No one cares too much about a tiny, little dark spot on their brick wall until, that is, it turns out to be an open door to unwanted visitors. Glover had all the tools he needed to discover exactly which kind of unwanted visitor lurked inside. To see what was going on, he used an infrared camera.
The camera detects heat and creates a visual picture of how the heat behaves. With this specialized camera, he took a thermal scan of the area between the entry points. Glover was stunned. The size of the infrared imaging showed a larger infestation than even he, with all his experience, could imagine.
The Bartlett Bee Whisperer
David Glover is a bee expert from Bartlett, Tennessee. He is known in the area as the Bartlett Bee Whisperer because of his affinity for solving bee issues. He removes about 250 hives a year. But he is also an expert at eliminating any infestation and has been in the business since 2009.
Geared up and ready to go, David Glover got right to work. Whatever was thriving inside the family’s home, Glover was prepared to remove it. After years of treating the whole spectrum of pest issues, he was ready to tackle anything. Little did he know that he was about to confront a problem the scale of which he had never encountered.
Determining the Entry Point
The outside wall of the kitchen was made of brick. Glover started there. He inspected the brick wall for a point of entrance. The pests had to be coming from outside. The wall looked solid, but as he began to look over it, he discovered what is called a weep hole. A weep hole is where water has settled and created an erosion point.
In the picture above you can see where the weep hole is. It’s the dark spot located in the lower center area of the wall. As he inspected the wall, he also found an entry point at the corner of the window. The pests had an entry and exit point.
The Smoker
The next tool he pulled out from his toolbox was an old-fashioned pest control device called a smoker. It's an old machine, but it does the trick, so it's not going out of style anytime soon. It's well known that smoke drives bugs crazy, so any insects hiding out should be no match for this machine. Hopefully, this would drive some of the visitors away.
He was being very cautious, especially because of the size of this thing. Plus, these bugs might sting! He covered himself in protective clothing, while everyone else vacated the property. A job like this is only for experienced pros, so the Bee Whisperer needed to tackle this one alone.
Removing the Bricks
Glover’s plan was to remove the bricks, one by one. The smoke served to stun the buggers while he dismantled their home. The first brick he removed was the one closest to the weep hole. It did not take long before Glover and the Tennessee family saw what they were up against.
The first thing Glover did after smoking the entrances was to spray some Honey Bandit in the small hole you see him drilling in this photo. He did that to help keep the bees from running up the wall when he started working with the hammer drill. Once he pried the first brick off, he knew for certain what sort of pest problem this family was dealing with.