The Benton County Beekeepers Association has several members that are willing to rescue homeless honey bee swarms from your property. If you are not for sure if your insects are in fact honey bees please use the following identification guide. However, if you are sure you have a swarm of honey bees you can go directly to our reporting form by clicking Swarm Report.
Honey Bees
- ·Color varies but is generally amber to brown alternating with darker stripes; some are mostly black.
- ·They are furry, with short hair especially over the thorax (the body part that supports the wings).
- ·They are gentle, unless hive or queen is threatened. Domesticated bees have been selected over time for gentleness.
- ·The stinger is barbed so it is pulled out of the bee when it flies away, which will lead to the bee's death.
- ·Feeds exclusively on honey made from collected flower nectar, and on pollen.
- ·They live in large colonies of flat wax-based honeycomb hanging vertically. Most times the colony is in a cavity above ground.
- ·A honey bee swarm is a large group of bees looking for a new home. Our Beekeepers-Volunteers will be happy to provide that home.
- ·Sometimes honey bees establish a colony inside a home's wall cavity. But, killing bees in your wall will create a parade of other pests coming to eat the unguarded honey... mice, ants, and worse. Your best option is to have a beekeeper relocate the entire colony (a lengthy, difficult process) by cutting away the wall board. This saves the living colony, reduces future damage by pests, but does leave you with a hole to repair.
Signs of a Honey Bee Swarm
Swarming is the process by which an existing honey bee colony reproduces itself into two or more colonies. In the spring and summer, when conditions are right the queen honey bee will leave the hive with a large group of worker bees in search for a new home. When they leave the hive they do not have a new location picked out so they find a resting spot while they search out a new home, this resting spot could be in a shrub, on a tree limb, or a wall. During this time the majority of the bees cluster around the queen to protect her while scout bees search out a new home. In our area swarm season usually begins in late March and continues into the summer.
Many people are frightened by a swarm of bees, however, this is the time that honey bees are the most docile. Honey bees do not go out looking to sting someone, as stinging is usually a death sentence to the honey bee. However, they will defend their home, their honey, and the brood (developing bees) and while they are in a swarm they have none of these. These honey bees have one purpose at this point, to find a new home.
Honey bee swarms look like this.
Other flying insects that are often mistaken for honey bees...
Bumblebee
- ·Color is yellow with black stripes, sometimes with red tail.
- ·They are furry, with long hair, and large (approximately 1 inch in length).
- ·Bumblebees are gentle, however they do have a stinger that is smooth and can be used indefinitely.
- ·They live in small cavities in the ground.
- ·They are great pollinators and you are lucky to have them around your yard.
Yellow Jacket
- ·They are black and opaque bright yellow stripes, they appear shiny because they are less furry.
- ·Yellow Jackets are aggressive, with a smooth stinger that can be used indefinitely.
- ·Two long legs are visible hanging down during flight. but unlike honeybees have no pollen baskets.
- ·They eat other insects, overripe fruit, sugary drinks, human food and food waste, particularly meat.
- ·While most yellow jackets nest in soil cavities underground, some build paper nests that resemble hornet nests.
Paper Wasp
- ·They are dusty yellow to dark brown or black, smooth bodied (very little hair).
- ·They are gentle but have stingers that can be used indefinitely.
- ·They eat mostly other insects.
- ·They live in small umbrella-shaped papery combs hanging horizontally in protected spaces such as attics or eaves.
Ryan Hodnett, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Bald Faced Hornet
- ·They are black with ivory white markings, smooth bodied (very little hair).
- ·They are aggressive and have stingers that can be used indefinitely.
- ·They feed mostly on other insects.
- ·They live in large paper nests shaped like upside-down pears usually hanging from branches or eaves.
PiccoloNamek at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/, via Wikimedia Commons
Cutouts
Sometimes honey bee swarms find an opening on the exterior of buildings that leads to a cavity in a wall, eave, or attic that they like and they set up housekeeping there. A swarm that has moved into a structure is no longer a swarm but an established colony, and removal of these can be a costly and time-consuming process depending on where the bees are located and how long the colony has been established. Each situation is unique. Arkansas state law requires a valid pest control operator's license to charge for removing honey bees from a structure. If you have a honey bee colony in your residence go ahead and fill out the form below, just be sure to put in the "Description" that this is not a swarm but a cutout and we can get someone in contact with you that can assist you. Please do not simply spray an insecticide on these honey bees living in your wall. While this may kill the honey bees, it leaves behind their honeycomb which will attract other pests such as mice, ants, moths, raccoons, etc.
Please use this form if you need to report a swarm in or near Benton County, Arkansas.
This page was adapted from the Montgomery County Beekeepers Association, Montgomery County, MD.