Bee removal Perth.
Relocate the swarm, resolve the hive.

Not when there is a reasonable alternative. A swarm hanging on a branch, a fence or a letterbox can usually be collected alive by a beekeeper, and that is what we recommend first. An established hive that has been building comb inside a double-brick wall or a roof void for months is a different problem: it cannot be coaxed out, a cut-out is a building job, and if nobody can reach the comb the only responsible option is a treatment done properly, with the entry sealed and the comb removed afterwards.

Because the colony is not the bees you see at the vent. It is the comb, the brood and the honey behind the bricks. Removing it alive means opening the wall, cutting out every piece of comb and boxing the queen, which is beekeeper and builder work, not pest management. Where the cavity can be opened and a beekeeper is willing, we will put you in touch and step back. Where it cannot, we treat.

You can, but the problems compound. The colony grows through spring and summer, throws off new swarms, and becomes more defensive as the honey stores build. Honey and wax stored inside a wall soften in Perth summer heat and can stain plaster, attract ants, cockroaches and wax moth, and draw robbing bees from other hives. Anyone in the household with a sting allergy is living next to an ongoing risk. Most people who wait end up calling in autumn with a bigger, angrier colony.

We come in the evening when the foragers are home so the whole colony is inside. An APVMA-registered insecticide whose label covers bees is applied directly into the entry and the cavity, then the entry is sealed straight away so bees from other hives cannot rob the treated honey and carry it back to their own colony. We come back to confirm the traffic has stopped, and we give you a written plan for getting the comb out and proofing the weep holes.

We strongly advise it, and we say so on the treatment record. Dead bees, brood and honey left inside a wall break down, smell, and pull in secondary pests. Unattended comb also smells like home to next spring's swarms, which is the most common reason people get bees in the same wall two years running. Comb removal is usually a handyman or builder opening a small section of plaster or a few bricks; we can recommend people who do it and tell them exactly where the comb is.

The bees that swarm and nest in Perth homes are European honey bees. A single sting is painful and, for most people, nothing more. For the small number of people with a bee venom allergy a sting can cause anaphylaxis, which is a 000 call. Swarms in transit are usually placid because they have no home to defend; a hive with stores is not. Keep children, pets and mowers away from the flight line and call before you poke anything.

Perth's native bees, including blue-banded bees, resin bees and leafcutter bees, are mostly solitary, nest in small burrows or borer holes, and rarely sting. They do not form the large colonies that cause problems in walls, and we do not treat them. If you send us a photo and it is a native bee, we will tell you so and suggest you enjoy it.

Spring. Colonies that have built up over winter split as the weather warms and the flowering starts, so most swarm calls come between September and December, with October and November the peak. A swarm that lands in your garden will usually move on within a day or two once the scouts find a cavity, which is exactly when it becomes someone's wall problem. Late summer and autumn calls are usually established hives that were swarms in spring.

A swarm referral is free: we identify it from your photo and give you the beekeeper's number. A treatment of an established hive with an accessible entry typically runs $320–$480, including the evening visit, sealing the entry and the follow-up check. Hives high on a two-storey wall, in a roof void or behind cladding are quoted after we have seen them. Comb removal is a building task and is itemised or referred separately.