Bees

Biology

Honeybees are part of the family apidae, the most recognizable example of which is the European Honey Bee (apis mellifera). These bees were introduced to Australia for honey and crop pollination. Not surprisingly, feral colonies are now established in most parts of the country.

There are many species of native bee in Australia. Most are solitary bees that raise their young in the ground or in hollowed timber. We have ten species of social bees native to Australia that do not sting! Stingless bee honey is delicious bush tucker!

The European bumblebee (bombus terrestris) is not found on the Australian mainland but feral colonies have spread to New Zealand and Tasmania. Bumblebees are considered superior pollinators to their honeybee counterparts. It is suspected that the entire Tasmanian population is descended from a single fertilised queen.

Habits

Honeybees are social insects that live in colonies called hives consisting of a queen, drones and worker bees. Bees are almost deaf and rely mostly on their sense of touch. In a single colony there can be as few as 5000 bees or as many as 100,000. After mating, the queen lays up to 3000 eggs per day. She will never leave the hive. New queens can be made by feeding ‘royal jelly’ to the larva from two days. Drones are males that do not sting or forage. Their sole purpose is to fertilise new queens. Worker bees are always female. Their roles are varies and include foraging, cleaning debris, fending off predators, feeding other bees and larvae, ‘house’ cleaning of cells and clustering to create beeswax.

The workers forage to collect nectar. They communicate the location of food sources partly through a ‘waggle dance’ that includes coded information on distance and direction in relation to the sun. Nectar is stored in hexagonal wax cells. Once capped, the nectar is turned into honey that is used as food in winter when there are no flowers or nectar. Foraging bees may make round trips of four kilometres to and from the hive.

Bees can sting to defend themselves, their hive or their young. Their sting is actually a modified ovipositor. Unlike wasps, the bee dies after stinging. The abdomen continues to pump poison after the initial sting and should be removed. Honeybees also release pheromones that can cause other nearby bees to attack! Some people are allergic to bee stings, which can trigger a potentially deadly anaphylactic reaction.

When nectar is scarce, bees will sometimes rob each other of honey. Strong hives with large stores are most likely to rob. Sometimes robbing is a stealthy process and other times it erupts into massive battles between robbers and defenders.

Empty hives, usually those that have been treated by a pest technician or bee specialist, are also prone to robbing for honey. This is especially true when the hive is difficult to remove, such as inside a cavity wall. In these cases bee proofing is recommended.

Swarming occurs when a new queen leaves the hive, followed by the drones. She will mate with up to twenty drones which will give her enough sperm to last her lifetime (about two years). The queen may return to the hive and replace the old queen, but sometimes she will fly away with a number of worker bees to form a new colony.

These swarms are looking for a new nesting site. They send out ‘scouts’ to find new locations. These worker bees look for cavities such as tree hollows as potential nest sites. They report back to the swarm and it moves on. Bees are not considered aggressive during swarming, but caution still needs to be exercised around a swarm. Swarms may hang around for as little as 15 minutes or as long as a couple of days. Most of the time the swarm will move on to another site.

Management

If you cannot find an apiarist to remove your bees (and many won’t because of the disease risk) then a pest manager may be an alternative. However please note that we cannot remove bees from site.

Assuming that we have good access, bee hives can be treated directly and the hive knocked down. This is best done early in the morning or late evening when the bees return from foraging. In some cases we recommend bee proofing to reduce the chance of reinfestation.

Swarms cannot be effectively treated and should be left alone until they move on or form a hive. If this is not possible (due to allergies or the public) then we can arrange a general treatment that will reduce the numbers of swarming bees. Please bear in mind that bees are most docile when swarming and considered ‘low risk’.

All of our qualified technicians are fully equipped for dealing with your bee problem.

Why not contact us on (08) 6461 5700?