AS SEEN ON CHANNEL 5's 'FILTHY BRITAIN S.O.S'
Honey Bee Removal/Relocation
LOOKING TO REMOVE YOUR BEES? - CALL NOW
IS IT ILLEGAL TO KILL BEES? ARE BEES A PROTECTED SPECIES? WHAT IS THE SOLUTION TO MY BEE PROBLEM?
I'M GETTING CONFLICTING ADVICE, WHO DO I BELIEVE, WHO CAN I TRUST, WHO HAS THE ANSWERS?
IS IT ILLEGAL TO KILL BEES? ARE BEES A PROTECTED SPECIES? WHAT IS THE SOLUTION TO MY BEE PROBLEM? I'M GETTING CONFLICTING ADVICE, WHO DO I BELIEVE, WHO CAN I TRUST, WHO HAS THE ANSWERS?
These, and many other questions need to be answered if you are going to solve your honey bee issues.
Lets start with why you can trust the Pest Interceptors and the information we are going to give you.
We are beekeepers as well as pest controllers so you can rest assured we know what we are talking about. We have both perspectives to view the problem at hand from. We know the laws and we know bees.
We have been dealing with honey bee extractions for 15 years as a business. Our bee removal team has a combined knowledge of over 45 years!
The Pest Interceptors YouTube channel is the largest pest control/bee removal channel in Europe with over 55 million video views and over 55,000 happy subscribers, follow us here.
Our social media presence is huge. Our informative and fun Facebook page is the biggest pest control social media platform in the UK with over 11,000 followers. Become one here.
We have featured in the national press many times and have even featured on primetime TV on shows like Filthy Britain SOS, click here to see our appearances.
We are members of the UKBR (United Kingdom Bee Removers.) We are members of Basis Prompt, an organisation that makes sure its members are fully up to date with all current legislation and codes of best practice in our industry.
SO NOW YOU KNOW YOU CAN TRUST US, LET'S ANSWER YOUR QUESTIONS -
Is it illegal to kill bees? - Pretty much always YES IT IS ILLEGAL TO KILL BEES!! I say "pretty much" because there are health and safety reasons when a bee colony would need to be euthanized. For example, if a bee colony was being removed and the colony became so aggressive that it started attacking people nearby. In all our years of removing bee colonies we have never had to do this. For more information on the legalities and the protected status of honey bees, please go to this blog page.
Why do you get conflicting advice from different pest controllers? - This saddens and angers us in equal measure! There are people/companies who you should be able to trust. They are supposed to be professionals! But sadly greed and laziness are enough to make some unscrupulous pest controllers kill bees because it's an 'easy buck.' Perhaps (let's give them the benefit of the doubt) they just don't know any better and are too under educated to be doing their job properly and legally. The crazy thing is it's not only illegal, but it doesn't work in the long term anyway, and you end up with either the bee colony coming back to life, another bee swarm taking its place, or you can end up with the awful sticky mess shown in the below video! For more information on why killing bees is never a permanent solution to your bee infestation problems, please go to this blog page. Also check out the BBKA (British Bee Keepers Association) and the UKBR (UK Bee Removers). All good, reliable professional bee removal companies are on these sites.
SO NOW YOU KNOW YOU CAN TRUST US AND KILLING YOUR BEES ISN'T A LEGAL OR REAL SOLUTION, LET'S SEE WHAT WE NEED TO DO TO GET RID OF YOUR HONEY BEE PROBLEM. If you still believe that killing your bee colony is a cheaper alternative (cheaper but usually illegal) please take the time to watch these videos.
ESTABLISHED HONEY BEE COLONY? - CALL NOW
Every honey bee extraction is different to the next, whether it's honey bees in chimneys, bee colonies in cavity walls, or honey bees living in your roof, we can remove the bee colony, alive, and re-home them. If you are serious about saving your bees we strongly suggest that you take a look at the work involved on our YouTube channel. Or scroll down to see how and what needs to be done for your particular honey bee scenario. We find it important for you, our client, to understand what the honey bee colony extraction requires to be successful, for you, for us, and of course, the bees!
This isn't a job for guessing or over the phone quotes.
