Bee swarms are much more common this year than most because of a relatively mild winter that killed off few bees and winter rains that produced a bumper crop of flowers for bees to feed on.
Here are five things to know about bee swarms:
1 Swarms form when a colony gets too large, usually in the spring and sometimes later in the summer, and the queen splits off with half or more of the colony in search of a new home.
2 The original colony produces a new queen.
3 Fifty to 60 calls about swarming bees have been coming into Northwest Exterminating each day, the highest rate since 2005 and triple last year's pace.
4 Swarms on the move aren't as aggressive as bees from an established colony protecting their hive.
5 If a swarm isn't threatening pets or children and isn't moving into your house or an outbuilding, it's OK to watch and wait for them to move on. A swarm may rest in a tree for a few hours to a few days before moving on.
People are also reading…
– Information from Dena Berg and Dan Miller of Northwest Exterminating.
Did you know
The super-defensive Africanized honeybees, also called killer bees, migrated into the United States from Mexico in about 1990. Incidents in Tucson involving the bees have ballooned since about 1994.
Star archives
Lake Mead's drops raise prospect of unaffordable Hoover Dam electricity
