Don't Worry: Bees Happy

A Pleasanton mother drove for more than two hours with her children in the car last week before realizing roughly 2,000 bees were clustered near the rear window inside her vehicle.

To the rescue came Ed Burns, a San Ramon beekeeper who used a “bee vacuum” to remove and transport the honey bees to a new home.

Burns reported that he receives similar "SOS calls" to remove bees from trash cans, windows or the exteriors of cars, but this was a first.

“I’ve not had to take them out of a car like this before.” 

The woman was leaving a downtown hair salon in the afternoon when she saw bees swarming around her SUV parked near Rose Avenue. She decided to shop for a bit, hoping the bees would disperse. 

When she returned to her car about 2:30 p.m., the bees appeared to be gone. So, she felt safe enough to drive off to complete errands and pick up her three kids, ages 15, 12 and 9.

Pick-ups, drop-offs, sports runs and errands continued until about 4:30 p.m., when one son in the back seat cried, “Bee!”

The woman pulled into the nearest parking lot at Stoneridge Drive and Hopyard Road to discover bees, inches thick, lining the inside of her car’s hatchback.

At a loss for whom to call, she initially dialed a pest-control company, which, in turn, referred her to Burns.

“A lot of pest-control people don’t want to kill honey bees, for the general sake of the bee population,” Burns said.

The recent decline in the bee population has alarmed scientists. Pesticides, unpredictable weather and farming changes often are cited as possible causes.

Honey bees, particularly in California, are key to crop and plant pollination.

Burns took up beekeeping a couple years ago as a sweet hobby.

He suspects the bees inside the Pleasanton vehicle had outgrown their hive and were seeking a new nest, which he said is common behavior in the spring, when bee populations multiply.

"The queen and about one-third or one-half of the other bees take off and look for a new hive," he said.

The bees he recovered this week – which can sting – are now in his back yard.

Burns is waiting to determine if the group has its queen by checking for eggs or trying to spot the queen herself, who is usually larger than worker bees.

If a queen is present, the colony will go to a local 4-H group, he said. If there is no queen, he will add the worker bees to an existing hive.  

For others who find themselves in a predicament similar to that of the Pleasanton mom, Burns recommended calling beekeepers so the bees can be relocated alive.

"The Mount Diablo Beekeepers Association provides a list of beekeepers who will remove swarms," he said.

Information is available at diablobees.org/swarmlist.