50,000 bees saved from apartment block and rehomed

Pest controllers removed the bricks and found the bees living inside the wall

More than 50,000 honey bees have been saved from an apartment block after a pest control firm arranged for them to be rehomed.

Pest controllers were originally called out to kill the bees as they were mistakenly thought to be wasps.

However, after correctly identifying the winged insects, the original firm contacted another pest control firm that specialises in rehoming bees to live on farms.

Three workers spent a day and a half vacuuming up the colony and removing the honeycomb from inside the wall of the property.

The bees were vacuumed up in order to move them

The bees were taken from the apartment block in Water Orton in Warwickshire and moved to a farm in Market Bosworth in Leicestershire.

The colony will now be split into two, with one half will taken to a farm in Barlestone in Leicestershire and given a new queen.

Pestguard Northwest Leicestershire, which saved the bees, said residents told them there had been bees living in the walls of the building for eight years.

One resident had apparently moved out from the rented accommodation because he kept getting stung.

The bees had removed insulation from the property to make space for themselves