Swarms
We at the Stanwood Beekeepers Association are dedicated to helping honeybees. If you have a swarm of honeybees you would like to have removed from your property, we would love to help you if it is possible to capture that swarm.
Most beekeepers will work with honeybees but not other types of wasps and hornets. Before you call a beekeeper, please read the information below to determine whether you're dealing with honeybees or some other insect.
This Is a Honeybee
You'll notice this honeybee is fuzzy and amber and brown striped (not yellow and black). Not sure what you have? Only if it is safe to do so, text a photo (even of a dead one) to a beekeeper to confirm.
If your bees look like the fuzzy honeybee on the right, then you can call a beekeeper. Even though honeybees are lovely and help pollinate our food, they can be problems when they take up residence in our homes.
Hornet Nests
This is a Hornet nest - the wrong sort of bees.
"Unfortunately, despite this carefully enacted plan, the bees are still suspicious and getting more so; one even lands on Pooh's nose, causing him to "Ow!". Faced with this onslaught, Pooh decides that these are in fact the Wrong Sort of Bees, who will clearly make the wrong sort of honey (perhaps the blue kind, or the kind that tastes like Marmite)."
From Winnie the Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne.
Wasp and Hornet Removal
We are fortunate in the Stanwood area to have a person who collects aerial wasp and hornet nests (often for free). These are the paper nests often found in trees, bushes and under eaves.
Please do not spray these nests before calling to have them removed. The wasps will be frozen and used for immunotherapy treatments.
As of August, 2023 the quota for Yellow Jackets has been met, so there is a $40 fee, but they are still collection Bald Faced Hornet Nests for free.
Contact Joel at
Yellow Jacket Nest Removal (509) 987-7717
This is a yellow jacket
Yellow jackets are sometimes mistakenly referred to as "bees" given they are similar in size and sting, but they are actually wasps. Notice it is strikingly yellow and black in color and hairless.
Yellow jacket colonies become nuisances in the end of summer, but they will die over winter. If they are in a location where they are a problem, you can remove them by calling an exterminator. Some beekeepers will remove them for you, but others work only with honey bees. Again, you can text a photo to a beekeeper to confirm what you have, but only if it's safe to do so.
This is a Bumblebee
Bumblebee is hairy like a Honeybee but is much larger. Note that Bumblebee nests are very difficult to relocate,
Several of our members have bee vacuums that are able to reach up to about 25 feet above the ground.
We maintain an internal list of members who would like to adopt a swarm.
Please contact either our
President, Steve Winchell, at 425-501-9701, steve.winchell51@gmail.com, or our
Vice President, Art Peterson, at 425-232-8830, blue608@aol.com or our
Treasurer, Luke Jackson, at (210) 646-1802 Luke.taylor.jackson@gmail.com
to arrange to have someone come to try to capture your swarm.
It would be helpful if you could send a photograph of the swarm either as a text message or an email so that we can determine if it is honeybees and not yellow jackets or bumblebees.