A THOROUGH SURVEY IS ALWAYS THE FIRST STEP TO BEING BEE FREE
The survey of your building and bee colony is nearly as important as the job itself! Any reputable honey bee removal company will insist on this being the first step of the process. A strong indicator of a good honey bee remover is they insist on a thorough survey before taking on the work or even quoting for the work. If no survey, then avoid them like the plague! Here is why.
WHY IS A THOROUGH SURVEY SO IMPORTANT?
Removing a bee colony can be fraught with unknown problems -
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A colony can be 10,000 bees or 100,000 bees.
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There may be only a litre of honey or 100 litres of honey.
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The colony could be unhealthy making the bees super aggressive.
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Just because the colony looks like it 'should' be in a certain part of your building it doesn't necessarily mean they are. Finding out they aren't in the chimney/wall you think they are can be a very expensive discovery when someone dismantles the wrong part of the building!
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Although a building may look safe and sounds from a distance, closer inspection could reveal structural problems to take into account.
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If there are hidden, undiscovered voids inside the building/chimney the bees can literally 'run off' into another part of your home causing extra work. (We check for this eventuality, but even with a thorough survey a small void can be missed. If this causes us problems, that's our problem, not yours. The price stays the same.)
WHAT GOES INTO THE SURVEY?
Expect the survey to take around an hour, but sometimes we may be there for 4 or even 5 hours! We use -
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Thermal imaging cameras
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Endoscopic cameras
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Fibre optic survey cameras
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Remote wi-fi cameras
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Listening devices
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Sometimes we may have to drill inro walls and ceilings, but we try to avoid this if we can.
Once we have colated all of the information we require we will email you our quotation. The quotation will be a 'set in stone' price. No changing things on the day, no surprises, no price hikes. The quotation will include everything required including any building materials required and scaffolding/access equipment. As you can see, a thorough survey isn't a case of popping round to 'have a look.' It's there to protect you and so we know exactly what we are dealing with. No surprises for us, no surprises for you.
The Pest Interceptors are members of the UKBR, which is a group for those that participate in the ethical removal of honey bee colonies, and a group for those of us that are committed to improving methods and techniques, through research and development, to help improve bee health and welfare, during and following the removal and relocation of the bee colony. If you are not in our coverage area, don't worry, you can find more ethical bee removers by contacting the UKBR here.
Please scroll down to your particular bee problem to fully understand and comprehend what is required for your honey bee extraction and removal, and how we will do it for you.
Here is a video showing one of many reasons why having a survey done is so very very important to you, to us, and to the bees.
ESTABLISHED COLONY SITUATIONS - CALL NOW
HONEY BEES ARE COMPLICATED, SO WE HAVE SPLIT THE MOST COMMON PROBLEMS INTO 4 COMMON SCENARIOS
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HOW WE REMOVE AN ESTABLISHED HONEY BEE COLONY FROM A CHIMNEY
Honey bees absolutely love to set up their home in chimneys. It always makes me smile a little as we all know that bees hate smoke, so why move into the smokiest part of your home?! But they do, and it is the most common honey bee extraction that we do.
If a bee swarm has just arrived, there is a chance that they may move on. If the colony of bees remains in the chimney for more than 36/48 hours it is unlikely to move. But there is a chance they will for up to 7 days. After this you now have an established colony. This means that the only choices you have is to either live with the bees, or, have the bees removed and re-homed.
The option of living with the bees does come with some of its own problems though. Firstly, the colony could be blocking the flow of smoke out of your open fire, log burner, gas fire, maybe, blocking a flue causing carbon monoxide build-up which could be lethal to you and your family.
Secondly, as the colony grows in size, other pests will come to feed on the bees nest. This could be tiny parasitic wasps, little beetles that feed on the waste from the bees, and even, moths that feed on the bees wax used to make the honeycomb. This can lead to honey coming out through walls and ceilings.
In a good year bees bee will swarm multiple times.
Thirdly, as the colony grows it will produce swarms. It will produce at least one swarm a year, in a good year it will swarm multiple times. These swarms of 10-40 thousand bees will be looking for a new home. It is not uncommon for the bee swarm to leave one of your chimneys and to shoot down another one of your chimneys or one of your neighbours chimneys! Just to add insult to injury, the swarming doesn’t mean the original colony has left, it's still there, the swarm was just how the honey bees multiply in numbers.
