Once in awhile, a swarm of honey bees will occupy a spot and seek to build a nest or new home where they are not welcome. This article highlights fundamentals of removing such bees.

Honey bee homelessness can result from loss of their previous home due to nest plundering or invasion by enemies. Homelessness can also come about in response to natural impulses of swarming.

Swarming is the natural phenomenon by which honey bees propagate their species through colony division. The parent colony rears a number of new queens for this purpose. When the first new queen is about to emerge as an adult from the cell in which it developed, the parent queen together with part of worker bee population in the colony will vacate the nest to seek a new home elsewhere.

A homelesss warm will cluster at some spot until a new home is found. Swarms in the open are usually in search of a more permanent site and in most cases will move along in 4 days or less. Such swarms are usually non-aggressive because they have no home or young to protect.

REMEDIAL OPTIONS TOBEE INTRUSION

Honey bees occupying undesired sites can pose a danger to people or livestock and can be a nuisance. Nuisances caused include frustrating development or tending work on occupied area or attacking of people or animals. Such swarms of honey bees will need to be removed.

Available options for dealing with honey bees which present themselves in undesired spots include the following:

(a)  Leave alone

When a homeless swarm clusters in an open area where there is no cavity, 90% of the time the bees will move along in 4 days or less. Such swarms are usually friendly and are non-aggressive as they have no young or home to defend. Such swarms are better left alone, affording them no interference and they will move along in no time.

(b) Exterminate

The extermination method is whereby the entire mass of bees is killed by the use of pesticide. This is the method commonly employed by municipal authorities and pest control service providers.

Bylaw, this method is allowed. Bees are sometimes considered a safety hazard and there are situations and circumstances where safe removal of live honey bees is practically impractical.

(c)  Safe bee removal

Because of the important service in the maintenance of biodiversity that honey bees render through plant pollination, it is always desirable that wherever practicable, honey bees be removed alive and probably be turned into beekeeping stock.

Circumstances in bee removal can be very varied and no two situation are identical. However, a number of broad guidelines can be effectively employed in most situations. Available removal options include:

(i)           Trapping

The trapping method employs a cone trap, which is a device which traps the bees leaving the nest and prevents their return. The trapped bees are provided with a bee hive in which they are encouraged to build their new nest.

This method is most feasible where access to the nest may be practically impossible. It suffers a major drawback in that the problem is usually recurring because bee scents will linger indefinitely thereby attracting new bee colonies.

(ii)          Nest Opening

This is the ultimate and most reliable bee removal method which will provide a permanent solution. In this method, access to the colony nest is achieved in one way or the other, the entire colony, that is to say honey combs and all honey bees are safely removed including all honey bee traces of debris, the cavity is then filled and all entrance points sealed.

To achieve complete removal of the entire bee nest, a number of measures may be employed. Among these are:

(a)   Use of Bee evacuator with smoker

A bee evacuator is a device which allows bees to flow in one direction and prevents their re-entry or return.

(b)  By vacuum suction

Honey bees can be sucked up with a vacuum cleaner hose. The sucked up bees can then be introduced to a collection hive as above. However, vacuuming stimulates bees to release an alarm pheromone which increases their defensive behaviour.

(c)   By use of bee blower

A bee blower moves up to 20 m³ air per minute. A bee evacuator is positioned at the main entrance to the nest and the nozzle of air from the blower is introduced through another opening to the nest. The collected bees are sprayed with water, the nest opened and the combs removed.

PREVENTINGRECURRENCE

For a lasting solution, it is most important to remove traces of previous bee occupation. This includes honey, dead bees and all the entire nest. The cavity should then be filled with cement mortar, concrete, expanding foam, or where this is not feasible, clamped newspaper or card board. A pre-cut, non-rusting galvanised screen should be placed on top of the foam or clamped paper to prevent rodents chewing through thereby recreating the cavity. All holes large enough to insert a pencil or larger that lead to a spacious cavity in the building or vicinity must be sealed.

For your questions and clarifications from this feature, contact the author on 0967 419551/0954 665 257. Email: apisconcepts@gmail.com. For all your beekeeping requirements contact Al-Apis Concepts Ltd. Phone: +260 966474757

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