More than 150,000 bees found in Inverness home

Around 180,000 bees have been discovered within the ceiling of an Inverness property.

Andrew Card, from the Loch Ness Honey Company, was alerted to the situation six weeks ago and was "taken aback" to find three different colonies.

It's thought one colony could have been in a bedroom of the house for more than six years.

They've now been safely transferred elsewhere, much to the relief of the homeowner.

Speaking to us earlier today, Andrew outlined what shocked him about the find.

He said: "I'm quite used to big quantities of bees so it didn't surprise me, but I was a bit taken aback by the whole size of the colonies.

"They were probably the best part of three metres long which is a considerable amount of bees."

As he has a number of apiaries in the North of Scotland, Andrew described how the bees have been moved elsewhere.

He added: "We've got an isolation apiary which we use for any unknown swarms or bees we remove from buildings.

"Everything goes onto that site for six weeks, we assess them for diseases and feed them up to make sure they're strong enough for this coming winter.

"They'll then be moved out next spring and go into honey production."

Andrew also outlined how the homeowner was relieved to no longer be in a sticky situation.

He said: "Once he saw the extent of the problem, he was glad he made the decision to have them removed.

"When we left he was quite vocal about the fact we'd done a good job for him.

"He was quite delighted with the outcome."

Hear the latest news on Downtown on FM, DAB, smart speaker or the Rayo app.