Have a Honey Bee Swarm?

If you see a honey bee swarm or have found a colony on your property, first you need to make sure they are actually honey bees. You may have yellow jacket wasps instead.

Yellow Jacket waspHoney Bee

 Honey bee swarms are not aggressive. They are actually custered together until they find a new home. You can read more about swarms in our blog At The Bee Farm and in this post on Treehugger

Below are beekeepers in Chicago who will remove honey bee swarms.

Ben Walker will remove swarms and colonies in Chicago and nearby suburbs.  815-257-6007  Ben also offers on-site consultation for hive placement, package installation, queen management, swarm prevention and capture, and general trouble-shooting.  $25/hr, a visit usually takes 1-2 hrs.

Jeff Leider will remove swarms from Chicago/North Shore, Cook County, Lake County, Dupage County. 773-481-5881 cullom99@comcast.net

Dale Cooney will remove swarms in Chicago and near North/Northwest suburbs.  773-235-2732

Beekeepers from North Park Village Nature Center will take swarms on the North Side of Chicago. sean.shaffer@chicagoparkdistrict.com   312-744-5472

Dan Parizek specializes in bee removal from structures in Northern Illinois especially Cook, DuPage, Will, Grundy, Kane and Lake counties. danparizek@gmail.com  773-428-1776 

Andrea Bolks  bolks.andrea@gmail.com  952-215-4699

Greg Lane does swarm removal and colony removal from structures, primarily from the South Side of the city and the southern suburbs. Contact: online(at)walkerwood (dot) net, or call 773 five62 eightynine20.

William Pilipauskas will catch swarms in Lake and McHenry Counties and will also remove bees from buildings. Wpilipauskas@gmail.com 847-373-9148

Mollie Edgar will remove swarms on the Northwest side of Chicago.  312-720-1860  mollieedgar@gmail.com

If you find that you have a wasp nest, here is some good information about how to deal with it. Image from Purdue University Plant and Pest Laboratory

http://www.ppdl.purdue.edu/ppdl/weeklypics/8-23-04.html