Pest controllers

[Russel]

Just copied and pasted this from a pest controllers website (not the one who charged £200).

When Honeybees Become a Pest
Honeybees will often build their nest inside the wall of a home or any building for that matter. This can cause serious damage to the building structurally and can pose significant health hazards. Honeybees nesting in the walls of a building are a serious problem and as such needs to be dealt with timelously. Unlike wasps which are seasonal, honeybee nests can last for years if not treated. The honey stored inside the nests can damage the walls and the ceilings if left untreated.
A honeybee nest often has thousands of bees that swarm around the entrance of the nest, putting you and your family at risk. Bee stings can be incredibly painful and if a person is allergic, it can be life threatening. If honeybees feel their nest is being threatened, they will sting and due to the large numbers of bees in the nest, this situation can be incredibly dangerous. Honeybees also swarm and anyone in the vicinity of the swarm is in danger of being stung repeatedly.

Any thoughts on this?

B@ll@x

 

[VEG]

it the person registered as the ones Karol posted?

 

[Dishmop]

Hyped up to scare the householder.

 

[pargyle]

The reality is that a huge majority of people are frightened of being stung ... and have difficulty in differentiating between wasps, honey bees, bumbles and hornets ! Whilst I think the advertising of this particular pest controller is ill-informed and scaremongering (and as a pest controller he should know better) he is just reflecting what the average non-beekeeper is thinking when faced with a bees nest or swarm on their property.

An advert that said 'Don't worry bees have lived in hollow walls for years and won't really give you much trouble unless they are interfered with or you get in their flight path and as for a swarm - well, they're rarely going to hurt anyone when they are swarming' isn't really going to generate the sort of response a pest controller looking for business is going to want - particularly if they charge £200 a go !

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

And a new word for the English dictionary - TIMELOUSLY I know there's an old jockinese word timeously but really!

 

[Les]

And a new word for the English dictionary - TIMELOUSLY I know there's an old jockinese word timeously but really!

I wondered if anyone would notice that

 

[Karol]

Yes, but the ones who don't give a fig apart from rooking the gullible and raking in the cash and who do slap dash jobs don't go to seminars do they?

Bit like them people who'll tarmacadam your driveway for a few hundred quid cash!

Unfortunately there are rogue traders in every profession and you're absolutely right that cowboys don't attend seminars which is why a good place to start is with the BPCA and NPTA because by and large, cowboys aren't members either not least because proof of training is required to register.

Regards,

Karol

 

[Karol]

Just copied and pasted this from a pest controllers website (not the one who charged £200).

When Honeybees Become a Pest
Honeybees will often build their nest inside the wall of a home or any building for that matter. This can cause serious damage to the building structurally and can pose significant health hazards. Honeybees nesting in the walls of a building are a serious problem and as such needs to be dealt with timelously. Unlike wasps which are seasonal, honeybee nests can last for years if not treated. The honey stored inside the nests can damage the walls and the ceilings if left untreated.
A honeybee nest often has thousands of bees that swarm around the entrance of the nest, putting you and your family at risk. Bee stings can be incredibly painful and if a person is allergic, it can be life threatening. If honeybees feel their nest is being threatened, they will sting and due to the large numbers of bees in the nest, this situation can be incredibly dangerous. Honeybees also swarm and anyone in the vicinity of the swarm is in danger of being stung repeatedly.

Any thoughts on this?

It's interesting to hear people's thoughts on this.

What is it that is hyped up scaremongering? Surely, no one would expect any member of the public to leave a bee nest within their home?

I know that pest controllers get called in to treat bee nests in homes where bee keepers won't come out to remove the nests. If bee keepers won't come out to deal with such nests then it's hardly surprising if some pest controllers take advantage.

Regards,

Karol

 

[Chris Luck]

It's interesting to hear people's thoughts on this.

What is it that is hyped up scaremongering? Surely, no one would expect any member of the public to leave a bee nest within their home?

I know that pest controllers get called in to treat bee nests in homes where bee keepers won't come out to remove the nests. If bee keepers won't come out to deal with such nests then it's hardly surprising if some pest controllers take advantage.

