Tanglewood Hollow

Southwest Michigan Honeybee Swarm and Colony Removal

If honeybees have taken up residence on your property or in your home and you’d rather not have them, I can remove them for you. The areas I cover are Allegan, Barry, Kalamazoo, Van Buren and Calhoun Counties.

If you have wasps, hornets, bumblebees or anything besides honeybees I can’t really help you, besides refer you to a few pest removal services that can help. I would urge you to just ignore them if possible. They usually won’t sting you unless they are provoked or you wear heavy perfume.

There are two ways that people usually find a large amount of honeybees. They will either be in an established colony or in a swarm.

Honeybee Swarm Removal

A swarm is quite a sight to see. When they are in the air they are a huge cloud consisting of thousands of bees that can darken the sky. You can usually hear a deep humming sound as the cloud moves across the landscape. Eventually the swarm will come to rest in the limb of a tree or on the side of a structure. At this point the swarm is a large ball or cone of bees between the size of a softball and a large watermelon.

People usually freak out when they see a swarm, and it really is quite intimidating. Don’t worry too much though. When honeybees are swarming they are much less aggressive than if they are defending their hive.

The only time I have been stung when retrieving a swarm was when one fell on my head when I was getting it down from a high tree limb. Not the smartest move I’ve made, but I learn my lessons and take my knocks.

Usually, as long as you don’t try to whack them they will leave you alone. Please note that there aren’t any Africanized bees in Michigan, but I’ve heard that they can act much differently. If you live in the south please note that some of your southern honeybees have a reputation for being ornery.

Here’s what has happened if the bees are swarming. An existing colony (either in a tree, building or a beekeeper’s hive) has decided that it has enough resources to reproduce. The colony splits in two and half of the bees leave to find a new place to live.

When the swarm is on the move they are following a queen. When she alights upon something they all land nearby and cover the area with their bodies. They then send out scouts to find their new residence.

Here’s an interesting bee fact for you. Bees communicate very well, and on many levels. One of the main ways that they talk to each other is through their sense of smell. Different bees emit different hormones that get them to react in different ways. If you squish a bee or it stings you, its body emits a scent (it is called their alarm pheromone) that tells all the other bees in the area to attack because there is a serious (to them) threat. They hone in on the scent and immediately begin stinging anything that has the smell.

When a queen is swarming she emits something called queen mandibular pheromone. It lets all of the other bees know where she is. Believe it or not, it smells of lemons and roses.

If you find a swarm, give me a call at 269-3400-BEE (269-340-0233). Let me know where it is and if I’ll need a ladder to get to them. I remove swarms for free in the Kalamazoo area. If you live further away I ask for $20 to cover gas. I encourage people to call me or another beekeeper quickly when they see a swarm. If you are unlucky they will take up residence in your home or outbuilding. They are much harder to remove then.

Honeybee Colonies, Honeybee Hives

If the bees you are seeing are coming in and out of a hole they have already taken up residence. At this point they are called a colony and it’s a much bigger job to remove them (a beehive is what a beekeeper keeps their bees in).

Whatever you do, DON’T spray them with bug spray. They aren’t much good at that point and their honey has been contaminated. Worse yet, bug spray usually doesn’t kill them all. They are tough little critters.

Even if you do manage to kill the queen and most of the bees, you haven’t solved the problem. Remember that bit about how bees use scent? Once a colony has infused its home with their pheromones, every other swarm that gets near will find it, and very likely move in.

If bees are in a house or building the only way you can remove them permanently is to cut a pretty large hole in the wall they are in and remove all of the bees and honeycomb. After everything is out the inside has to be treated with something that will destroy the smell left by the bees. Then the void can be filled and repaired by a professional.

This process is called a cut out (not very imaginative, eh?). Cut outs usually take a few hours to do. I charge somewhere between $50-$120 for them, depending on how big a job it is and how far away you are from Kalamazoo. I prefer not to do cut outs on homes unless they are vacant or condemned.

Honeybee Trap Outs

If having a large hole cut in the side of your house doesn’t sound like your cup of tea, fear not, there is another option. The good news is that it has an okay chance of succeeding. The bad news is that it takes a long time and can only be done at certain times of the year. It is called a trap out.

When a beekeeper does a trap out they are trying to convince the bees to leave their home and take up residence in a hive that the beekeeper places outside their entrance. It involves a minor amount of construction involving a platform to hold the hive and a cone of mesh wire that is affixed where they are going in and out.

After a few weeks most of the bees will have moved into the new hive and the queen in the colony inside your home will decide that she’s had enough and has to leave. She will leave with the remaining bees in a small swarm.

Because trap outs are time consuming, require construction materials and take multiple visits to the site they cost a little more. I charge between $75-$150 for a trap out.

Please keep in mind that in a trap out the honeycomb, remaining brood (baby bees) and honey will be left inside the structure. Because of this, the risk of another colony taking up residence is high unless the cavity is filled and the abandoned honey may cause problems with other insects and pests. If you don’t want to take that risk a cut out is best.

I schedule cut out and trap out removals each year beginning a few weeks after the first flowers begin to bloom until mid summer. I can pick up swarms in May, June and July. You can drop me a line on the contact page or leave a message at 269-3400-BEE.

Thanks, and bee good!

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