A story on WTOP earlier this week compels me to emphasize the importance of protecting bees.
As recounted by Kate Ryan, a woman in Fredericksburg, Virginia, recently called 911 to report a swarm of bees “between 3 and 4 feet tall” on her crepe myrtle. Despite initial disbelief, responders did indeed find a swarm of honeybees 3 to 4 feet tall on her crepe myrtle.
And “swarm” is the correct term here. I got an email from a community garden up in Ontario, Canada, earlier this week that included an image almost exactly the same as the one captured in Fredericksburg. That’s because, although many hundreds of miles apart, both are photos of an escaped “feral” honeybee colony, aka a “swarm.”
Swarms occur when a young queen leaves a “professional” beehive, some or all of the workers follow her, and she sets up an independent enterprise elsewhere in the area—often in something like the hollow of an old rotten tree that simulates their original homes in Africa. Such colonies are incredibly valuable, so if you see a swarm, please do as our homeowner in Fredericksburg did and call for help. Don’t spray!
‘Swarming season’ is here
Although most people will never witness a wild nest like the ones in Fredericksburg and Ontario, this is “swarming season,” when fickle queens are most likely to leave a professional beehive and set up shop somewhere else.
If this happens near you, don’t worry. Although honeybees do have stingers, they tend to use them only when provoked. And swarming bees are felt to be much less likely to sting in general.
For instance, the members of our local Fredericksburg swarm — an estimated 40,000 bees —stung no one. Not the homeowner, not the curious neighbors or even the beekeeper who coaxed them into a box and then transported them to one of his hives.
And the homeowner who found the swarm and didn’t panic not only saved a priceless colony of endangered bees: She’s going to have the best-pollinated plants on the block this season!
(Here’s a great article on honeybees and their swarms from Wiki that pretty much explains it all.)
Support your local swarm
If you discover a swarm, please don’t react with sprays. Honeybees, although not native, are incredibly valuable pollinators that are an important link in our food supply (“no bees, no beer”). And they’re gravely endangered by colony collapse disorder, a series of maladies (tracheal mites, pesticide poisoning, etc.) that combine to cause the deaths of entire hives.
Ah, but researchers feel that the adventurous “feral” bees that take part in these swarms are often stronger and more resistant to such problems, and the members of these swarms may be key to fighting CCD.
So if you get swarmed, call a beekeeper (or your local municipality), not an exterminator*. These “wild” bees can be incredibly valuable to our local — and national — food supply.
*Note: For once, this is not a knock on the pesticide profession. Virtually every exterminator I’ve spoken to or been made aware of in such situations has refused to harm the swarm. Some have even helped make the beekeeper connection.
And don’t neglect your native bees
That “swarm” of 40,000 honeybees is a rare event, but native bees are just the opposite. Our region is home to hundreds of species of native bees, magnificent pollinators that either don’t have stingers or don’t use them. (I firmly believe that most “bee stings” are actually inflicted by yellowjackets or other aggressive wasps.)
The “digger bees” (aka “mining” or “miner” bees — proper name Andrenid) nesting in the ground in many local yards right now (like the famous “cellophane” or “polyester” bee) are superb pollinators that don’t sting and are ephemeral. Appearing suddenly in large numbers hovering over the soil in the spring, they vanish as quickly as tulip flowers.
Carpenter bees, squash bees, bumblebees (of which there are 14 different species in our area, says Virginia Tech; I suspect there are twice that many), blue-faced bees, mason bees (which you can attract to your landscape with special little “houses” you can build or make), other bees that are diaphanously golden and/or so small you can barely see them — they’re all around us, facilitating a great abundance of food and flowers.
And all you have to do to encourage these wonderful natives to pollinate your plants is to not use pesticides. That’s it.
Ah, but beware ‘ground-nesting bees’ later in the year
Escaped feral honeybees are precious. Their swarms can, and should, be safely moved by professionals so that they may continue their important work of pollination. Same with harmless native bees like bumblebees, mason bees and even the “digger bees” that nest in the ground in the spring. (If they’re in your lawn, it’s because you have a ratty lawn!)
But as spring progresses into summer, insects that look like bees nesting in the ground could instead be dangerous yellowjackets—highly aggressive wasps in the hornet family whose nesting areas must be avoided or eradicated. About the same size as honeybees, but smooth and metallic instead of warm and furry looking, yellowjackets are 100 percent dangerous.
I’ll review how to employ several different highly effective and totally nontoxic yellowjacket nest removal options later in the season. For now, just plug up any little holes in your yard; the queens currently waking up from last season use those little holes to begin building this year’s nests.
