Spring starts this month, and with this happy season, comes flowers and many, many bees. If you happen to find a hive in your garden, we’ve got the perfect solution for you to get rid of it without harming them, your home or even putting your health in danger.
We spoke to Jonathan Young, also known as the Stung and Sticky Beekeeper, who gave us some tips on what to do.
How did you start this project?
“I grew up around bees because my family had a property on the west side of Phoenix and they had a beehive there. I always enjoyed the bees, working with them, looking at the hives. They’re fascinating creatures. Then I worked with a beekeeper in an area that did hobby beekeeping and removal, so I worked for a summer there when I was 15. I was pulling bees out of homes and I saw the importance of removing bees because most people out there are just exterminating them and you’ll have no more bees if you kill them all. That’s why I started this business with my brother, to provide an alternative to people. We’re able to get into there, remove the bees, and relocate them to the desert where they’re able to reflourish without bothering people”.
I have a beehive in my garden…
“You call us, we talk to you and you give us details about what’s going on. There are bees in your garden, what are they doing? Is there a beehive? Is there a swarm? Are they only pollinating? If they’re just pollinating and you’re not allergic we’ll suggest you leave them alone. We need pollinators because they’re great. If there’s a hive or a honeycomb we’ll come out and cut them, put them in a box, we even use a special vacuum called a beevac. We take that out to the desert and we put back their comb and let them out. They’ll decide if they want to stay there or find their own place”.
Why are bees important?
Here are 5 reasons why bees are needed and important to our environment:
- They pollinate food crops
- They pollinate wild plants
- They produce honey
- They create jobs with honey products (according to the US Department of Agriculture there are about 212,000 beekeepers in the country!)
In terms of money
“We try to keep everything as out front as possible, it can get expensive, with other companies, so we try to keep our costs at the minimum so everyone can afford us”.
If you’re thinking about taking care of the job yourself Jonathan says “hitting them with a stick or spraying them with a pesticide is not going to get rid of the problem, especially if they’re inside your walls. Even if you have an extermination company come out and spray the inside of your wall, the honeycomb is going to stay inside it and rot and bees are going to come back. Plus you’ll see other insects coming back”.
Listen to the expert, he’s worked on more than 1000 beehives!