A Monster Behind the Bedroom Wall Feared by 3-Year-Old Daughter... It Was a Swarm of 50,000 Bees

Bee Found Entering Chimney
Paid $20,000 for Beehive Removal

A story about a 3-year-old daughter who expressed fear, saying she heard monster sounds behind the bedroom wall, has become a hot topic. The mother thought her daughter was making unnecessary noises after watching the animated movie 'Monsters, Inc.,' but in reality, there were 50,000 bees living behind the wall.

On the 30th (local time), according to the US CBS broadcast, Ashley Massis Class, a mother of three children living in Charlotte, North Carolina, and her husband shared their 3-year-old daughter's story on the social media platform TikTok.

Honeybees.
Photo by Yonhap News

Class said, "I handed my daughter a water bottle and told her it was a monster repellent spray when she expressed fear, saying she heard monster sounds behind the bedroom wall. I told her that spraying it would make any monster disappear. However, the child continued to have trouble sleeping and was terrified," she said.

Soon after, Class discovered bees swarming near the attic chimney. She called a pest control company, and the pest control experts advised contacting a beekeeping specialist, saying the bees living in the attic were endangered honeybees.

The beekeeper who came to the couple's house installed a movie camera in the child's bedroom to check how many honeybees there were. When filming behind the wall with a thermal camera, an object resembling a beehive was visible. When the beekeeper broke part of the wall with a hammer, bees swarmed out, and honey flowed from the broken wall. The beekeeper quickly closed the door to contain them.

The couple told their daughter, "You were right, we found the monster."

The local beekeeper who started the bee removal operation found 20,000 bees and a beehive weighing 100 pounds (45 kg) on the first day alone.

Class said, "Bees poured out like a horror movie. The beekeeper and I knew from the thermal camera that there were many bees, but we didn't know how many there actually were," adding, "The beekeeper severely underestimated the situation, but it's not his fault because it's uncommon for bees to hide underground."

He explained that the bees entered the wall through a coin-sized hole in the chimney and were able to reach the daughter's room's basement. The beekeeper drilled several holes in the wall to remove the bees. Following a plan to relocate the beehive to a safe place so the bees could continue to survive, he saved 50,000 bees and the queen bee.

Even after sealing the holes drilled in the wall, the tape did not stick well due to the large amount of honey. Honey covered the floor of the daughter's room, and thousands of bees remained even after the last beehive was removed. Class was stung several times during this process.

Class lamented that the bee removal process cost about $20,000 (approximately 27 million KRW), and although the electrical wiring was damaged, they found out that the insurance the homeowner had did not cover pest-related issues.

However, she added that she takes comfort in having a new hero, the beekeeper whom her daughter calls the 'monster hunter.'