CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A mom has gone viral on TikTok after sharing her toddler was hearing a "monster" in her bedroom walls. Turns out, the noise was actually a colony of more than 50,000 bees.
Ashley Class shared on TikTok that her daughter was scared of monsters in their Charlotte, North Carolina house, which is more than 100 years old.
The 3-year-old, who had just seen the Disney and Pixar film "Monsters Inc.," was insistent about the monsters in her wall, Class told BBC News. "We even gave her a bottle of water and said it was monster spray so that she could spray away any of the monsters at night," she said.
But soon, Class noticed bees swarming near her attic chimney, and thought her daughter might be on to something. They called pest control and using a thermal camera, a common tool used by beekeepers, they realized there was a colony of bees behind the wall.
Class' video about the bee discovery received more than 9 million views on TikTok, and she continued to share updates on the bee debacle on her @classashley page.
A local beekeeper performed extractions to get the bees out – finding 20,000 bees and 100 pounds of honeycomb on the first day.
"They just came pouring out like a horror movie," Class told BBC News.
Class said in another TikTok video "it only takes a couple of bees and a swarm that you may not be able to see to become a colony that's 50,000 bees."
The beekeeper told her that the bees took eight months to create 100 pounds of honeycomb – which was so heavy, they needed to triple-bag it to carry it out.
"The beekeeper and I did not realize how many bees were in that wall when he decided to open it up. Even though the thermal cam showed there was a lot of activity, he greatly underestimated," she said. "And it's not his fault because it's not usual that bees bury downward."
She said the bees got into the wall through a dime-size hole in a pipe in their chimney, traveling down into the wall of her daughter's room. The beekeeper broke multiple holes in the wall to get the bees out.
The beekeeper eventually removed 50,000 bees and was able to save the queen bee. The plan was to relocate the bees to a honeycomb sanctuary where the colony can continue their work.
They sealed up the holes in the wall, but because of the amount of honey the bees produced, the tape used to seal the wall was not sticking, allowing more bees into the room.
Thousands of bees still remained after what they thought would be the last extraction and honey covered the floors of her daughter's room. And yes, Class did get stung a few times during the process.
CBS News has reached out to Class on social media and is awaiting response.
On Monday, she posted on TikTok that the beekeeper did a third extraction to try and remove the remaining bees.
The extraction process cost Class an estimated $20,000 in damage and also damaged the electric wiring of her home. Class said in a TikTok video that her homeowner's insurance won't cover the pest problem.
But her daughter now has a new hero: the beekeeper, whom she calls a "monster hunter."
