How to use a bee vac to remove honeybees

A bee vac is a vacuum with just the right suction power to suck the bees up without harming them. There are different types of bee-vacs on the market and some work better than others.

The key to a good bee vac is to use one with a tube that is not corrugated on the inside but rather smooth. If the pipe is corrugated the wings of the bees will break and the bees will be hurt as they are sucked down that tube. It is also important that they also have something soft to land on inside the bee vac such as a cushion or some fabric.

Bee-vacuums are really useful when you are doing a cut-out or live honeybee removal because you can quickly suck up the residue bees that are not on the honeycomb and are on the wall space or chimney space where the bees were.

The difficulty with a bee vac is that it is a cumbersome piece of equipment to carry around and electricity or a power source is needed to make it work. This can be a challenge when you are working at height or remotely.

There is also a misconception where some believe you can suck the bees out of the hive using the bee vac at the entrance/exit point. Honeycomb and brood comb is well structured within the void space and often I quite large. Sucking bees through a hole is only going to suck the bees near the hole and those foraging around the entrance of the entrance/exit point and not affect the bees deeper within the hive.

Bees are quite clever and will quickly figure out what is going on and stay away from the hole and you will not suck up all the bees even if you left the bee vac on there for a whole day. Also, bees have different jobs within a colony. There are foraging bees that leave the colony every day, also worker bees that only feed the larvae and a queen that only lays eggs and moves around and breeds with some of the drones that are in the hive. These worker bees don’t leave the colony and so there is a large number of bees that wouldn’t go anywhere near the entrance/exit point where the bee vac is.

We had a client who called a beekeeper before calling us. The beekeeper tried to suck the bees out from outside. He landed up with several bees in his bee vac but most of the bees were still left inside the hive. In this case, the beekeeper landed up with a split colony which is a number of bees split away from an existing colony and without a queen. He then introduced those bees to his existing hives as beekeepers are always keen to gain more bees. It is wonderful in that the beekeeper is saving some of the bees but it doesn’t solve the problem on the client’s property.

All of that honeycomb was still left within that void as well as the rest of the colony. We went out and did a cut-out which is removing the comb and the bees live from within the void space. It’s really important to remove the honeycomb too because if left it can also attract more bees in the future as they will prefer to steal honey from existing hives – it’s a free meal! They will find it highly attractive to swarm onto and recolonise. It’s a bit like for us it is much easier to move into an already built house than to build one from scratch.

Another problem with leaving the honeycomb is the secondary pest infestations you may get. We have seen rats and mice eating honeycomb as well as wasps and hornets. We have also seen wax moths eating the comb. The wax moths fall when they are at the larvae stage and start coming out into the building. We have seen them fill up downlights and fall down chimneys and walk across carpets.

When honeycomb is left it often crystalizes or melts if it is hot and can melt and drip down into the building which is another problem. It can also contain brood comb which is where the larvae are. Larvae are protein-filled maggots that will die because there are no worker bees left to feed them. They will then rot and smell and that’s not great for the property owner. Honeycomb that is left can also be a disease source for other colonies of bees which will rob the comb of honey if the comb is not sealed off. They will take any disease back to their hives which is a serious problem if it belongs to a beekeeper and a human food source.