It took a few years longer than she wanted, but Louise Dawe has finally sent her unwanted houseguest packing.

That one, and tens of thousands of others.

It all started three years ago, when Dawe first noticed a swarm of bees hanging around her Cambridge home.

After running up against a couple of roadblocks, she called in an exterminator.

For the next little while, there was little buzzing around the property – but after a while, the bees returned.

Dawe now thinks it’s because the exterminator killed most of the bees, but didn’t get at the honeycomb itself – and the queen bee likely survived to keep on breeding.

“I do like honey. It’s a wonderful sweetener. But it’s dangerous to have honey in your house,” she said.

This spring, fed up with the bees and not sure what else to do, Dawe got in touch with beekeeper David Schuit of Saugeen Country Honey.

Monday, Schuit paid a visit to Fallbrook Lane to cut the problem out at its source.

“We’re trying to save the hive, save the queen, and find it a new home,” he told reporters shortly before doing just that.

After opening up the drywall and pulling the honeycomb through, Schuit figured that there were at least 50,000 bees in the wall – stretching down from the eavestroughs.

He described the grist as a “thriving” hive, which he plans to add to his farm.

The honey won’t be salvageable because the home was fumigated – but Schuit got an unexpected firsthand look at it anyhow.

“It was pretty hard to dodge the honey and stay on the ladder at the same time,” he said.

“I got myself into a bit of a sticky situation.”

Dawe estimates that Schuit’s work cost her $1,500, and she’ll have to spend a couple thousand more to repair the holes his work made in her walls.

Nonetheless, she says, it’s money well spent.

“I’m relieved … they weren’t all down the wall in my living room,” she said.

“Hopefully we can seal it all up so they won’t choose my property again.”

Schuit says his own swarm of bees has seen 150 million deaths over the past three years, and blames neonicotinoid pesticides for the loss.

Ontario recently announced a plan to cut neonic use in the province by 80 per cent by 2017 – a move Schuit says won’t be enough to adequately address the problem.