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Swarming bees taking over St. Pete woman's home

Bee complaint issue continues for months
Posted at 4:47 PM, Nov 02, 2016
and last updated 2016-11-02 16:47:40-04

Darlene Obermayer spends every morning sweeping up hundreds of dead bees from her porch. 

The St. Petersburg woman says at night, the bees make their way to her house before falling dead outside her side door.

"I have probably swept thousands upon thousands," she said. 

Obermayer said she's filed a complaint with the city of St. Petersburg after the bees are taking over her car port. 

"I couldn't even give out candy for Halloween," she uttered.

The problem is, the bees aren't coming from her house, but her neighbors.

ABC Action News was able to capture video of bees coming out of the walls from her neighbors house off 5th Avenue North.

Obermayer has filed a complaint with the city's code enforcement agency, but the problem is still there. 

She claims the bees have been there for over a year. 

The city of St. Petersburg was able to find the most recent complaint filed on August 3rd. 

A code enforcement officers was also present last week, but failed to issue any citations because they could not find enough bees to do so.

"As soon as the light hits just right, you see them swarming," she said. 

The city isn't able to step in to help Obermayer because the home is occupied, so it's the homeowners responsibility. 

A code enforcement officer has been unable to reach someone who lives at the home. 

The department plans to revisit the home site Thursday morning, and if they find bees, they plan to issue a citation. 

The homeowner will have a short time frame to fix the problem before being hit with another citation. 

Obermayer plans to keep checking with the code enforcement officers until the problem is taken care of.