Bees on the move

May 2004 is turning out to be pretty warm and, as usually happens, swarms of bees suddenly land on walls of houses, on fences or on branches of trees. They can be pretty frightening to people who are nervous of these creatures. Fortunately, the bees are not particularly aggressive at this time of year and they are likely to move on to more secluded areas after a few hours.

We had a call today from a school where a swarm had accumulated on a branch of a tree in the playground. Staff were obviously concerned that children might be stung.

Our general advice is to either leave them alone and allow them to move on which they almost certainly will do within a few hours or call a local beekeeper.

In these circumstances however it was considered too dangerous to just leave and we managed to dislodge the swarm with a long stick so that they flew off to find another place to land. Please do not try this yourself unless you have the right protective equipment, the bees can fly faster than you can run!