California Freeway Patrol pilot Shayne Dickson mentioned he and his associate weren’t fairly positive what to do once they found hundreds of bees had made a house on the nostril of their helicopter.
The duo usually responds to a wide range of rescue, medical evacuation and search requires the CHP Coastal Division’s Air Operations staff in Paso Robles — however how do you do this with a swarm of bees hooked up to your chopper?
“We might must go to a name on a second’s discover and having the bees on the plane will not be conducive to operations,” Dickson mentioned. Plus, he mentioned he had by no means been stung earlier than, and wasn’t about to seek out out if he was allergic to bee venom whereas in flight.
“We didn’t need to tempt destiny,” Dickson mentioned, laughing as he recalled the March 7 incident.
So their staff referred to as native honeybee removing knowledgeable Suzi Hulsmann, who was in a position to meet them on the tarmac and gently vacuum off virtually 3 pound of bees — estimated at simply over 10,000 bees — plus the colony’s queen.
“The bees had been simply completely agreeable,” mentioned Hulsmann, who owns and operates her firm Suzi and the Queen Workforce in San Luis Obispo County and retains bees herself. She mentioned she caged the queen — key to getting the remainder of the hive to relocate — inside two minutes, and after about 20 extra minutes the remainder had been in a field appropriate for bee transport.
“The bees had been on the lookout for a brand new residence,” she mentioned, explaining that the swarm possible had to seek out cowl after winds picked up that afternoon. “The helicopter occurred to be the short-term location.”
Bee removing knowledgeable Suzi Hulsmann makes use of a vacuum to softly suck a swarm of bees from a CHP helicopter on March 7.
(California Freeway Patrol)
After eradicating the bees, she relocated them to an empty hive in Atascadero, about 15 miles to the south, the place she mentioned the bees rapidly made themselves at residence.
“We put them in a hive and we put them to work,” she mentioned.
However earlier than the CHP air staff acquired again to work, Dickson mentioned they wiped down the helicopter to attempt to take away any lingering pheromones from the queen — a advice from Hulsmann to make sure the bees wouldn’t return.
“This was a primary for me for positive,” Dickson mentioned. “A primary for the unit, for that matter.”
