Bees Swarm On Aeroplane
In Pests
Bees Swarm On Aeroplane:
Yesterday Mel was called out to Tag at Farnborough airport to deal with a Honey Bee swarm on a plane. As can be seen by the picture this was an exceptionally large swarm. Mel contacted a bee keeper (pictured) who took the swarm away. Unfortunately he left several hundred worker bees who were still swarming around the plane this morning. We are having to return today to kill the remaining bees as the maintenance crew can’t get near!. A quick knockdown non residual insecticide will be used to prevent insecticide contamination to other bees. On the plus side a bee swarm has been saved and re homed.
As far as we are concerned we are getting more bee calls then ever. This is either that bees are making a major come back or that the ‘new’ species of Bumble Bee (the White Tailed Bumble Bee) that tends to nest in buildings which leads to more call outs. Five years ago it would be very rare to come across a Bumble Bee nest in a building but now this species commonly does so. The increase of bee call outs is probably a mixture of these factors. There are certainly many more incidence of bee swarms. This may be because more people are keeping bees rather than a ‘natural’ increase although Honey Bees are a semi domesticated species so are more susceptible to disease than wild bees.
At PEST UK we only destroy bees as a last resort, we always try and remove and relocate bees where ever possible although if they are in a building this is to always possible. If we do have to treat then we will use a non residual insecticide to prevent other bees or hives being contaminated. We will even re locate Bumble Bees. We have recently re located several Bumble Bee nests that were built in bird nesting boxes.
