The low buzz got her attention.

What she saw on the windows of her children's playroom made Kelly Krivsky run.

Bob Andres/AJC (ENLARGE)

Kelly Krivsky looks out the window of where bees were swarming in her Marietta house Thursday.

Bob Andres/AJC (ENLARGE)

A swarm of dead bees in a bush outside. Live bees were still swarming around it. A low buzz in the basement of Kelly Krivsky's Marietta home sent a family packing Thursday.

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Hundreds of honey bees looking for a home were setting up housekeeping in her basement.

"I went into a panic," Krivsky said Friday, the day after her close encounter.

She slammed the basement door, put a towel at the door's base, snatched up her daughter and headed out the door.

Outside she spied more bees — hundreds more — in an azalea bush.

The honey bees didn't sting or swarm her when Krivsky went back to take pictures. The bees are necessary for pollinating fruit and vegetable plants. Colonies have been collapsing in recent years with millions of bees disappearing.

But letting honey bees set up a homeland her brick ranch in Marietta didn't seem like the right way to help Mother Nature along.

After all, Krivsky, 37, and her husband, Allen, 38, have three children: Sarah, 5; George, 7; and Forrest, 3.

She called Northwest Exterminating and sought refuge at her neighbor's home until the whole family was together. George slept at a friend's house. The rest of the family stayed at the Marietta Conference Center.

On Friday, Krivsky vacuumed and swept up the little stingers. The ones in the azalea bush were still there and Krivsky was thinking of calling Northwest again. She figures there's still about 500 bees out there.

They didn't look irritated.

Still, it's "unnerving to see a swarm of bees," Krivsky said.

Bees in the house are not all that unusual, said Sean Gilbert, wildlife manager for Northwest Exterminating.

The start of spring is prime time for the company to get calls.

"If they can find an entry hole in the siding, they will take it," Gilbert said. "They will find a wall void and will use that for a nest."

Krivsky said the bees got inside through an opening for an air conditioner hose.

Last year, Northwest treated a swarm that took up residence on a playset in Villa Rica.

That swarm was "bigger than a couple of basketballs," Gilbert said.

Bees, after all, are looking for some of the same things humans are looking for — shelter from the environment and a place to take care of business.

Krivsky's bees were probably scouting her home to see if it was a good place for them to build their nest, Gilbert said.

There may be a second wave if the reconnaissance team left any honey behind.

And that won't be good news. A nest can ultimately have as many as 80,000 honey bees, Gilbert said.

It's unclear where Krivsky's bees came from or why they picked her house.

Maybe development played a role.

"That's with anything in nature," Gilbert said. "You take down a tree that's where squirrels live, raccoons live, honey bees have their nests. You change the environment, they have to live somewhere."

Gilbert said you're not supposed to kills bees out in the wild. But there is latitude when they are posing a danger on your property, he said.

Not that it's easy to kill a honey bee.

"There's less and less honey bees every year," Gilbert said. "I'm not helping any if I'm killing some."