Esmeralda Bee Removal

Mr. Maldonado came out on the day of our appointment completely ill-prepared to do what he was hired to do.  Although he had agreed to relocate the bees and try to harvest the honey, within minutes, he had the swarm in such a frenzy that he had to retreat to his vehicle.  He left and returned a short time later with a bee suit, at which time he proceeded with Plan B - poison and removal.  The bee hive was located in an exterior wall on the side of my house under an eave between the first and second stories.  He removed a significant amount of the hive and some of the honeycomb and indicated that a return visit would probably be required to completely kill the hive.  While working on the removal, he tore down a bit of the wood siding near the entrance to the hive...after he left, I noticed that he didn't put the siding back as he found it, and he left a large piece of trim just lying on the ground.  Although the bee activity was significantly reduced, the hive was still active.  Mr. Maldonado was called out - in accordance with our warranty - a few months later when the hive got out of control again.  He performed an extraction of sorts again, but as before, the hive was never completely eradicated.  After this second visit, I learned that an effective removal requires at least two visits within a short window of time because it's impossible to kill every single bee on the first attempt.  The bees will naturally try to return to their known nest area to rebuild and repopulate the hive.  The hive area must also be treated to prevent future infestations by new colonies of bees.  This company did not make a second follow-up visit to complete the removal and didn't even come close to removing all traces of the honeycomb and honey.  They also didn't do anything special to seal up the crevices that the bees were using to gain access inside the wall.
It has now been 14 months since my original service - still within my warranty period - and SURPRISE!, Mr. Maldonado's phone is no longer in service.  The company apparently has no physical business address, and the only phone number on their website (and on my receipt/warranty) is bad.  I will continue to try to reach Mr.Maldonado so that he can make good on his business promises, but I'm pretty sure that I'll end up having to get someone else to come out and do it properly...the way it should have been done in the first place.

Esmeralda removed a bee colony from a tree on our property on 5 July 2013.  At the time of this service, Esmeralda promised to return in 2 weeks to ensure there were no remaining bees and to remove and/or treat the honeycomb left in the tree.  Given the fact that bees in the area would be attracted to the honey left in the tree, Esmeralda said that this follow-up treatment was critical.  Esmeralda never returned to perform the second treatment.  Numerous calls have been made and messages left, but the company has never responded.  I ultimately called from a different telephone number and the call was answered immediately.  It was apparent that Esmeralda was using caller ID to screen their calls.  The gentleman that answered the phone promised that the office would return my call the following day to set up the second treatment, but no response was ever received.  I have also attempted to contact Esmeralda by email, but again, no response.
I even left a message for the company that they left a bee smoker on our driveway, but they failed to return to pick this up.
Esmeralda lists a telephone number and email address, but no physical address for their company (other than Ft. Worth, Texas).  This fact was confirmed on the Better Business Bureau website.
I would definitely not use this company for any other work and I would strongly recommend that others do the same.  Honesty and integrity in customer relations is completely absent.

He got here, put on an battered bee suit with a hole in the rear, removed the eave, then started removing the hives.  After about 30 minutes he said he had gotten all of the hives out, and was going to put the eaves back in place.  He would need to let the caulking dry in order for the paint to bond, so would come back in the morning to paint, unless I wanted to chance it and paint over the caulking while it was wet.  He told me if I did that, it may not bond properly, so I agreed.  He had a young boy with him, that sat out in the car the whole time, then helped him pickup his few tools, to put back into the car.  He was here about an hour.At the time, the job looked OK, except for the caulking so I wasn't too concerned, except that when I handed him the check for $400, he told me it was $440, not $400.   I argued with him at first, and chalked it up as my mistake, and paid him,  Another big mistake.   He also left the ladder there covered wtih bees and honey, of which he said he would clean as soon as he finished up on Saturday.

He (one-man operation) did a really great (& very neat) job.  He had to remove some bricks but he put them back so that no one call tell.

Robert & I thought het would have to remove some facia boards, but when he went up the ladder, he found loose bricks. He removed some bricks, removed the bees & several hands' full of honey. He left something to repel a new invasion and filled the space with insulation.. He did a tidy job of replacing the bricks.  No one can see that anything was done. He was courteous and told me everything that he would do.