SUN CITY, Ariz. — From the Daily News Sun (Sun City, Ariz.): Bee calls are up twice to three times as much as last year, according to Mike Rose, owner of Affordable Bee Control in Peoria, Ariz.
Rose attributes the spike in bee calls to the nature at work.
“When a queen gives birth, she gives birth to females and well as drones,” Rose said. “When the females mature, they have a right to duel for the queen position. When one of them fails, she releases a pheromone and attracts some of the drones, or worker bees, to follow her.”
Swarms might number 50,000, Rose said, before they relocate and get a honeycomb or hive built.
Arizona State University professor Osman Kaftanoglu, who has a master’s degree in entomology (the study of insects) with a specialty in apiculture (the study of bees), said Africanized bees make up 99 percent of those in Arizona.
“If the swarm is big and they have collected honey and established their nest, bees will sense these things and attack more,” Kaftanoglu said. “People feel sorry for them and don’t want them killed,” Kaftanoglu said. “They may even see a swarm and, because they haven’t attacked, assume they are harmless and won’t. That’s not necessarily true. Don’t wait until their nest is established. I don’t want to see them killed, but sometimes there is no choice. Capturing them is not easy.”
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