Long Beach Bee Keepers are the people to call if you discover an unwanted bee hive or bee swarm in your yard or a neighbor's yard. longbeachbeekeepers.blogspot.com It's also the people to call if you are as crazy as me to want to keep them! Last night I went on my very first bee rescue. The bees had entered into the carport of a house and formed a hive. The owner's mistake was to ignore the bees and waited months before he decided to try to discourage them with sprays of water. When that didn't work, he used Raid! Thousands of bees died and the bees swarmed. A friend of mine told me about the bees and I called my friend and fellow Master Gardener,Roberta Kato from Long Beach Beekeepers and she sprung into action! The bees relocated from the lower tree in the first picture to the top of this tree. It was 8:30PM when we were finally ready to capture them. Roberta and Luis Sanchez (fellow MG) geared up, climbed up a ladder and gave the bees a couple spritzes of water with vanilla to trick up the bee's pheromones which bees use to communicate especially when they are disturbed. After that, they began to vacuum the bees from the top of the mass to the bottom. They then emptied the vacuum into a temporary bee box. When all the bees had been captured, Roberta wrapped a plastic bag over the box (just in case any bees escaped during transport). This was a fairly easy capture according to Roberta. Some can be very tedious and nerve racking. Even experienced people get the jitters at times, but it's always best to call the experts.
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