Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Early swarms of bees have residents abuzz

The phone at Rick Tapia's pest control office began buzzing two weeks ago and hasn't stopped since.

Homeowners from Green Valley to Summerlin have been calling American Pest Control looking for a little relief. At times, the callers are hysterical with fear. Others are just annoyed. But all have one thing in common: They want the bees removed from their yards.

"I have been going to so many bee removals this year ..." Tapia said, then trailed off as he answered another telephone call from a homeowner who wanted a swarm of bees removed from his or her house.

"The last two weeks -- it has been non-stop," he said.

For the first time in more than five years, swarms of bees have been spotted throughout the Las Vegas Valley in January and February. Normally appearing in April or May, the bees began emerging because of the massive rains and unseasonably warm weather of recent weeks, officials say.

The swarms often contain between 3,000 and 15,000 bees and can be the size of a football. The bee swarms can be found anywhere -- from the tops of tree branches to vacant parking lots -- and are often completely harmless to people.

"Swarms of bees are absolutely no threat at all. As long as you don't mess with them," said Tim Szymanski, spokesman for Las Vegas Fire & Rescue.

Residents often call the fire department to report swarms of bees on their property, Szymanski said, but added that the fire department will refer all bee removal calls to one of 10 pest control companies that are outfitted for bee removal.

Szymanski said he was surprised that the bees -- known locally as either European or Africanized bees -- had started to appear so early in the season.

He attributed the odd weather patterns in the state for the early arrival of the bees and suspected that residents in the Las Vegas Valley will be seeing much more of the bees in the coming months.

Szymanski attempted to defuse a lot of the myths surrounding bees in Clark County, especially those of the Africanized bee, or "killer" bee.

"Most people don't care if it is an Africanized or European bee. A bee is a bee," he said, adding that the Las Vegas Valley has both varieties.

He said the main difference between the two bees is that the Africanized is often more aggressive in protecting hives, but not more aggressive by nature, he said.

He recounted, with a slight chuckle, the fear that the swarms of bees caused in Clark County not so long ago.

Once a swarm of bees in the middle of the road stopped traffic and caused major havoc along the road before the bees were removed. Emergency 911 phone lines were often tied up with calls from hysterical people reporting swarms of killer bees in their yards, he said. And the fire department previously would place schools in lockdown when swarms were reported on school grounds.

"The bees are not like the ones you see in the movies," he said.

That said, he did recall one particularly frightening incident. In 1997 or 1998, two dogs were killed after they were stung to death by bees on Alfred Drive near Torrey Pines Drive. The dogs had invaded a hive, and the bees stung the dogs to death, he said.

"The dogs were overwhelmed," he said.

When bees sting, they also emit a scent that alerts other bees in the area of the impending danger. In this case, that danger was the dogs. With more bees stinging the dogs, more bees were alerted to the danger and began stinging, Szymanski said. Soon the dogs were killed.

The lesson is simple: Do not mess with the bees.

If you find a hive or a swarm, leave it alone and call the bee hotline (385-5853) for assistance. If confronted by bees, run and seek shelter in a building or vehicle, he said, an excellent plan of action as bees are slow flyers.

Under no circumstances should someone try to exterminate bees themselves, he said; leave that to the professionals.

One of those professionals is Brad Canfield, the owner of Alias the Bug Man, a local extermination company. Canfield has responded to just a handful of bee exterminations so far this year -- about six total -- and hasn't yet seen the bee swarms reported in the valley.

Unlike Animal Pest Control, which charges between $75 to $3,000 for bee removals, Alias the Bug Man charges between $100 and $150.

Canfield, who has been exterminating pests in Las Vegas since 1988, said he never had a call to exterminate bees until about 1999. But around that time, local news reports began broadcasting stories about the infamous "killer bees" that had invaded Las Vegas.

"Five years ago, I never had a bee job," he said. "But once they started doing the story of the killer bees, we got really busy."

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