Over 120,000 Bees Discovered In LI Home

EAST ISLIP, NY - A Long Island couple got more than they bargained for after discovering hundreds of thousands of bees inside their East Islip home. Nicholas Sarro was renovating the 81-year-old house on Division Avenue when he came across the massive hive containing over 120,000 honey bees.

Nicholas and his wife, Sandra, have lived in the home for nearly 40 years, doing work along the way such as fixing the roof and replacing the windows, according to a Newsday report. Their son, Nicholas, discovered the guest room full of bees a few years ago, and responding by shutting the door and leaving a note that read "Room Full of Bees, Don't Open the Door." The family opened the window, sealed off the room and thought they had gotten rid of the bees, but when Sarro went to work to re-roof his home a few months ago, he found the bees didn't go too far. The bees had formed a 7-foot by 14-foot hive in the wall.

That's when local bee expert, Anthony "Tony Bees" Planakis, paid a visit to the home, saying the hive was the biggest he's ever seen, Newsday reports. He advised the couple to keep the bees until he could move it in April.

"If they were roaches or bedbugs or anything else I would've called an exterminator," Sarro told Newsday. "But honey bees? Einstein said if the bees go, so does man. I'm not smarter than Einstein, so I'll take him at his word."

In addition to the bees, the walls of Sarro's home are believed to have an estimated 70 pounds of honey inside, according the New York Post. Planakis will most likely be moving the bees in April, once the flowers bloom, using special tools to remove the colony over the course of three to four days, the New York Post reports. Once the $1,000 project is complete, the bees will be donated to other beekeepers.

"And I will miss them when they’re gone. I will," Sandra told CBS2 News.