LUBBOCK, Texas — One local beekeeper has removed more than 16 bee swarms in the past two weeks all across Lubbock, and expects to remove even more throughout the year.
Bee season has hundreds of thousands of bees leaving their nests, and looking for new places to call home.
Paula Womack, the local beekeeper, said this is an extremely common occurrence right now.
“Luckily almost all of these cases are honeybees, not African, and so they won’t hurt or chase you down,” Womack said.
That is unless they feel threatened, then she said their guard bees won’t hesitate to attack. However, Womack said this is very uncommon, citing it’s hard to even reach them as they prefer trees or bushes.
“Unless you are tripping into their area, they will not seek you out, so if you don’t bother them, they won’t bother you,” she said.
In the case you are confronted with a swarm, Womack said to act as calm as possible and quickly walk away. She said do not try to swat at them, as that will only provoke them, and could bring harm to our ecosystem.
“People see them as a pest, but in reality they have so much hold over everything we do,” Womack said. “They pollinate our fruits, vegetables, grasses, without them we wouldn’t be here so please save the bees.”
