Call in the bee saviours
Instead of calling an emergency response team, which will ultimately burn and destroy a bee nest, why not call My Bee Saviour?
The volunteer group aims to save the bee population by relocating nests found in developed areas, especially residential buildings, to a “sanctuary”.
My Bee Saviour secretariat head Izatul Lail Mohd Yasar says the group has been actively saving bees by relocating them since 2015.
He says most methods to control bees will only reduce their population.
“Some people panic when they see a swarm of bees at home and tend to want to exterminate the nest quickly. For pest control or emergency response teams, they often terminate the colony by burning or poisoning the bees.
“The method is not sustainable. In Malaysia, there has been a slight drop in the honeybee population in the past years due to the Colony Collapse Disorder.
“For example, in the klia2 case, the management wanted to call the Fire Department, but luckily, they learnt about us. We managed to relocate the bees, which are of the Apis Cerana or Asian honeybee type, to our bee sanctuary in Serdang,” says Izatul, a researcher at the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (Mardi).
Izatul and a retired Mardi researcher started a Facebook page on honeybees in 2015. That was how My Bee Saviour began.
“The page began with the sharing of ideas between honeybee researchers, enthusiasts and farmers. Some of them have been helping with relocating bee nests in rural areas to either their farms or nearby forests.
“We now have volunteers in all states, but most calls to relocate nests are from people in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor.
“Each volunteer has their own style of relocating bees, but our standard procedure is to have the caller submit photos or videos of the colony. We will then arrange a suitable date to process the nest. We cut it, place it in a box and transfer it to a sanctuary.
“Requests for relocating bees from residential and office buildings are high from February to July.
“Members of the public often wonder why their homes become a nesting place. This was explained in Surah Al-Nahl (verse 68): ‘And your Lord inspired the bees, saying, make your homes in the mountains, in the trees and in the structures men erect’.”