Can I remove a beehive myself?
No, bee removal is not a DIY project. If you start spraying things on a beehive, you will kill some bees, but there are thousands in a beehive. You most likely will end up making them angry. Please don’t attempt to seal them in either. We have seen this go very poorly. Sealed in, bees will try to find a new entrance and start flooding into the home. They also can chew through many sealants. If you see bees, the best thing to do is call a beekeeper specializing in bee removal and have the bees properly relocated.
Are Killer Bees a problem in Arizona?
I’m sure you’ve heard of the infamous killer bees. And yes, we do have them here in Phoenix, Arizona. Because of this, caution must be exercised around any beehive you may come across. It is a common myth that you can distinguish an Africanized bee from a domestic honey bee by looking at it – this is false. While they do have some differences, it is very subtle. Microscopes are required to tell if they have the killer bee gene.
With that said, not all bees in Phoenix, AZ, are Africanized. Arizona is home to many docile bees. Even bees that have been Africanized vary in the level of defensiveness. It is a common scared tactic in Phoenix, AZ, to label all bees as killer bees and say they need to be exterminated. This is NOT true. Any bee control technician that says the bees are Africanized and need to be exterminated does not know what they are talking about. They very possibly are NOT Africanized; even so, if all bees labeled Africanized were exterminated, we would have no bees in the southwest.
Can Bees be removed without killing them
100% Yes! We do it every day. It takes patience and skill but can be done in pretty much any circumstance. We’ve removed bees from roofs, walls, water meter boxes, shed floors, mountain caves, trees….you get the idea. We use a special ‘bee-vac’ to vacuum the bees into a holding cage. Once we get the queen bee, worker bees, and honeycomb, we relocate the beehive to an apiary.
