Being the superintendent of a large apartment building, I get a lot of odd service calls.
Last week, one of my apartment dwellers called and told me she heard bees in her ductwork. I had never heard of such a thing, so instead of telling her she was nuts, I went up to her apartment. I could hear some humming coming from the ductwork, but I couldn’t hear bees. She told me to get closer to the air vent, and I would know what she was talking about. I put my ear to the air vent, and I listened closely. There was a hum and I could faintly hear a noise that could be a buzz. The longer I listened, the more I heard the noise she was hearing. I started knocking on the walls, but that made no difference in the sound. I thought that if bees could have gotten into the ductwork, knocking would make the noise louder, or send a stray bee out of the air vent. I called the HVAC company, and they said they would come over the next morning. In the meantime, I was going to cover the air vents, but if she had bees in the ductwork, the entire building would have bees in the ductwork. I told the tenant the HVAC technician would be there in the morning, and everything would be taken care of then. On my way out of her apartment, I heard some odd noises coming from the apartment next door. The owners had a toy for the dog that was a buzzing and jumping ball, and it was vibrating through the air vents.