Living In The Walls: This Tennessee Family Had the Surprise of Their Life

For every homeowner, besides a mortgage, their home comes with a set of maintenance responsibilities. For example, if little things break or need to be replaced, it’s up to the homeowner to fix them. Otherwise, that responsibility falls into the hands of a handyman or handywoman. Overall, everyone wants their home to look good because your home is an investment in yourself and your family.

It was late September in Tennessee. A family of three, who had a cute, friendly dog, decided to call the local pest control company when they started hearing strange noises coming from their walls.

Little critters, ranging from rats to squirrels, frequently make their homes within the walls of the houses they are most familiar with. As summer dies down at the end of August and September rolls around, creatures start making winter nests for themselves. It is common-place behavior that, unfortunately, may lead to your home becoming infested with unwanted pests.

The strange and unnerving sound that was coming from their kitchen wasn’t going away. The family had no idea how to get rid of whatever was making the noise. Luckily, they were able to go online and find out the cause of the noise: weird bugs living inside their walls!

After creating their homemade pesticide, the sound of scratching still didn’t go away. Every time they stood by the wall, they could hear it loud and clear. The DIY bug bombs weren’t working, so the family realized they were going to need backup.

David was an experienced professional. He knew he could handle whatever came his way. After all, the situation was within the walls of the house. So, it couldn’t possibly be that dangerous.

David was inspecting the outer wall of the kitchen, looking for an insect’s entryway. It was a brick wall that looked solid, but he knew there had to be a tiny opening somewhere so small you could barely notice it. He had trouble locating one until he finally spotted it—the weep hole.

David is always well-equipped to do his work well. He’s fond of infrared cameras, like the ones in the movie Predator, which let you see heat. Infrared cameras are helpful for a variety of tasks, and it might help discover what was going on within the walls.

The following tool David used was the more traditional option. Before removing the pests from inside that wall with his fancy infrared camera, he decided to use smoke as an old-school method of repelling any potential stinging insects before taking out the wall.

The smoke had likely startled the insects for a brief time. So, David set to work on enlarging the brick hole so he could see more of what was going on within the wall.

Bees were the source of all the activity inside the wall structure. To be more specific, a whole swarm of honeybees. This hive could seem to be small to the untrained eye. On the other hand, David was fully aware of the massive quantity of honey and bees that were concealed under those bricks, owing to the size of the comb.

David popped off one brick. Then, two. Three. Four. The beehive got bigger and bigger, though he wasn’t sure if it was because he was getting closer to a complete hive or if there were still a lot of bricks left to pry from the wall. Each layer David uncovered revealed more honeycombs.

David carefully removed pieces from the wall, brick by brick, and slowly removed five rows. At this point, he could see how immense the hive was, as the entire outer shell was now visible, and he could see thousands of bees flying freely in and out of it.

Suppose the enormous honeycomb that David just found, which overshadowed the kitchen window, is any indication. In that case, these bees have been working non-stop for some time to produce that deep, amber-colored liquid that would be heavenly on a slice of toast.

David looked closer at the hissing and buzzing hive. He noticed that there were 13 queen cells, each with a virgin queen bee inside. It was clear that the entire beehive was brimming with a zealous activity of its own accord.

David was regretful when he realized that the bees were causing a lot of damage, but he didn’t want to exterminate them. He knew that around the world, there were problems with bee populations dying at alarming rates. Some scientists even say that the fault lies with us humans because of our overzealous pesticides.

After removing several swaths of honeycomb from the hive, David discovered a large comb section built in extraordinary fashion. As he described it later, “The construction crew in this part of the hive must have been on some type of acid when they were building this.” It was almost as if there were crisscrossing curves and tunnels every which way, with no rhyme or reason.

It’s not every day that you see a man getting into the hive of a swarm of bees. They have a reputation for being vicious and having an excruciating sting, but these bees stood out from the rest. It was strange to see them so cooperative as David carefully took apart their home, until he got the queens out.

Once David had finished removing the bees from behind the wall, he went about cleaning up his work area. It was quite a messy job, ripping out a brick wall to remove thousands of honeybees created quite an enormous mess!

David decided to keep a box in the hole left in the home’s wall during his cleaning because he wasn’t sure there wouldn’t be any bees coming back. Most of the pollen collectors had been distracted or scared away by the noise of the hive removal, but the absence of some of them may have only been temporary.

The bees had left an indelible mark on the interior of this wall after David completed cleaning. Thousands of tiny bee tracks had been left behind. David made a joke about how many times his mother had instructed him to clean his feet before entering his childhood home. He thought the “footprints” were kind of cool.

David carefully removed the hive box to find any remaining bees inside had already left. Now he just needed to give these bees a new home—somewhere safe to continue their industrious work.

You might know that bees get a bad rep, but it’s important to remember they are an essential part of our planet’s ecosystem. They make sure flowers and plants grow correctly and help the global community by pollinating trees, crops, and vegetables. Although bees can be intimidating with their barbed stingers, they won’t attack unless provoked.

