Swarm Season is Here

Community Contributed

By Elisabeth Kaneshiro, Molokai Meli

Here at Molokai Meli, in addition to producing local honey, we also help residents and businesses with bee removal. We have had a lot of calls for removals and have seen the bees moving around. Honey bees swarm when the hives are getting too big and need more space. The rain causes the bees to swarm more often because the bees are bringing more nectar so the hive grows. The bees make a new queen and take a big group with the old queen and leave. These often look like a big cloud. They send out the scout bees to go and look for a new home.

You can keep them from moving into your house by checking for places that the bees might be able to enter. Some common places are where walls meet the roof, gaps in the siding, and underneath the house or where the pipes and wires go into your house. These gaps can be filled with Great Stuff or other spray foam (available from the hardware store) or sealed with some kind of caulking.

If you have bees at your house, first check to see if the bees are just looking around. If not, just call us and we can come and take a look. You can reach us at 558-8204.