30,000+ Bees, One Happy Ending
Saving & Relocating Honey Bees in Rural YpsiLANTI
Earlier this month, we were working on a beautiful 1850s farmhouse in Superior Township – the type of place that reminds you how peaceful the countryside around Ann Arbor is!
Our job was simple enough: remove mice and squirrels and seal the place up so they couldn’t get back in. But as we made our way around the property, something else caught our attention.
A lot of buzzing.
Tucked into a basement window well was a massive honey bee colony – thousands and thousands of bees thriving in between two (ancient) glass panes. Believe it or not, that’s actually a pretty common place for honey bees to build a nest. From the basement we got a perfect view of the hive and some awesome GoPro footage...
Stinging insects are nothing new for us. We handle wasps, hornets, yellow jackets – all of the usual suspects around Ann Arbor. But when it comes to honey bees, we obviously do things differently.
For starters – we call our friend and local bee expert, Dave from Local Buzz Pest Solutions. Dave teaches beekeeping classes at the Ann Arbor Botanical Gardens, manages hives all over Washtenaw County, and has been safely relocating bees for years. He also makes and sells honey from the colonies he saves!
Together, we suited up and got to work using Dave’s specialized bee vacuum – a gentle, humane way to collect the hive (and keep them alive and calm, by circulating cool air) without harming the bees. We successfully removed more than 30,000 bees, including the queen.
The homeowner was thrilled, and so were we!
If you’re wondering what became of those bees you’ll be able to taste their honey via localbuzzbees.com.
How to Tell the Difference Between Honey Bees and Wasps
Honey bees are vital pollinators and are generally non-threatening. If you spot a honey bee hive, contact professionals who can coordinate with honey bee experts for humane relocation. Wasps (as well as hornets), while marginally beneficial in controlling other insect populations, are quite aggressive and can be a legitimate health and safety problem (especially to very young or very old people). If you find a wasp nest near your home, seek professional pest control to safely and completely eradicate the hive.
