Residents in a Worcester suburb are fearful of leaving their homes in the summer due to a swarm of more than a million bees which invade their street.
Homeowners along Corfe Avenue, in Warndon, Worcester, say they are attacked and stung by the ‘aggressive’ for up to six months per year.
Some refuse to leave their homes, and others have experienced monsoons of bees flooding their living rooms through their chimneys.
The cause? A landlord on the street who allegedly keeps 21 hives in a garden of his rented property.
Residents are fed up – they claim the issue has been going on for more than a decade, but has got progressively worse.
One resident, who did not wish to be named, said the swarms of what is believed to be over a million bees were like ‘living in a horror film’.
‘You’re literally stuck in your homes on some days when they swarm in big numbers – it’s just not worth the risk going out.
‘Our doors and windows are shut tight, but they can still get down chimneys.. It’s like something from a horror film. Like the Candyman or something,’ she said.
Another resident, who wished not to be named out of fear of repercussions, said: ‘I am on the alert all the time and I haven’t sat in my garden since Covid. He probably first got the hives around 15 years ago, but he was living there then.
‘Since then, he moved out and they have just been left completely unmanaged, and the problem has got progressively worse. We’re not bee haters, but we can’t live a normal life. I have been stung multiple times.’
The resident also said workmen have refused to come to the street after learning about the bees.
‘They are aggressive bees. Some drop dead on our patios, so I don’t know if they are diseased or what, but they certainly aren’t looked after,’ she added.
Another resident said: ‘When it happened to me, in two weeks a colony grew to a meter long and there were around 40,000 to 60,000 bees in my chimney.
‘It was like torrential rain – a monsoon – entering my living room. It was horrible. We do not want to harm the bees, but this is excessive and it is getting worse.’
There is currently no law that regulates the number of hives a person can keep in a garden, even if it is in a heavily residential area.
It has led local councillor Sarah Murray and John Rudge, from Worcester City Council, to call for an urgent reassessment of the laws.
Cllr Murray said: ‘This has gone well beyond a private matter. We have families, pets, and workers being stung, residents unable to open their windows, and basic home maintenance being disrupted.
‘One resident was quoted £8,000 to have a swarm removed and contacted me asking for help. The problem has continued, and I have had multiple complaints from multiple people about residents being stung in their gardens.
‘The person responsible for those bees is not managing them, so we are getting these swarms and angry bees who are stinging people. We need to do something about it.’
Worcestershire Regulatory Services (WRS) is reportedly reviewing its laws and regulations, and Cllr Murray is calling for a formal site inspection, a review under the Environmental Protection Act 1990, and the possible use of a Community Protection Notice.
Worcestershire Regulatory Services said it is a private matter and the household’s responsibility, but the council could use an abatement notice legal instruction issued by a local authority, to address a statutory nuisance and address the issue.
A Worcester City Council spokesperson said: ‘Worcestershire Regulatory Services is investigating the complaint on behalf of the city council. It is not appropriate to comment further at this time.’
Martyn Cracknell, president of the Worcestershire Beekeepers Association, said bees swarm naturally as part of colony reproduction.
When a colony reaches its population limit, the old queen bee leaves with a portion of her workers to establish a new hive in a different location.
However, this tends to be a stone’s throw away from the former hive.
But Mr Cracknell said it is the beekeeper’s responsibility to recognise this process and prevent a swarm by moving the Queen and her workers to a new hive.
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