Exterminator Greg Ferguson of Ferguson Pest Control of Altoona sprays for yellow jacket bees on the roof of the Central Pennsylvania Humane Society. Mirror photo by Cati Keith

Central Pennsylvania Humane Society workers were busy as bees Thursday when a swarm of yellow jackets invaded the cat room.

The shelter is closed while the situation is resolved, officials said.

“When we came in this morning, the expression when it rains it pours — it was pouring bees,” said Becky Felton, director of outreach and development.

From that point on, it was all hands on deck to get the cats out and shut down the shelter in order to protect the staff as well as guests, Felton said.

Casey Brennan, director of business and finance, said the shelter has had a bee problem for a while, with staff often noticing a lot of yellow jackets outside.

Several staff members and volunteers have been stung, so the society had been actively looking for an exterminator, Brennan said.

They also started to notice little holes beginning to form in the ceiling in the facility’s main cat area, in an addition that was put on about 15 years ago.

Then early Thursday morning, she said, one hole that was relatively large had expanded.

“All of the sudden, just swarms of yellow jackets were flying all through our cat area,” Brennan said.

Once they realized the situation, shelter staff members quickly began moving the cats.

Felton said the humane society currently has about 40 cats in the main holding area.

With 10 employees on scene at the time, the cats were moved out in about an hour, she said, though it took well into the afternoon to get them all situated.

Brennan said the cats were relocated to the facility’s small dog room, and the small dogs were moved to the society’s vet clinic.

Every individual cat had to be put into a carrier and then put into a crate, where they will be held temporarily.

“They are much safer where they are right now,” she said.

Some of the cats were stung, she added, and the society’s vet was on site to treat them.

The shelter is closed to visitors until there are no longer any bees living in the ceiling.

“You never know, and there are a lot of people who are allergic to bees,” Brennan said.

Getting rid of the yellow jackets was put into the hands of Ferguson Pest Control.

“They were willing to come down within an hour to spray and take care of everything,” she said, noting the exterminator was able to get into the ceiling to remove the hive.

Once the bees are gone, staff will shift all of the cats and dogs back to their original locations.

They will also have to repair the ceiling, and the drywall will need to be replaced.

Brennan said their biggest concern was the animals and the people working with them.

“It just happened so fast — all of the sudden there were just bees everywhere,” Brennan said. “I swear there were 600 bees — you could hear the buzzing and see the cats swatting at them.”

Brennan said she isn’t sure how much it will cost for the exterminator and to have the roof repaired. An estimate received before the cat room ceiling incident came in at about $800.

Greg Ferguson Jr., an exterminator with Ferguson Pest Control, said infestations like Thursday’s are very common in late summer, with calls picking up for him and his father, Greg Ferguson Sr., and brother, Andrew Ferguson, who also work for the business.

“I think this is probably the third one today and I still have about four more to go,” he said.

Ferguson said the insects are what some might call ground bees that will often nest in old animal burrows or holes in siding or cracks in a foundation.

“The nest was not very big — it is dumb luck that they had them, and I don’t think they were there that long,” he said.

Ferguson used an aerosol spray that killed the yellow jackets in the nest within a few minutes or made them slower.

That allowed him to cut a hole in the ceiling, take the nest out, and then tape over it.

Ferguson then sprayed insecticide to get rid of any leftover bees.

Overall, he said it took him about 15 minutes to remove the nest from the ceiling of the cat room.

Felton said she was grateful for the way everyone at the shelter came together to handle everything with the bees.

“The unfortunate part is this is just more money that we now have to spend with over 300 animals under our care,” she said.

Anyone interested in donating to the Central PA Humane Society can do so on its website through PayPal or by credit card.