When bees are moving to a new home, bee swarms can appear and can contain 10-30 thousand bees. These can be a nuisance and can require professional bee removal from an experienced bee pest control company.
Honey bee swarms are whole of half of a bee hive moving themselves to a new home. When a hive grows and becomes overcrowded, there is a natural need to divide the colony so that the bees can continue to survive. The hive splits into two or more groups of bee with one staying in the first hive. The leaving groups result in bee swarms whilst they look for a new, suitable home.
Bee swarms might also result if the whole hive needs to abandon its home completely due to parasite or disease, lack of food or water, poor ventilation, weather changes, persistent disturbance by humans or animals, or problems with the queen.
The worker bees of bee swarms detect when it's time to swarm due to lack of pheromone production from the queen or overcrowding of the hive. Worker bees create new queen cells and allow the queen to lay eggs so a new one can emerge and take over the hive. To prepare the bee swarms, the worker bees also deprive the queen of food so that her weight gets reduced for flight. They also agitate her and prevent her from laying many eggs.
Bee swarms are not always a pest and are not aggressive. However, for people with a severe sting allergy (anaphylactic shock), bees can be a big health risk so bee pest control or bee removal could be required.
Bee swarms will usually set up their new hives in tree cavities, shrubs and abandoned buildings. However, if they set up their new home in a bulding, and it's left undisturbed, it can produce kilos of comb and honey - over 40kg could need to be removed. The comb and honey fills voids within the property and chimneys, this can lead to damage to the building, which is when professional bee pest control or bee removal is needed.
Honey bees and their bee swarms are critical for pollinating approximately 90% of our global crops and therefore crucial to our survival. Many of our favorite foods like apples, blueberries, almonds and other fruit and nut crops wouldn't even exist without these hard-working bees, which is why AJ Pest Control are very mindful when it comes to dealing with bee swarms and bee removal.
While bees are not protected by UK law, there are legal requirements and rigorous procedures to follow when treating bees and during bee removal. AJ Pest Control work very closely with professional bee keepers and consider all options before any treatment is carried out for any bee pest control, bee removal or bee swarm removal.