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| October 2006 |
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The inside of a flying swarm. |
A buzz fills the air, and a cloud of bees moves into your pool filter housing - how should you react to this? How do you solve the problem. How do you stop the problem coming back? Read on to 'bee' informed on these important issues.
In traditional cultures a swarm of bees moving into one's house was always considered a significant event, and in the case of the majority of African cultures as well as the Irish peoples much further north - signified a visit from the ancestors. In our urbanised society now, much of the wonder of bees is lost, and most people turn to the yellow pages to find out who will get rid of the bees for them.
In this article we will take an in depth look at why bees swarm, where they swarm to and what all this looks like. Then we will provide advice on how to avoid your house becoming bee real estate, and what to do if it becomes bee real estate.
A beehive consists of a queen who lays fertilised (female) eggs and unfertilised (male) eggs. When the queen hatches, she would have gone out on a mating flight and mated with 30 or so drones (males) and stored the sperm from these encounters. Every time she lays an egg which is to be female, she allows a few of these stored sperm out to fertilise the egg. When she lays a male egg, she does not let any sperm meet the egg and hence it is unfertilised and will develop as a male. If the queen is running low on stored sperm she will then occasionally lay male eggs when she intended to lay a female egg.
In the hive, hive management and maintenance is carried out by the queens daughters, normally about 60 000 of them. The workers (daughters) clean the hive, feed the young, themselves, gather pollen (protein) and nectar (carbohydrates), collect water and countless other things that allow this complex society to function. They require that, in spring, the queen must lay upwards of 2000 eggs (sometimes in certain races of bees, such as those in South Africa 4000) eggs per day. This places enormous strain on her ovaries and sperm supply and she will gradually decline in productivity. At some point in the decline, the workers will decide to begin rearing a new queen and will feed a number of young female larvae with more royal jelly causing these eggs to develop into queens instead of workers.
A brood comb showing workers tending the queen cells at the bottom |
Typically the queens will develop in peanut shaped queen cells which hang like cows teats from the bottom of brood combs (combs filled with larvae) in the hive.
When the old queen senses a young queen is about to hatch, she will prepare to leave the hive, as, if she stays, her daughter will sting her to death. Depending on the strength of the hive, a number of workers - anywhere between 500 - 50 000, will accompany the queen as she flies from the hive. They will normally settle 10-15m away from their old hive. In a day or two the young queen will hatch and inherit the remaining work force in the old hive, go out and mate and then come back and produce eggs until she too begins to fail and is replaced.
A swarm hanging in a small bush. |
The swarm, settled on the tree or bush, immediately begins to plan for the future. Scouts are sent out and determine in which direction the best nectar resources are. The next day the bees will fly in the democratically elected direction. I have on many occasions run with swarms, and they normally fly at about 10-12km/h in reasonably straight lines spread over an area of 150 square meters and no higher than 3 meters above the ground. Sometimes, a swarm will suddenly draw itself together and lift to a height of 10-15m above the ground whereupon they begin moving as fast as 20-30km per hour.
A swarm can fly as far as 30km in a day. They then settle on a bush somewhere and asses again if the new area they are in has surplus nectar and pollen resources. If it does not they will move on and repeat the process until a good area is found. If the area is adequate, they then need to find a nesting site.
Scouts are dispatched early in the morning and fly outwards looking for suitable nesting sites. An ideal nesting site is sheltered, a meter or two above the ground and faces the rising sun. Depending on the size of the swarm, the volume of a suitable nesting site will vary - hence a small swarm the size of two tennis balls will tend to choose something like a post box and a monstrous swarm the size of a watermelon will tend to choose a bigger space such as a roof cavity, cupboard or pool filter box.
Once the bees have located a number of suitable nesting sites, the scouts return to the swarm and using a complex dancing system communicate to each other where the sites are - scouts then check again, and through a remarkably effective neural network like decision making system are able to democratically select the most favoured site.
The swarm will then fly to the nesting site and marker bees will land near the entrance to the cavity and emit pheromones that attract all the other bees to the site. Within a few minutes the entire swarm will have packed itself into their new home and they then begin building hive infrastructure - combs being the most important.
A swarm making a nest in a bar in a game reserve. |
Within a few hours of landing, a strong swarm will have built combs with at least 100 - 300 cells in them - the queen immediately begins laying eggs in these, and workers begin storing pollen and nectar, gathered from flowers, in other cells in the combs. Within three days the first eggs will begin hatching and the young larvae will begin using pheromones to demand food. As soon as this occurs, the swarm is settled in the cavity and is unlikely to leave easily.
So, on a Saturday lunchtime, yourself and a few friends are sitting around the pool enjoying the fruits of fermentation and a quiet braai. One of your friends note that there seem to be some bees around the pool filter - you bravely open the lid and say 'nah, there are just a few bees crawling around inside - no beehive' and close the lid. At about 2.30pm you hear a noise like an arriving aircraft and the sky goes black with bees - who go straight to your pool filter and crowd into it in a couple of minutes.
An established swarm such as this one has been in this site for at least a month. |
What should you do? Do not leave the bees. Immediately deal with the problem. You have three days until they are a permanent fixture that will cost more to get rid of. Contact your local fire brigade and ask if they know the names of a beekeeper who can help. When you phone the beekeeper, you do not need to explain in detail what has happened, just say 'I have bees in my pool pump housing' - most beekeepers have done these sorts of removals a thousand times before and know exactly what the story is. In some cases, your householders insurance will be able to find a beekeeper or extermination service to remove your bees (extermination should really be a last resort as apart from they honey they provide, bees are a crucial component in the conservation of our environment). In this case it is important to specify that you want the bees removed, not killed.
If you leave the bees and allow them to build a beehive, they will be quiet and unobtrusive for the first few weeks. As the hive increases in size, it will be able to devote more resources to hive protection - in some cases they may become confused and suspect that when your lawn is mowed that the lawnmower and operator are a threat, resulting in stings here. Dogs nearby, noisy children and so on may also be stung. If the dogs cannot get away, they can be stung repeatedly resulting in a painful death.
Once the bees have been removed, it is important to ensure that another swarm does not move in. Spray disinfectant fluid onto the surface inside which the bees were in. If the bees moved into a hole in a tree, fill the entire cavity inside with cement, or better still, expandable polyurethane spray foam. This is also advisable for any other sort of cavity which can be filled.
Of course, if bees move into your house regularly, it is the best compliment you can get, as bees only like the best of real estate.
More information:
www.iqhilika.co.za Photos
© Garth Cambray
Related articles:
Pollinators - first steps for their conservation
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