Call the Beekeeper, Not the Exterminator
The San Diego Padres probably didn’t earn a fan following Sunday when they called in a pest control to rid the baseball field of an annoying swarm of bees. But the act outraged enough people to serve as a good reminder of public service: Call a beekeeper to clean up the swarm of bees, not a slayer.
Look, I’m really afraid of bees. Just ask my husband, my son, or anyone who has ever had the pleasure of sitting next to me during my child’s soccer game. But fear is my problem, not theirs. They really didn’t do anything to deserve it, and the bottom line is we need bees . They pollinate plants, and the vast majority of plants need pollination to reproduce.
According to the Planet Bee Foundation , bees help grow our crops and contribute significantly to our economy:
Honey bees are among the most abundant and efficient pollinators in the world. Considering that the average honey bee can visit over 2,000 flowers in one day, these bees significantly increase the chances of a plant producing a fruit or vegetable.
Honeybees are the species most commonly used as industrial pollinators in the United States. They are managed and used to pollinate over 100 crops grown in North America and contribute $ 15 billion annually to the US economy. Many crops such as almonds, which generate $ 4.8 billion a year for the US industry, are more than 90% pollinated by honey bees.
So no matter how momentarily inconvenient they are, if they start swarming in a place where they shouldn’t swarm, we don’t want to kill them. We want to safely remove them and move them to the apiary; Beekeepers with special vacuum cleaners for bees can do this safely.
How to find a beekeeper in your area? Beekeeping magazine Bee Culture has compiled a list of beekeepers in every state , and the list includes addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and sometimes even websites.
You can also try calling your local police station, where there might be someone like NYPD detective Anthony “Tony Bee” Planakis to swoop in and save the day – and the bees.