I thought I had my home fairly well-sealed, but I found out the hard way last week that my assumptions were gravely mistaken. Although I had done a moderately good job with the weather stripping on all of my windows and doors, I forgot to inspect my air intake vents on the outside of my house. These vents pull in fresh air from outdoors to circulate with the HVAC cycled air indoors. In many cases this can lead to better air quality inside your home overall. Unfortunately, these areas are also prime environments for bees and wasps looking for shelter from the elements. One morning I was in my bathroom when my heat kicked on. Within seconds several wasps started flying out of my air vent in the ceiling. I was both baffled and freaked out by the event. I had no idea how extensive the nest was, or if there was even a nest at all, so I called a local HVAC supplier. Unfortunately, there was damage to the filter on the fresh air intake, so bees and debris and dirt were getting pull into my central system. My HVAC technician replaced the filter and repaired the damage to the intake inlet to make sure nothing as large as a bee or wasp could make their way into my house like this again. Once the tech located the wasp nest, he used an eco-friendly insect repellent to get the wasps out so he could manually remove the nest. It’s essential to steer clear of any harmful pesticides or insecticides when you’re dealing with pests in your air system. Those chemicals will accumulate up there and you’ll never be able to fully clean your air system, constantly breathing small amounts of toxic fumes every single day. Now that my air intake inlet is repaired, I don’t have to fear bees flying out of my vents at random moments of the day.