Was sitting in the garden enjoying the gorgeous weather eating lunch. All of a sudden this huge swarm appeared out of nowhere. Presuming there was a nest nearby. Any tips on how to handle? Or if we need to do anything?

Huge swarm of wasps? / bees? landed on the side of the house
by u/bellafrankel in ireland

37 comments

  1. [https://swarms.ie/](https://swarms.ie/)

    Contact these folks, they’ll help you find someone locally to help out.

    Also that must be bonkers! Good luck.

    From the site:

    ” Fine weather prompts the honeybee to swarm, to reproduce as a colony and go out into the world. This is a perfectly natural event, swarming bees mean us no harm. 

    As a precaution, keep children and animals away from the swarm and do not approach yourself as honeybees can get defensive. They are less likely to sting when swarming than at any other time, but they do not lose the ability to sting. Getting stung once can elicit numerous bees to defend by stinging the same target. Avoid the problem, give them space & respect.

    Swarms can collect for short periods on nearly anything while scout bees search for a perfect new abode. Once a suitable location has been agreed up ([bees are very democratic!](http://www.beeculture.com/democracy/)), they all move en masse to the new location, the sight of a cloud of bees moving is something else!”

  5. Bees. They’ll be scouting for a better place to settle. Only a problem if that place happens to be your attic. Try to make contact with local beekeepers. They’ll be delighted to get a free swarm.

  6. Saw this near my mams last year. Swarm decided to set up shop on a garden wall down the road. Amazing how quickly the nest appeared. Frighteningly so. They had to be dealt with professionally. People couldn’t get out of the house as it was actually on the pier of the gate.

    Hopefully theres no ingress for them there into the attic.

  8. Had the same when I came home from work Thursday afternoon. Swarm of thousands of bees moving from garden to garden. Spectacular sight to see and the noise! Wow!!

  9. They could be setting up shop in the eaves of the house.

    Somebody will happily take them away

  14. Don’t panic. They’re harmless. Just looking for a new home now they’ve found their matriarch. They won’t pick that spot they’re just having a chat about where to go

  16. When a hive gets to a certain size, one of the bees is fed royal jelly and grows up to be a new queen. The old queen then leaves the hive with a bunch of the worker bee population and forms a swarm. They fly off, and find somewhere like this to settle for a little bit, with the workers protecting the queen, and scouts head out to find a suitable location for them to build a new hive. Once one is found, the bees will all head off there and build a new hive, while the bees that remain in the old hive will rebuild the population.

    Generally swarming bees like this are pretty relaxed and not particularly aggressive, so while they are intimidating, they likely won’t cause any actual problem. If you don’t want the risk that they chose a site to build there new hive that might be troublesome (like in your house), you can get in touch with a beekeeper, who can come with a hive box, coax them into it, and give them a new home in a hive box.

  18. Swarm of bees. Its worth around 300-350 euro too a beekeeper (I am one). Contact a local beekeeper and they will be happy to collect them.

    They won’t fuck with you if you don’t fuck with them

  21. If they hang around youre probably going to need a keeper of bees or you might end up COVERED IN BEEEEEEEEEES.

  23. Happened us years ago too. Was outside in the garden and it sounded like a helicopter flying low over the house. Had a beekeeper come and remove them and he said it was easily between 80,000 and 100,000 bees!

  25. Could be mason bees. We had a swarm. Settled on the upper corner of the house. Nested there for about 5 or 6 weeks then all suddenly left. They were zero bother whilst they were there. We would sit out under them on the decking having a drink. I even removed an old satellite dish from the wall about 3 feet below the nest (inside the roof). They were inquisitive but I didn’t make any sudden moves, took my time, 20ft up the ladder (perhaps not the greatest idea), and had no bother. Got the dish off.

    I definitely don’t recommend trying the above at home but it worked out for us. Always best asking a professional.

  27. They’re bees. I know they look and sound intimidating, but a swarm isn’t dangerous. They are just looking for a place to build a hive. Get in touch with local beekeepers. They’ll be more than happy to come and collect them (if I was your neighbour I’d do it).

  28. This just happened to my mum, she got a beekeeper out within a day and they took 40,000 honeybees, was quite a shock to see though

  33. I had the same problem a few day’s ago. My neighbour’s hive grew too big, and the hive decided to split and move to the bush outside my front door.

    The keeper was very friendly and super happy. We gave him his 20th hive, so he left us with a jar of honey as a thank you

  34. These are called “freebies”. If you don’t want to establish your own apiary, go and alert your local beekeeping group and somebody will come and collect them!

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