Catseye’s Tough Jobs: Honey Bees
It’s not always the pests that are “pests” while on a job. I once received a call for a honey bee problem on the roof of a commercial building in downtown Albany, so I sent a technician to check out the situation.
The technician used a 30-foot ladder to climb to the rooftop where he began looking for the pests that had been reported. Without much difficulty he found a swarm of honey bees near the air conditioning unit. Honey bees follow their queen when searching for a new home, and when the queen gets tired she will rest or “roost” somewhere for a day or so. The other honey bees will cluster around the queen to keep her safe and rest as well.
The technician accidentally disturbed the bees, and they swarmed him to protect the queen. With bees buzzing around and stinging him, the technician rushed to the ladder to climb down to safety, only to discover the ladder was missing. He peered over the edge of the roof to see a man running down the street with the ladder. The man had stolen it!
That was when I got a call from the technician’s cell phone.
“You need to get down here and get me off the roof!” He shouted.
I rushed to Albany to rescue the technician. Luckily, he was just a little swollen but otherwise okay from all the bee stings.
Tough Job lesson: Honey bee swarms are better left undisturbed since they will usually move on in a couple days.
A parking attendant for a public parking garage in Albany called in a panic one time when a swarm of bees was resting on the antenna of a car parked in the garage. I advised the attendant to leave the bees alone and isolate the area until the bees move on.
Apparently he did not take my advice, and sprayed the honey bees with a household wasp and hornet spray. I found out because the 5:00 p.m. news showed how an entire downtown parking garage had to be evacuated due to a large swarm of bees that someone attempted to exterminate.
Sometimes things are better off left alone, especially a swarm of resting honey bees.
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