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Swarms

DON'T REACH FOR THAT INSECTICIDE!

CALL or TEXT THE TVBA SWARM HOTLINE

(423) 619-7238

Spring and summer swarms are how honeybees create new hives, AND beekeepers love free bees! The bees are full of all the honey they can hold because they are looking for a new place to call home. They do NOT want any trouble, but swatting or attacking them can still cause stings to happen. PLEASE CALL OR TEXT US. We probably have a beekeeper in your area who can remove them for free. Or there could be a charge involved if the bees are, for example, behind walls, and carpentry skills are required. We need more honeybees in North America!

Swarms will leave branches or fence posts on their own, usually within 72 hours, so contact us right away. Where they decide to settle next can be a house eave or other place you find to be a problem. So it's best for their survival and your future happiness to call a beekeeper who will remove them before that can happen.

SWARMING COULD START EARLY IN 2022 because of the unusually warm winter.

BEE SWARMS

Bees that are swarming are looking for a new home. They have tanked up on all the honey and pollen they can carry as they try to make their way from their old hive to a new place to live. Swarms can stop temporarily in tree limbs or other odd places to rest as they send scouts out in search of a new closed-in place they can call home.

While we don't recommend handling a swarm, the picture to the right shows what is possible for swarms that are truly only focused on finding their new home. Without honeycomb and baby bees to protect in a hive, swarming bees are pretty docile.

One thing to be aware of, however: if your home is nearby, their new home could be some part of yours. Once bees move into your rafters or siding they can be difficult and costly to remove. This is a good reason to not wait. Once you see a swarm, call (423) 619-7238.

"Killer" Bees?

Another headline that has sold papers and TV air time is the tale of the "unstoppable" "Killer Bees" from South America. Part of the tale actually does read like a Hollywood script: a scientist on an isolated part of the South American continent accidentally released bees that he was cross-breeding with African strains to be more resilient against honeybee diseases and pests.

These "Africanized" bees thrived in their new environment but also proved to be very irritable and aggressive. Their stings were no more deadly, but they were more willing to sting and in greater numbers than other honeybees. They would follow their victims for hundreds of feet.

However, as they progressed from South and Central America through Mexico toward the United States these bees mixed with other honeybees in the wild and became more docile and improved the survival traits of the bees with which they mated. They also turned out to be unable to adapt to more temperate or colder climates. Few have ever made it as far as Tennessee, and none are known to have survived a winter here.