Question: Who can help remove bees from my property? I don’t want the bees killed, but I don’t want them on my property, either. I am elderly and live on a fixed income and am hoping there is someone who will catch them and keep them and not charge me too much to do it.
Answer: Call the Hawaii Beekeepers’ Association’s Honey Bee Response Hotline at 988-7203. It takes calls from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, according to the association’s website, hawaii beekeepers.org.
The service is not free, but whoever takes your call will conduct a free intake interview over the phone so that you will have a good idea of the potential for safely removing the bees and the cost to do so before anyone comes to your property, said Michael M. Kliks, past president of the association, who answered our call.
The intake call also will help assess whether you actually have honeybees or have mistaken wasps or some other insect for honeybees, which are vital to Hawaii’s ecosystems and agriculture. As hives grow they divide, and a wild swarm might migrate to a less than ideal location. The goal is to preserve the bees while reducing risks to animals and people.
“We have a lot of experience taking bees away from places where people don’t want them and taking them to places where people do want them,” Kliks said. It isn’t simple work, he said, and can be time-consuming.
Beesource.com, a global online community of beekeepers, posts a list of nonlethal bee removal resources for Hawaii at bit.ly/1M5POkK. Caveat emptor: Beesource does not endorse any of the individuals or companies, but simply provides the information. Prices are not listed.
Be prepared to provide the location of the bees (including height above the ground), how long they’ve been there and information about the property in general.
The beekeepers association site also states that if you have a life-threatening emergency, you should call 911. From your call to Kokua Line, it seems like the bees are in a tree a fair distance from your house and that you are concerned about a natural hive being established, not about being stung.
Myths abound about honeybees, which beekeepers such as Kliks try to put to rest. There are no so-called “killer bees” in Hawaii (Africanized honeybees are not established here), but neither are there “domesticated” ones, Kliks said.
“We don’t control honeybees; we manage them,” Kliks said, emphasizing the importance of hiring a reputable service when problems such as yours do arise. “Experience and expertise count.”
Q: Is it true that if you are being robbed at an ATM, you can put in your PIN backward and the police will come?
A: No, it’s not true. This persistent urban myth has been debunked many times but periodically gains new life. It is making the rounds via social media again now. This falsehood first gained steam on the Internet in 2006, rooted in an old idea to improve financial security that never took hold because it was deemed impractical and even potentially dangerous, according to snopes.com, a fact-checking website. You can read more about it here: bit.ly/1iVdyc9.
Auwe
Auwe to the way some drivers attempt to get on the freeway. Instead of gauging the speed of traffic and merging with the flow, the drivers come to a complete stop. It’s nothing to see a line of four or five cars on the onramps waiting to get on the freeway. Don’t they realize they are a hazard to all those drivers waiting to get on? — Two more exasperated drivers
Mahalo
A few weeks ago I tripped and fell in front of the 7-Eleven on Piikoi Street. A man driving a blue truck came and helped me get back on my feet. He also gave me something to hold up to my lip, which was bleeding. Employees (like angels) at the 7-Eleven also helped me. My lip was still bleeding pretty bad, so someone called 911. I want to thank everyone who came to help me. I also want to let them know that my lip is healing and I’m doing fine. — Appreciative senior
Write to “Kokua Line” at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Honolulu 96813; call 529-4773; fax 529-4750; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.
