Kid Said Monsters Were in the Wall, Wasn't Totally Wrong

60K bees were inside
By Polly Davis Doig,  Newser Staff
Posted May 1, 2024 2:25 PM CDT
Kid Said Monsters Were in the Wall, Wasn't Totally Wrong
A colony of bees is seen at at hive in the backyard of University of Maryland bee researcher Nathalie Steinhauer, Wednesday, June 21, 2023, in College Park, Maryland.   (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Plenty of little kids are scared of monsters in the closet or under the bed, and so was 3-year-old Saylor Class. Only Saylor's monsters were in the wall of her bedroom in her family's 100-year-old farmhouse in Charlotte, North Carolina. Saylor had just seen Monsters, Inc., so mom Ashley Massis Class and husband Chris Class downplayed the child's concerns.

"We even gave her a bottle of water and said it was monster spray so that she could spray away any of the monsters at night," Massis Class tells the BBC. The water bottle didn't work, and Saylor's complaints continued over a few months. Then Massis Class noticed bees buzzing around the chimney of the home and called a pest control company that sent a beekeeper. The beekeeper brought a thermal camera to scan the walls. What happened next:

  • Says mom: "It lit up like Christmas."
  • Those monsters: It was a monster ... hive of honeybees, between 55,000 and 65,000 of the creatures, which are protected in the US. Beekeeper Curtis Collins estimates that it took the bees about eight months to construct the hive, which reached from floor to ceiling in Saylor's room, per WSBR.
  • The remedy: Saylor has had to relocate while the bees are similarly being relocated, per the BBC. Multiple extractions are taking place, and the bees are being moved from the wall to a sanctuary.
  • The damage: About $20,000, which insurance deemed preventable and thus not covered.
(More honeybees stories.)

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