Swarming bees could be caused by El Nino

HONOLULU — Bees have been swarming on Hawaii and experts say warm weather caused by El Nino may be responsible.

The weather pattern has created something like an “eternal spring,” entomologist Michael Kliks told KITV-TV.

“It’s humid, it’s hot, we have periodic rains, and many, many trees are blooming again like they’ve never bloomed before,” said Kliks.

Over the last month, Kliks said he’s received three times as many calls as normal from people desperate to remove bees from their property and scared to leave the house and face the swarming stinging insects.

Bee swarms usually leave within a day or two to find a permanent location for the colony, according to experts. In the meantime, Kliks’ advice is to stay calm.

“Don’t do anything. Be a tree,” he said. “Don’t move. Don’t breathe out heavily because carbon dioxide from your breath – that’s an alarm pheromone. Rapid motion is an alarm pheromone, so this idea of swatting bees is very dangerous.”

The swarms could be caused by bees seeking out new locations as their colonies become overcrowded, said Ethel Villalobos, director of the University of Hawaii Honey Bee Project.

“Colonies grow enough that they decide that they decide okay, we can send half the population with the old queen,” explained Villalobos. “We’ll make a new queen. That new queen will go out and mate with the boys and come back and so out of one colony, you have two.”

She said insects just want to settle down somewhere and aren’t trying to protect honey or babies.