Regards,

Karol

Well over the years I've talked to a large number of people with bee colonies in their houses, (walls, roofs, disused chimneys, between floors), and indeed another one yesterday I visited. In 95% of cases having spent time with them and explained the basics they have been and continue to be happy to live with them, after all it's no different to having a hive in the garden or next door and usually they are established at a greater height. Many have become quite attached to them, proud even to be doing their bit for wildlife something I thought you wanted to be associated with.

Chris

 

[beeno]

Hi all,
I have had a few people call me to say that they have had a pest controller out who have confirmed that the critters in question are bees and they are told to telephone an apiarist. I don't know if people are trying to get out of paying the pestie or if the pesties don't know the difference between a bumble bee and a honey bee? Does being an apiarist include bumble bees? I seem to recall some use bumble bees for pollination of strawberries?

 

[Karol]

Well over the years I've talked to a large number of people with bee colonies in their houses, (walls, roofs, disused chimneys, between floors), and indeed another one yesterday I visited. In 95% of cases having spent time with them and explained the basics they have been and continue to be happy to live with them, after all it's no different to having a hive in the garden or next door and usually they are established at a greater height. Many have become quite attached to them, proud even to be doing their bit for wildlife something I thought you wanted to be associated with.

Chris

If 95% of hives in homes could be saved then that would be great. The sub-text to my posts is not defending pest controllers per se, but just raising the issue that bee keepers could do more (a subject that I previously posted about).

The sad reality is that based on the feed back that I've received, it would appear that the turn out of bee keepers to such incidents is not 95%. So, I guess the question is had you not attended those people, would 95% of them have still retained their bees or would they have then called out the pest controller?

I also wonder if there's a difference in the type of housing and whether your experiences would still translate to some of the high density low cost housing in the UK. I could very well imagine that rustic solid builds in France would withstand just about anything compared to the dry lined plaster board constructions we tend to see over here.

 

[Chris Luck]

Well I consider it part of my raison d'être to advise people on wildlife issues and inform them of the facts in an objective manner without any agenda other than seeing where and if we can share our lives with the other species that occupy this planet. Blackbirds or bees it's all the same.

Money and time though important to me are not the issue and I'm sure it's the same for many bee keepers, or I would like to think it is providing they have a bit of time left over although fuel costs can mount up.

Fabric of buildings is neither here nor there, bees don't do any damage or did you mean the background noise of the bees would be too much in a dense urban environment? Anyway many of the colonies here are behind dry lined plasterboard, walls or ceilings.

Chris

 

[Karol]

Well I consider it part of my raison d'être to advise people on wildlife issues and inform them of the facts in an objective manner without any agenda other than seeing where and if we can share our lives with the other species that occupy this planet. Blackbirds or bees it's all the same.

Money and time though important to me are not the issue and I'm sure it's the same for many bee keepers, or I would like to think it is providing they have a bit of time left over although fuel costs can mount up.

Fabric of buildings is neither here nor there, bees don't do any damage or did you mean the background noise of the bees would be too much in a dense urban environment? Anyway many of the colonies here are behind dry lined plasterboard, walls or ceilings.

Chris

I think it just frustrated me to listen to pest controllers complain that they had contacted their local bee keepers to no avail and were then forced to treat the nests.

As for damage, then I don't think I have a clear picture on this. Certainly noise is an issue and the odd little bit of damp as well. I've certainly had pest controllers talk about leaking honey causing problems but the only way that I can see that happening is as a consequence of killing the nest and not subsequently removing it which I guess is damage caused by the pestie.

 

[Les]

I think it just frustrated me to listen to pest controllers complain that they had contacted their local bee keepers to no avail and were then forced to treat the nests.

As for damage, then I don't think I have a clear picture on this. Certainly noise is an issue and the odd little bit of damp as well. I've certainly had pest controllers talk about leaking honey causing problems but the only way that I can see that happening is as a consequence of killing the nest and not subsequently removing it which I guess is damage caused by the pestie.

The problem most of us beekeepers have with ‘removing’ a honey bee nest that’s in the cavity wall of a house is that you can’t get at it without some serious building work.
It’s certainly beyond my capabilities to start removing bricks to get at the bees – and I suspect that It’s beyond most pest controllers so the easy option is to apply insecticide and charge the occupier.