Two Fort Worth neighbors are fighting about whether to bee or not to bee.

A hive began growing two months ago behind the siding of the house next door to Cody Tucker’s. Tucker talked to his neighbor and offered to help pay to have it removed. But the neighbor rebuffed him, saying he could handle it.

The hive grew larger.

The neighbor, who asked not to be identified, tells me he has been working on the hive problem for weeks.

Not fast enough for Tucker. The hive grew to thousands of bees.

A week ago, after his daughter and dog were stung, Tucker called Fort Worth’s code enforcement department. At first, he says, a code officer told him there was nothing the city could do. Tucker insisted on filing a complaint.

Tucker also called the police, who sympathized but couldn’t do much. So Tucker called The Watchdog.

The Fort Worth city code states that a bee infestation is a hazard to the public health and safety. But it’s not considered a nuisance. The difference is that the city can issue a citation for a hazard. If it were a nuisance, the city could also hire someone to solve the problem and bill the homeowner. Not here.

For a hazard such as this, “we generally give citizens a reasonable amount of time to comply,” says Brandon Bennett, the code compliance director. “We could have written a citation on Day One, but that generally does not speed things along. We would rather see the citizen put their time and money into abatement as opposed to court fines.”

And that’s what the neighbor says he is trying to do.

He called in two bee companies for estimates, listened to their free advice and decided to go it alone. Estimates were several thousand dollars — and that didn’t include repairs to the house.

The neighbor says he doesn’t want to remove the siding. He decided to use expanding foam and caulk to lock the bees in and keep the rest out.

He built himself a bee suit using masking tape and nylon. “They sting you right through the stuff,” he says, adding that he has been stung “multiple times.”

When I asked him about Tucker’s complaints to the city, he answered, “He can see from his property what we’re doing. Short of waving a magic wand, there’s not much he can do.”

Tucker says he is worried about his neighbor’s attempt to seal the bees in. From what he learned through research, sealing a hive inside a house is asking for trouble. “The bees could potentially bore their way through the drywall and into the house,” he says.

I checked that with Tarrant County Extension Agent Steve Chaney. He told me, “You can’t just seal it up with them in there. They will either exit outside or into your house. You’ve got to get rid of them somehow, whether you do it yourself or have someone come out and do it.”

Pete Glasser, an Arlington hive removal specialist, says the bees most likely are in a small area between the first-floor ceiling and second floor.

“They will find another way out,” he predicts. “It may be into the guy’s house. It’s really hard to get rid of a hive in there. You have a queen laying 2,000 eggs a day. There could be 30,000 bees in there.”

Bee removal specialists sometimes must open an interior wall to remove the hive, he says.

That’s why Glasser recommends preventive maintenance. “Seal up openings between the siding and brick. It doesn’t take a big opening for a bee to get in there and decide ‘This is a great place to live.’ Pretty soon, he brings in tens of thousands of his buddies. Then it gets complicated.”

Tucker was also stung by the city’s response. Buzzing like an angry bee, he spent a week making phone calls, pleading with code enforcement to get serious about his problem. At first, he says, he was rebuffed. Then his complaint number wasn’t entered properly. Then nobody got back to him.

Code officials say they didn’t have a callback number for Tucker. (Note: Write a letter.)

The neighbor acknowledges that he has placed a big bet that his sealing measures have curtailed the problem. But he doesn’t know yet.

When I met with the neighbor, I saw less than a dozen bees flying near the house.

Later, leaving the property, I watched as he vacuumed live bees off his window frame.

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Dave Lieber, The Watchdog columnist for The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, is the founder of Watchdog Nation. The new 2010 edition of his book, Dave Lieber’s Watchdog Nation: Bite Back When Businesses and Scammers Do You Wrong, is out. Revised and expanded, the book won two national book awards in 2009 for social change. Twitter @DaveLieber