short stuff
by Linda McThrall, editor

The other day I was looking out my kitchen window and spied a swarm of bees on my neighbor’s carport. The bees were buzzzzzzzzing around, and I thought it would be a good, neighborly thing to do to call and let her know she had bees.

It turns out she is pretty terrified of bees. She wanted me to come over and move her car out of her carport so she wouldn’t have to get near the bees when she needed to leave. I told her I’d do it; I ain’t afraid of no bees. (who you gonna call? – Bee Busters!)

She called me back and said she had braved it and gone on out to move her car. And mentioned she hadn’t seen a single bee. I looked out the window, and sure enough – no bees.

The next day I got home from work, and there was a swarm of bees in our carport. I really am not afraid of bees, but I don’t want them swarming around my front door. I went in and the man of the house came out with a cigar. This is a little unusual, but he on occasion smokes ‘em. This particular smoke was happening for a reason. He was going to smoke out the bees.

I just knew this was going to have a bad ending. You hear stories about people doing innocent things that irritate bees; doing something on purpose definitely poses a problem in my mind (but then I’m not a guy).

So, the big guy went out, sat down on a planter next to the bees’ area of interest and proceeded to smoke the cigar. The bees definitely did not like the smoke, but they weren’t in attack mode – they were in leave mode. Off they went to, I guess to our other next door neighbor’s house (assuming the bees were flying door to door). I was a little impressed with the man of the house of cooking up the scheme to smoke out the bees. I wouldn’t advise it – and I actually sought an expert opinion.

Nathan Watters, who owns Cummings Pest Control in Fountain Hills, said it is logical for smoke to drive the bees away. But it could be dangerous.

Chances are our bees were European honey bees and not Africanized honey bees. The two types of bees look pretty much the same, but the Africanized ones are far more aggressive. If they get agitated, they attack. And they bring their buddies with them. That is when you hear the stories about people having these horrible encounters with bees. I’m glad we didn’t have a horrible encounter, but I will definitely put my wifely foot down if the man of the house tries the cigar trick again.

Meanwhile, Nathan says there have been lots of bee calls this year. While there are plenty of reports about the decline in honey bee population, Nathan said he can’t address the issue because bee calls he gets are really about wild bees. Beekeepers are the ones seeing the decline in bees, and this in itself is a really bad thing, but something for another time.

Anyway, our bees were probably a swarm that had broken off from another colony and were looking for a new home. When bees are swarming, Nathan said, they typically are not aggressive. They don’t have a hive, and they don’t feel threatened. Therefore, they don’t go after people.

But because young children and older people, as well as those with bee allergies can be in extreme danger of a bee sting, we ask people to remove them.

Nathan said he prefers to remove and relocate bees instead of destroying them, but it’s not always possible.

And the desert just happens to be a great environment for bees. The early spring has created an even better environment than usual for the buzzing insects. Try not to get too worked up if you have bees around. But whatever you do, don’t try smoking a cigar to get rid of them. (Unless you just need an excuse to smoke a cigar, I guess.)