Part H · the register

Bees in the Soffit Can Change a Kirkwood Tear-Off Date

Find the nest before the tear-off starts, because a colony in the soffit or fascia changes the schedule, the crew plan, and who removes it.

Many older Kirkwood houses have open eaves, wood fascia, and soffit boards that have been painted over several times. Those details give bees a dry place to live. Before a roofer strips the shingles, somebody needs to know whether a colony is using the eave, because the nest sits right where the crew will set its ladders, pull off the drip edge, and drive nails into the rafter tails. A colony found on tear-off day can stop the job for a week or more, and a crew that has already torn the decking open has no good place to put the work.

What the nest looks like from the ground

Carpenter bees are the common one on wood. They chew round holes, roughly the width of a pencil, into fascia, rake boards, and exposed rafter tails, then tunnel inward. You will often see fine sawdust on the ground or on a ledge below the hole, and you may see bees hovering near the spot on warm afternoons. The males are the ones that look aggressive. They cannot sting, but they will fly at you, and that is usually what makes a homeowner notice them.

Honeybees are different. They do not chew a clean hole. They enter through a gap, often at a soffit vent, a loose board, or where a fascia joint has opened, and they build a comb inside a void. Signs include a steady stream of workers going in and out of one spot, a faint warm smell, a dark stain running down the siding, or a buzzing sound that you can hear from inside a room near the eave. In spring, a colony can also swarm, which looks like a large cloud of bees gathering on a tree branch or a gutter before moving on.

Walk the whole eave on each side of the house. Check the corners and the spots where the gutter meets the fascia, since those are the places that get missed. Photograph each opening with a coin or a tape beside it so the size is clear. A photo with a measure in it is more useful to a roofer and to a pest professional than a description.

Why it matters before the tear-off

The roof crew needs to know where the nest is for three reasons. The first is safety. A crew member who runs a pneumatic nailer or pulls a fascia board into an active colony can be stung many times at once. The second is the work itself. Removing fascia or rafter tails to replace them will expose a colony, and no reasonable roofing scope should assume that a nest is simply going to be moved out of the way. The third is the schedule. Once a colony is found, the removal has to happen first, and that removal has its own timing.

Honeybees in particular should not be sprayed by the roofer. A colony that is killed inside a wall can leave comb and honey behind, and the smell and staining can last well after the roof is finished. Many homeowners are better served by a beekeeper who removes the bees alive, then a pest control operator who seals the entry and deals with any remaining comb. For carpenter bees, the usual approach is to treat the holes and then seal them after the activity stops, which is typically after the bees have left for the season.

Carpenter bees often return to the same wood year after year. If the fascia has been drilled for several seasons, the damage can extend into the rafter tail, and the roofer may find soft wood when the old board comes off. That is something to photograph and note in the file before the new fascia goes on, not after.

Who removes it, and who pays for the delay

Keys Roofing does not present itself as a pest control company, so ask any roofer you are comparing how a found nest would be handled. Some contractors will wait while you arrange removal. Others will want the removal named as a separate line so there is no argument about who scheduled it. Either approach can work, but it has to be written down. A proposal that says only that the crew will work around any nests is not enough, because it does not say who is responsible for finding them, who removes them, or what happens to the start date.

Ask for these items in writing before you sign: the date and location of the eave inspection, the photos of any openings found, the name of the party who will remove any colony, and the rule for the start date if the crew finds a nest on tear-off morning. A start date that depends on removal should say so, and it should say how many days the crew will wait before it reschedules. If the proposal leaves those points out, the first bee problem will become a dispute about the calendar.

Timing in a Kirkwood spring

The work runs best when the bee question is settled before the crew is booked. Carpenter bees become active as the weather warms, and the spring swarm period is short but intense. A roof job that is scheduled for early spring can land right in the middle of that. If you can, look at the eaves in late winter, while the holes are still clear and the wood is easy to read, and make the call while there is time to bring in removal before the crew arrives.

Keep the inspection photos with the roof file. If the removal happens before the tear-off, the photos show the eave was clear when the crew started. If a colony moves in after the old fascia comes off, the same photos show the state of the wood before anyone touched it. Both results are easier to deal with when the record was made on the day, not reconstructed later.

What to do this week

Walk the eave on all four sides and mark any hole, gap, or staining with a photo. Ask each roofer you are comparing where the crew would expect to find a nest, who would remove it, and how the start date would move if they did. Get the answer in the written scope, with the photos attached. If a colony is already active, call a beekeeper or a licensed pest control operator before anyone plans a ladder against that wall. Keys Roofing can be reached at (314) 220-2333 to talk through the eave condition before the work is scheduled.