| The
facts
That allowing any type of insect or rodent within your premises
or home will obviously be a nuisance and in some cases serious
illness, loss of business and in extreme circumstances,
legal and civil prosecution. Most bees are fuzzy and carry
an electrostatic charge, which aids in the adherence of
pollen. Female bees periodically stop foraging and groom
themselves to pack the pollen into the scopa, which is on
the legs in most bees, and on the ventral abdomen on others,
and modified into specialized pollen baskets on the legs
of honey bees and their relatives. Many bees are opportunistic
foragers, and will gather pollen from a variety of plants,
while others are oligolectic, gathering pollen from only
one or a few types of plant. A small number of plants produce
nutritious floral oils rather than pollen, which are gathered
and used by oligolectic bees. One small subgroup of stingless
bees, called "vulture bees", is specialized to
feed on carrion, and these are the only bees that do not
use plant products as food. Pollen and nectar are usually
combined together to form a "provision mass",
which is often soupy, but can be firm. It is formed into
various shapes (typically spheroid), and stored in a small
chamber (a "cell"), with the egg deposited on
the mass. The cell is typically sealed after the egg is
laid, and the adult and larva never interact directly (a
system called "mass provisioning").
Where do Wild Bees live?
There are three castes of honey bees: queens, which produce
eggs; drones or males, which mate with new queens and have
no stinger; and workers, which are all non-reproducing females.
The queen lays eggs singly in cells of the comb. Larvae
hatch from eggs in three to four days. They are then fed
by worker bees and develop through several stages in the
cells. Cells are capped by worker bees when the larva pupates.
Queens and drones are larger than workers and so require
larger cells to develop. A colony may typically consist
of tens of thousands of individuals. While some colonies
live in hives provided by humans, so-called "wild"
colonies (although all honey bees remain wild, even when
cultivated and managed by humans) typically prefer a nest
site that is clean, dry, protected from the weather, about
20 litres in volume with a 4 to 6 cm2 entrance about 3 m
above the ground, and preferably facing south or south-east
(in the northern hemisphere) or north or north-east (in
the southern hemisphere).
Why keep Wild Bees under
control?
A swarm of bees sometimes frightens people, though the bees
are usually not aggressive at this stage of their life cycle.
This is principally due to the swarming bees' lack of a
hive to defend and their interest in finding a new nesting
location for their queen. This does not mean that bees from
a swarm will not attack if they perceive a threat; however,
most bees only attack in response to intrusions against
their hive. Swarm clusters, hanging off of a tree branch,
will move on and find a suitable nesting location in a day
or two. Beekeepers are sometimes called to capture swarms
that are cast by feral honey bees or from the hives of inattentive
beekeepers.
Prevention & Control
There are various methods to capture a swarm. When the swarm
first settles down and forms a cluster it is relatively
easy to capture the swarm in a suitable box or nuc. There
are also swarm traps with Nasonov pheromone lures that can
be used to attract swarms. Encountering a bee swarm for
the first time can be alarming. However, swarms are typically
benign, the individual bees are filled with honey, the swarm
has no hive to defend and is focused on their task of finding
a new location. Bee swarms can almost always be collected
alive and relocated by a competent beekeeper. Some people
seem to think that a swarm should be exterminated for safety
reasons.
Treatment
Contact Paramite Pest Solutions
if you suspect you may have a problem and we can advise
you on the best course of action. A visit by our pest control
officer can be arranged. He will carry out a survey and
will suggest action needed.
Paramite Pest Solutions will take all possible precautions.
Revisits will be made until the problem is cleared. |
