We could all learn a lot from bees: Organization, productivity, community service, stinging people who annoy us... Well, bees will be in full force soon. Remember not to annoy them on your own. Call a professional.
Remember that old saying, "April showers brings May flowers?" One thing that saying failed to mention is that the flowers bring bees. Sometimes those bees end up setting up a hive in your walls, roofs, sheds, irrigation boxes, etc. Unless you are a beekeeper, you don't want bees setting up shop in your home. The honeycomb in your wall will attract moths, rats, and many other insects. If you notice bee activity on your home, call Antac's BEE REMOVAL DEPARTMENT as soon as possible.
Many people wonder what the difference is between normal honey bees and Africanized honey bees.
Honey Bees can be recognized by their golden brown coloration and characteristic shape, the form of the marginal and submarginal cells in the front wing, and the absence of spurs on the hind tibiae. These bees are common and well-known insects, and they are the most important bees in plant pollination. They are extremely valuable, as they produce some $300 million worth of honey and beeswax annually, and their pollinating activities are worth 130 to 140 times this amount.
Only a single species of honey bee occurs in North America, Apis mellifera L. This is an introduced species, and most of its colonies are in human-made hives. Escaped swarms usually nest in a hollow tree. The cells in the nest are vertical combs, two cell layers thick. Honey bee colonies are perennial, with the queen and workers overwintering in the hive. A queen may live several years. Unlike the bumble bee queen, a honey bee queen cannon start a colony by herself. As in most Hymenoptera, the sex of a bee is in large part controlled by the fertilization of the egg: Fertilized eggs develop into females, and unfertilized eggs develop into males. Whether a larval honey be destined to become a female becomes a worker or queen depends on the sort of food it is fed. There is normally only one queen in a honey bee colony. When a new one is produced, it may be killed by the old queen, or one if the queens (usually the old queen) may leave the hive in a swarm, along with a group of workers, and build a nest elsewhere. The new queen mates during a mating flight and never leaves the nest except to swarm. The males serve only to fertilize the queen and die in the act of mating. They do not remain in the colony long, as they are eventually killed by the workers.
North American honey bees, which have been introduced into this continent from Europe, are not particularly aggressive and are easy to manage. In 1956 an African strain of the honey bee was brought into southern Brazil with the intention of interbreeding them with the European strain. Mated queens and workers accidentally escaped and established wild colonies. This strain of the bee has become known as the "killer bee." Since its introduction this strain has spread over a large part of South and Central America and into the southern United States. These bees produce more honey than the European strain, but they are very aggressive. At the slightest disturbance, they attack people and animals with great ferocity, often chasing them 100 to 200 meters (sometimes as far as a kilometer). Both livestock and people have been killed by these bees. Beekeeping practices in South America have changed somewhat as a result of the introduction of this strain: Colonies are now generally removed from settlements and livestock. Attempts are being made to reduce aggressiveness of the bees by crossbreeding and selection.
Please contact Antac Pest Control, The Bee Removal Company for a free estimate on getting rid of the bees on your structure. Call 858-505-8080 or Toll-Free at 877-AntacMan (268-2262).