HERE ARE SOME VIDEOS SHOWING THE WORK THAT GOES INTO REMOVING AN ESTABLISHED BEE COLONY FROM A CHIMNEY -
2. HOW WE REMOVE AN ESTABLISHED HONEY BEE COLONY FROM A ROOF OR FACIA
If the colony is still in residence after 48 hours then they are there for good.
This is another common place for a swarm of honey bees to set up their new hive. We have no way of moving the colony using our special 'bee moving chemicals' in this scenario. We will always advise you to leave the colony for at least 36/48 hours, as there is always a slim chance that the Queen bee might just decide she doesn’t like your house, and the entire swarm might just up and leave (quite an impressive sight when 10-40 thousand bees all decide to move home).
If the colony is still in residence after 7 days, then they are there for good. After 7 days the bees will of already started building honey comb for food stores and brood comb for raising the next generation of worker honey bees. Once this happens the colony is then classed as an established colony.
DO NOT ATTEMPT TO SEAL THE ENTRY POINTS!!! This can cause massive problems for you, as the bees will probably find another way out, probably a bedroom in the middle of the night, or sometimes from pipe holes in your bathroom or kitchen! It will also make the extraction of honey bees a lot more difficult for us!
HERE ARE VIDEOS SHOWING THE WORK THAT GOES INTO REMOVING AN ESTABLISHED BEE COLONY FROM A ROOF/FACIA -
3. HOW WE REMOVE A HONEY BEE COLONY FROM A WALL
Again, another common occurrence is for a honey bee swarm to set up home inside a wall. They usually use an old pipe hole or similar, or sometimes they will appear to be going in where the roof meets the wall. These 'chinks in the armour' of your home will of allowed the bee swarm access to the cavity inside the cavity wall. There is a slim chance that the colony may leave on its own. After 7 days the bees will have already started building honey comb for food stores and brood comb for raising the next generation of worker honey bees. If the colony is still there after 7 days you now have an established colony that is there for good, unless it is professionally removed.
DO NOT ATTEMPT TO SEAL THE ENTRY POINTS!!! This can cause massive problems for you, as the bees will probably find another way out, probably a bedroom in the middle of the night, or sometimes from pipe holes in your bathroom or kitchen! It will also make the extraction of honey bees a lot more difficult for us!
HERE ARE A COUPLE OF VIDEOS SHOWING THE WORK INVOLVED IN REMOVING A HONEY BEE COLONY FROM A WALL -
4. HOW WE REMOVE A HONEY BEE COLONY FROM A FLAT ROOF
Another favourite place for a swarm of bees to infest. Usually the bees will have found access into the void inside the flat roof where the roof meets the walls. We will always advise you to leave the colony for at least 7 days, as there is always a slim chance that the Queen bee may just decide she doesn’t like your flat roof and move on to pastures new.
After 7 days the bees will of started building honey comb for food stores and brood comb for raising the next generation of worker honey bees. Once this happens the colony is then classed as an established colony.
Usually we will remove bees, from a flat roof from inside the building, known as an internal removal. This means very angry bees and sheeting up the room we will be working in. But sometimes the survey we carry out will show us that we will be required to go in from above, removing the felt and ceiling boards, to be able to safely remove the colony of honey bees.
DO NOT ATTEMPT TO SEAL THE ENTRY POINTS!!! This can cause massive problems for you, as the bees will probably find another way out, probably a bedroom in the middle of the night, or sometimes from pipe holes in your bathroom or kitchen! It will also make the extraction of honey bees a lot more difficult for us!
HERE ARE TWO VIDEOS SHOWING THE WORK INVOLVED IN REMOVING A HONEY BEE COLONY FROM A FLAT ROOF -
HONEY BEE SWARM SITUATIONS - CALL NOW
WHAT TO DO IF A SWARM HAS JUST ARRIVED. HOW WE DEAL WITH THE 3 MOST COMMON SWARMING HONEY BEE SCENARIOS - CLICK HERE
