CHICAGO (WBBM Newsradio) -- This is a busy time right now for bee re-locators — pest control companies that are called in to get rid of a swarm.
Almost every single day since May, Bill Whitney of City Bee Savers has been out all over the Chicago area evicting swarms of bees.
We met him Thursday at an old apartment building in Lincoln Park, where he was dealing with a 35,000-bee colony.
“Some of the things that you don’t want to do is anything that would rile them up,” Whitney explained. “Spraying them. Spraying them with water. Closing up their entrance. All those things are going to cause a lot more problems for you.”
The people at the apartment building did not necessarily handle things correctly, he said.
“It’s not unusual for apartment buildings. They have a lot of tenants and people want something taken care of right away,” he said.
Whitney said business will be brisk until mid-October.
“We’ll vacuum the bees up. I’ll carefully cut the honeycomb out. If I can save the brood, I’ll rubber-band them into the frames that go into managed bee hives.”
The bees continue life elsewhere and will make honey another day. Wasps and hornets that are removed aren’t as lucky, Whitney said.
Related
