Insects ‘harmless’, says expert after bees swarm in thousands

A Cupar resident has described his dismay after a swarm of “thousands” of bees descended on the town.

Scott Jessiman looked on in amazement as a huge number of the insects appeared “out of nowhere” on Sunday in the Dalgairn area where his father lives.

The 35-year-old photographer was at his dad’s house when he noticed the swarm of honey bees appear at about 1.30pm.

They flew around the area for about 20 minutes before moving on.

Mr Jessiman said: “I was sitting reading a book in the house. I looked out the back window and was like, ‘what the hell is that in the sky?’

“And then it just got worse and worse and worse. They were just everywhere, absolutely everywhere, all over the greenhouse.

“They were in their thousands by the looks of things.

“I am not normally fussed about creepy-crawlies, but I was not keen to head outside as you would imagine. I was just flabbergasted, I have never seen anything like it. It was a once in a lifetime moment.”

A pest control expert has revealed the phenomenon is not so unusual, since honey bees are known to move on from old nests to establish new ones at this time of year.

With their queen at the helm, the swarm will move as one unit; often temporarily settling for up to two days as they seek out new places to live.

Vanessa Hartley of Perth-based Andy Law Pest Control said the activity was perfectly normal for honey bees and insisted the insects were “harmless”.

She said: “The honey bee queen will leave the existing nest and take the worker bees with her and when bees establish a new nest they come as a ready-made population.

“The queen will settle and workers will settle with her and look for a new home.

“It is very alarming for people but they are actually harmless.

“We always ask people to leave honey bee nests alone, they are not like wasps, not half as aggressive.

“They are not swarming to attack anyone. They will move on,” she said.