Huge beehive a neighborhood nuisance in Port St. Lucie

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. - On the Port St. Lucie intersection of Hunnicut and Wycofft Avenues, a huge beehive of colonized honeybees are attached to an abandoned house.

Neighbor Wayne Edwards said these bees are dangerous.

"That's a death trap," said Edwards. "Definitely a death trap."

Edwards lives three houses down from the empty Port St. Lucie home with a massive beehive that he's been videotaping. He said the neighborhood has had a bee problem for a year now, ever since he encountered swarms of bees on his car.

"I had to put on a ninja mask, jump in wearing all black, that way the bees wouldn't recognize me, from what I was told. I jumped in the car and had to drive off," he recalls.

He said he's been trying to figure out how to move the bees out of the area.

"I called animal control, no help. I called bee removers, and they wanted more than a month's income," said Edwards.

The Port St. Lucie City Building and Code Enforcement department handles abandoned houses. However, the city's first response of sending a pest exterminator fell through, because the worker said this hive was too big for him to handle.

Friday, building officials contacted professional beekeepers to come next week and remove the bees safely, while perhaps even harvesting the honey.

Edwards said it won't be a moment too soon.

"I actually was stung when I went up against it because I was just in my front yard, just to walk outside, not paying attention. Bees were all over my front yard," he said.