RIO VISTA, Calif. — For the past week, a vacant building along Rio Vista's Front Street has been swarmed with curious community members and a colony of an estimated 200,000 bees.
The bee colony infestation has impacted the building near Front and Logan Streets for at least the past week, Chrissy Langlois a beekeeping student with Farifield-based Bees Kneeds said.
According to Langlois, her bee removal business was initially brought in to help assess the extent of the infestation.
"The comb in the thermal scan was ginormous. It was big," said Langlois. "[Bees] were coming in and out of the top. They were kind of minding their own business, doing their own thing."
Langlois and her coworkers became familiar with the colony after looking into the infestation. Ultimately, the building's owner chose a different bee removal service, Langlois said.
ABC10 tried to reach out to the building's owner but did not hear back before publishing.
"These bees were so gentle. I've had my face up to their entrance many times unguarded without my equipment, they didn't care. So, so gentle," said Langlois. "They've got to find another way to get to their queen, that's kind of the purpose. That's why they're still hanging out. They need to get to their home, get to their queen, so they're swarming a lot."
The sight of the sudden swarm takeover caught the attention of Rio Vista resident Matt Roberts as he passed by the bee-filled brick building Thursday.
"Yesterday I saw a guy out here and it sounded like there was a bee infestation," said Roberts. "The bees were swarming pretty good so I think it was a pretty large hive, but I hadn't noticed it before yesterday."
While it's unclear exactly why the colony decided to make the building home, Langlois says there are some steps that building and home owners can take to prevent the sting of dealing with a bee takeover.
"If you have any holes in your exterior, make sure you bee-proof them," said Langlois. "The easiest, least expensive way is to just get yourself some steel wool and cover those holes."
For now, as a contractor works to clear the building of bees, residents like Roberts have been stopping by to watch the tens of thousands of black and yellow insects buzz around.
"It was kind of exciting... it was quite a spectacle," said Roberts. "You hear a lot about honeybees being in danger and in peril but, hopefully, they can get relocated."
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