It was a terrible sight to see. Captured all on live on TV. An exterminator sprays and kills a honeybee swarm during yesterday’s Padres game here in San Diego. For many people, it was a heart breaking event to witness, particularly because the announcer on television was jeering and cheering as the bee swarm met its demise. It was sad to see the swarm die, particularly when it appeared that the swarm could have possibly been captured alive and relocated to a beekeeper.
It was an unfortunate event that brings to light a real dilemma in the pest control and bee removal industries. To kill or not to kill? That is the question.
For some active environmentalists, there is almost never a good reason to kill a bee colony. On the opposite side of the argument, there are many people who fear and/or are possibly deathly allergic to bee stings. There are also scientists in the agricultural industry who argue that local honeybees are not endangered and that the real threat to human safety is the Africanized bee.
The good news is that here in San Diego, honeybee colonies appear to be stronger than they have in a long time. The proof of this is the huge number of live bee removal companies that are thriving due to the local demand for live removal. A recent Washington Post article states that “commercial honey-producing bee colonies managed by human beekeepers — is now the highest it’s been in 20 years.” This increase in the local bee population has likely been aided by the efforts of beekeepers, pest control companies offering live removal service, and the increase in rain (and end of the drought) in the San Diego region.
When the bee swarm was eliminated at the baseball game, we here at Bee Best Bee Removal knew we needed to write this blog and express our opinion on what occurred. For us, there are two sides to this story that a 60 second news clip can not adequately cover. For what it’s worth, this is our view on what occurred.
The first thing we need to mention right off the bat is that no one from our company was physically there at that game. We only know what we saw on video and in photos. Based on what we saw, we would have attempted to remove the swarm alive and relocated the colony. In the photos, it appeared that there was enough distance from people to safely remove the bees alive and relocate the colony.
So if bees are not endangered here in San Diego, why bother to remove live? In short, the answer is simple: Bees are super cool creatures that we absolutely adore…. from the way they structure their colony, to the way they communicate and pollinate flowers and plants (not to mention the delicious honey they produce). In our opinion, why kill them if it’s not a safety issue? The debate about the plight of the bee rages on, but the driving factor for us to save the bees is our absolute respect for these amazing creatures who do so much for our environment. If given the choice, we always chose live removal if it is safe to do so.
That being said, we also understand that not every job can be safely done live. As we said before, we were not there at Petco Park when the decision was made to eliminate the bees. Was public safety really an issue? Were there people (that we could not see on film) that could have been chased or stung if a live removal was attempted? Did the exterminator have the knowledge, tools, and equipment to even provide the live removal service? All of these factors are not known to us and there is considerable liability attempting live removal in a crowded stadium.
Think about it. Imagine if someone who was allergic got stung while the bees were being removed? People who are truly allergic can die within minutes if stung. If saving bees comes at the cost of loss of human life, live removal makes no sense at all. In addition, Petco Park, and The Padres team could all be sued and held liable for the death. The pest control company that performed the live removal would likely lose their license for putting human safety at risk. The reputational damage to the Padres and Petco Park would be tenfold compared to the backlash they currently face for killing the bees.
Long story short, the choice between live removal and elimination requires a case by case approach. The decision always requires careful consideration of the specific situation where the bee problem is occurring. Every bee job comes with various degrees of liability. Saving the bees versus the threat to human safety always needs to be considered before making the decision to perform live removal.
Watch the full story from our local News 8 where our owner Jeff Lutz was featured giving some advice on live removal:
