Truly Nolen Busier Than Normal with Bee Work this Spring

(Pictured: The windshield from Truly Nolen CEO Scott Nolen's car after he drove through a bee swarm.)

TUCSON, Ariz. —  With the season’s change from winter to spring and colonies of bees producing new queens, bee swarms are beginning to become more visible as they often do at this time of year; however, their volume combined with a lot more new, established hives are what has drawn the attention of pest control professionals. 

In fact, Leo Gomes, Truly Nolen District Manager, Phoenix, noticed an uptick in the Phoenix region during April. “Swarms have been moving in at a much higher volume than we normally see this time of year,” said Gomes. “Calls have actually quadrupled over the last seven days, and many customers are requesting same-day service as they are very aware of the possible danger with Africanized bees.”

In addition to urgency calls in Phoenix for swarming bees, Truly Nolen Tucson Service Office Manager Anthony Molina has first-hand knowledge of the increase of bees in Tucson recently.

Molina was playing in a soccer game at Udall Park (7200 Tanque Verde Road, Tucson) on April 1 in the early afternoon. “While my teammates and I were warming up on the field, we had two bee swarms fly right over our heads!” said Molina.

While the game took place, two more bee swarms flew over the team’s heads again. “It was a windy day so the bees were not very loud,” said Molina. “However, I could definitely tell there was a swarm flying over with the small black cloud moving over our heads.” 

All four of the swarms Molina and his teammates witnessed were going from east to west, which means they were moving into town. In fact, Molina actually just had a swarm at a tree on the service office's property last week. 

The bees apparently know what our employees do for a living, as evidenced by our CEO Scott Nolen’s recent experience driving down a Tucson road. “Even though I know this time of year routinely brings swarming bees throughout our state, they still managed to startle me when they flew past the front of my car unannounced!” said Nolen. 

Gomes said despite the swarming activity, it is actually what occurs afterwards that should give people some pause. “While migrating bee swarms are not usually a threat to people, bees can become aggressive when they land and begin to build their hives,” said Gomes. “Therefore, the recent activity we have been seeing means this appears to be the onset of a very busy Africanized bee season, no pun intended.”