I was terrified of bees – until the day 30,000 of them moved into my house | Pip Harry

AChild, I was allergic to bees. Just a bite on my finger could inflate my whole arm. I was allergic to most things – dust, cat hair, pollen – and I always tighten a inhaler, sniffing in my sleeve and keeping a safe distance from spicy insects.

As an adult, when my family bought our first house, a gem in the middle of the century nestled in a thick bush on the beaches in the north of Sydney, I did not expect a visit to my former sworn enemy. But a hot spring day, we heard the undoubted buzzing of 20,000 of these insects producing honey.

“Bees!” I shouted, while a large dark ball went directly to me and my little daughter. Terrified, I caught it and slammed the terrace doors just in time. The swarm broke in the air and the buzzing has become thunderous.

I learned later that the bees grouped when their current hive became overcrowded. Once the grouping instinct is triggered, the scouts head to find a new location and the old queen and its workers’ bees fly towards their new home less cramped. The bees left can then lift a new queen.

During the renovations, we discovered masses of old bee nests and dead bees in the ceilings and walls of our house; The swarm was probably attracted to this perfume.

While tens of thousands of bees rushed into the wall cavity of our living room, my first instinct was to call a beekeeper. Bees are a precious – vital creature for pollination, food security and a healthy ecosystem. Unfortunately, the beekeeper could not help. “Once the bees are in a wall, they are very difficult to extract,” he said, before hanging up. I called another and another, until I end up using the antiparasitic control. We sealed the entry points along the wall and we hoped that another swarm would not find us.

Years later, we did it. We had just returned home from a visit to Singapore when I heard the familiar buzzing of the bees announcing their arrival. This swarm was large – 30,000 forts – and they quickly pushed their path in the walls and our staircase cavity.

I tried again to find a beekeeper to guide us, looking desperately on the internet local beekeeping associations; I could not call my stomach again to call the antiparasitic control. This time, we found the right person – a young beekeeper who arrived at our door an hour later with his equipment and his beekeeper costume.

First of all, he set up an outdoor lure – a hive of bait, filled with old combs and a few drops of lemongrass oil, which imitates a bee pheromone and can encourage a swarm to move. He installed a ladder and placed the wooden box near the entry point of the wall, hoping that the queen and her workers would leave our property and prepare in the hive of bait. During next week, we waited and watched and hoped. Unfortunately, the bees did not move.

Plan B (bee?) Had to attract the swarm more closely. Currently, bees were already building a comb and stored honey in a small cavity above the stairs, preparing for eggs and rear larvae. The beekeeper convinced us to let him cut a hole in our soil; He then placed the box directly above the hive – in the middle of our living space. We continued our daily life, cooking, watching television, working … while cohabiting thousands of bees. Sometimes we got out of our air conditioning unit or merged on its pollen route and stolen through an open window. But for the most part, they were excellent roommates.

Living with the constant buzzing of bees and learning more about their behavior and their beekeeper habits, my fear and my anxiety began to dissipate. I stopped using spray insects and rolled away the lost bees outside on a piece of paper. I was not pricked – they seemed to feel that I was not going to hurt them.

A few weeks later, we were finally ready to move the bees in greener pastures – a farm where the beekeeper has already kept established hives. He admitted that it was the most difficult hive emitter he ever made. It took several 20 liter buckets full of honey and comb, a lot of smoke to calm the bees, and some escapees, but he managed to save two thirds of the hive.

Once the bees are disappeared, the house was too calm. The wax butterflies came to clean the steel wax and the remaining pollen. The spiders came to eat wax and larvae. We have repaired the soil.

Every spring, when the air begins to lose its cold and the pollen makes me sneeze, I monitor the scout bees and I make a very important telephone call. The beekeeper answers: he will be round with a hive of bait to attract bees far from our walls, if they came to visit. So far, so good.

• Pip Harry is an author. His latest novel for young adults, Drift, inspired by his experience with The Bees, is in Australia on July 30 (Hachette Australia, $ 17.99)