Plenty of kids talk about monsters in their closets or under their beds, but one North Carolina toddler had her monster claims vindicated after a massive beehive was revealed behind her bedroom walls.
The Class family lives in a 100-year-old farmhouse in Charlotte, N.C.
Ashley Class, who has been documenting some of the home’s renovation on social media, told Good Morning America her daughter, three-year-old Saylor, had been complaining about monsters in her bedroom walls.
Like most parents, Class didn’t think much of her daughter’s complaints and chalked up the claims to do with a recent viewing of the movie Monsters, Inc. The Class parents, who have two other children, tried to console their daughter with reassurances, and even a water-based “monster spray” to keep the ghouls at bay.
Class told People magazine that Saylor often refused to sleep in her bedroom and preferred to stay with her parents in their room to avoid the “monsters.”
As Saylor’s insistences continued, Class and her husband spotted a few honeybees lingering around their property.
“We noticed a couple bees when we were outside playing with the kids and then as the days progressed, we saw more and more and we thought, ‘That’s a little strange,'” she said.
Finally, after hiring a beekeeper, Curtis Collins, to inspect the home, the family discovered a floor-to-ceiling hive hidden behind the wall in Saylor’s bedroom. Collins used a thermal imaging camera to identify the infestation.
The buzzworthy discovery has since gone viral on TikTok, with Class’ video about the beehive viewed 9.1 million times.
Class said more than 50,000 bees, as well as 100 pounds of honeycomb, have been removed from the wall.
She told the BBC the discovery of the hive, which had apparently been covertly developing for eight months, was a first for Collins as well, who had never seen one go so far down into a wall.
Regardless, Saylor affectionately took to calling the beekeeper a “monster hunter.”
“It was really neat to be able to show our three-year-old, ‘These are the monsters you’ve been hearing. You’re completely right,'” Class told GMA.
It’ll be a long process to remove all of the bees from their home, according to Class, with three extractions already completed by reverse vacuuming the insects out of the wall. Saylor’s bedroom has been screened off from the rest of the home, to prevent the bees from buzzing elsewhere.
Class said the family is now facing sticky, honey-covered floors in their home and swaths of dead bees — which, for the record, can still sting even after death.
The bees reportedly entered the Class’ home through a dime-sized hole in the chimney.
Class said the colony damaged the house’s electric wiring, and she’s feeling an extra sting because her homeowner’s insurance won’t cover anything pest-related.
She estimated fixing the damage will cost around US$20,000 (about C$27,500).
Honeybees are a protected species in the U.S. (and in Canada), as they are vital pollinators.
The bees and their queen were extracted from the Class family home and brought to a nearby sanctuary.
Saylor, at least for the time being, has been moved to sleep in another, monster-free bedroom in the home.