When you realize just how many critters can sneak into your home, it might help you remember that even bees aren’t the worst things. Take one family in Thailand who wished their stress was caused by a bee problem because, by comparison, they had a much more serious issue to deal with.

Even though snakes are smaller than humans, we do much more damage to them than snakes do to us. Snakes, on the other hand, have received a bad reputation. It’s conceivable that the whole story of Adam and Eve may be to blame for this.

Vern Lovic has the fearlessness of an adventurer. He’s an expert at handling slippery snakes, including small, harmless kinds and significantly larger, venomous types. If you’re thinking of taking on a snake problem yourself, think again!

Vern has always been fascinated with snakes. He can remember back to when he was just a young boy visiting the zoo with his dad. The one reptile that caught his eye was the anaconda, which made Vern want to know everything possible about these unique creatures.

Vern’s tools didn’t seem like they were worth much when compared to David’s. Unlike the infrared camera and smoke gun, Vern was armed with nothing more than a clear plastic bag reinforced with metal that was used specifically for transporting snakes—to keep them contained without the fear of them biting or escaping.

Vern searched every corner of the house in a way that would make a herpetologist jealous! He looked in places where snakes often like to take refuge, like the underside of kitchen appliances, drawers, vents, and crevices around molding. Vern wasn’t afraid to go out on the edge of uncertainty with his “snake-finder” senses.

It was in the bathroom that Vern started his investigation. Snakes are known to lurk in toilet bowls, and he understood it was never a good idea to sit on a toilet with a snake in it. When he opened the bathroom door, he saw one creeping up the back corner wall.

Seeing the young cobra crawling up the wall was problematic for a few reasons. First and foremost, one young cobra equates to many baby cobras. Second, it was a monocled infant cobra, the most poisonous and dangerous snake in Thailand.

Thailand is one of the most beautiful places in Asia. Unfortunately, it is also home to a wide variety of venomous snake species. While there are only a dozen deaths annually from snake bites in Thailand, people should still take precautions around these creatures because identifying the difference between potentially lethal and harmless species is often challenging without prior experience.

At the end of his restroom roundup, Vern discovered almost a dozen snakes. This was just the number of reptiles in the bathroom. He hadn’t even gone through the rest of his friend’s home yet! As soon as he was confident there were no more snakes in the bathroom, he continued to the next living space.

Vern carefully nudged open the door to the next room, ensuring not to get too close and startle any nearby snakes. He proceeded with caution. If he was spotted, he risked upsetting them and possibly angering them into biting him. He made his way past furniture and other items, searching for potential hiding spots for any nearby cobras. Vern knew these snakes were excellent at finding and using hiding places that people might not expect.

Vern knew he had to be on the lookout for even more snakes. There was no telling where they might slither from next. He knelt and peeked inside several glass bottles that were scattered around the floor. Sure enough, Vern found several baby cobras hiding behind the glass bottles on the floor. Then, Vern turned his head towards some empty tin cans lying in a heap of trash near his feet. There were more he noticed hiding inside the cans.

Vern began at the far end of the room and worked his way backward, since there was plenty of space. He had no idea what he would come across with each new step he took on his journey. Almost every snake he saw was a surprise, but he had to exercise extreme care while in the presence of any of them.

Vern found many more young cobras in the room’s rear. He was incredibly thorough with his search and removed any that were still hiding out in tight spaces. When they weren’t coiled around pipes, they were skulking about in trash cans.

One of the only things left to do was check his friend’s bedroom. After all, while his friend slept in this room many hours per night, Vern couldn’t let the cobras get the chance to bite him. Unaware and unprotected, it would mean certain death for his pal while he was sleeping.

As soon as Vern pulled back the bedspread, he felt a chill go down his spine. There were a few snakes just hanging out under the covers. Cue creepy music, because this sight was the stuff that nightmares are made of.

As Vern left the bedroom, he spotted one more baby monocled cobra trying to slither underneath the bottom jamb of the door. Thankfully, it had its tail visible. So, Vern could quickly collect it in his bag with the rest of its brothers and sisters. Apparently, these snakes didn’t know who they were dealing with.

Vern inwardly shrieked with awe as he turned around and realized what was happening for the second time today. There was another pile of terrors outside the bathroom door. The number of snakes in this house was indeed one of the worst infestations Vern had ever encountered.

As Vern continued to safely store the cobras in his bag, he pressed on with his task. The living room was littered with shelves against one wall, and there were plenty of dark spots for any hidden snakes to slip into.

Vern knew that snakes liked to stay in dark and claustrophobic places. So, the instant he spotted a pair of tall black boots in his friend’s bachelor pad, he was confident that an exotic reptile would be slithering out at any moment. He kicked the boots over, and there turned out to be not only one baby cobra, but several of them came out of the footwear.

What would you do if your house had over 50 snakes in it? It’s not very likely that anyone reading this has enough cobras living in their home to equal the astonishing total count of 56 monocled cobras, like Vern found during his Thailand residential exploration. He ended up being featured in a video uploaded to the Thailand Living YouTube channel, if you want to watch the snake hunt in its entirety.