Wellington abuzz as wild bee colony swarms on university
The captivating mystery of Wellington's runaway bees has been solved, a day after they escaped from Victoria University's Kelburn campus.
Media studies administrator Yvette Butcher says a student alerted her to the mass exodus yesterday, the pair watched "thousands of bees" fly away, she said.
Beekeeper and PHD student Davida Santoro managed to capture some in a cardboard box, but they escaped before a new home could be prepared for them.
"…the trapping wasn't successful, probably because I didn't get the queen" Mr Santoro said.
The fugitive bees left residents bug-eyed as they zoomed around the capital, with several people sending in footage of their encounter with the swarm.
Mr Santoro and another bee expert from Victoria University's School of Biological Sciences, Alan Hoverd, found the queen this morning setting up a new colony inside a wall of the university's media studies building.
Mr Santoro said students were never really in danger because the bees were just looking for a new nest.
"Swarming is a pretty spectacular event, you might be afraid of it, but actually they are really docile during the moment, they wouldn't sting unless they are squashed," he said.
New Zealand's bee population is being diminished by the varroa bee mite and the two experts believe they needed to do all they could to save the insects.
"Without bees you don't get pollination so there will be a reduction in produce... It has a nationwide affect," Mr Hoverd said.
You can see footage of the swarm here
Source: ONE News