Our favourite Bumblebee Bombus Hypnorum also known as the Tree Bee, The Bird Box Bee and even The Nesting Box Bee is also found by us in lots of other locations such as compost heaps, wheelbarrows, tumble dryer vents and like the job TRG Pest Control www.trgpestcontrol.com did today in attics.
The photograph below was taken today in an attic in Warrington when they safely removed a Tree Bee nest without harming the bees or damaging the property, the call was generated and raised as a Tree Bee conflict call because the house was being rewired and the electricians downed-tools when they saw bees in the attic and refused to go back up until the bees were removed.
In this case it was a good call by the electricians because of the size of the nest and its physical location in a low part of the attic that made access extremely difficult. The close confines also made the use of a smoker impracticable and unsafe because of the potential fire risk, so Abi and Andy carried out our usual extreme bee keeping routine and went in to remove the bees without smoke, two staff members from TRG Pest Control got stung Andy in the armpit and arm and Abi in the lip when her bee suit veil rolled back long enough for Mrs Tree bee to get a stinger in. They don’t complain about the stings after all its they appreciate that it is them who are interfering with the bees.
The picture below is really good because it shows part of the comb exposed which is a rare insight into the private lives of these rather mischievous little bees.
As the team from TRG Pest Control explained to us they firmly believe that the safe removal of the nest to be re-homed to a volunteer from our national adoption register is the most effective treatment method. They explained that even if a pest controller were to attempt to spray the nest from the access point in the soffits the insecticide would not have reached the nest which was actually located some five feet away hidden in the insulation of the attic and killing bees as a beneficial species is just wrong.
Furthermore they explained you would have to spray the whole attic with poison and then explain to the electrician that he needed to lie in and breath insecticide while he rewired the building. TRG Pest Control and The Tree Bee Society are also working with the University of Central Lancashire to research secondary infestations such as mites, blow flies, maggots, and carpet beetles that may be caused by killing several hundred bees as opposed to removing the nest or allowing them to leave naturally.
Tree Bee nest removal and relocation is an effective pest control method that TRG Pest Control have established, they assure us that no bees were harmed in the removal of this nest, but a couple of daft pest controllers who got in the way were