BEE SWARM SQUAD WANTED

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30976, 4 February 1966, Page 6

BEE SWARM SQUAD WANTED

“The Press” Special Service AUCKLAND, Feb. 3. A Rotorua apiarist, Mr W. L. Holt, is pressing the Health and Agriculture Departments to appoint bee-catchers to deal with public appeals for assistance in removing swarms of bees or wasps. Recently Mr Holt was called upon to eradicate a large wasps’ nest at Kawaha Point after residents had been unable to get help from the departments. He said that bee-keepers throughout New Zealand were pestered by calls from persons wanting bees or wasps removed. Some men refused to answer the calls and left the swarms to be

tackled by inexperienced people. Mr Holt said a Government department should provide men to deal with wasps when they were a health hazard. He suggested that local authorities should prevent amateurs from keeping hives without a special permit. “Bees only swarm as a result of poor management, usually by amateurs,” he said. “Professional beekeepers do not want to collect swarms for their own apiaries. The swarms are usually bees which have been allowed to deteriorate in breeding and we usually destroy them. “Going out to rescue people from swarms is only a nuisance as far as we are concerned.”