime, I’m still a tenant and I have to pay rent.”