Family's shock as they find bees nesting in their car

Published on Friday 3 July 2009 10:00

EVERYONE gets a bee in their bonnet at one time or another.

But pity the unfortunate family who returned from holiday and found not one but 3,000 bees living under the hood of their car.

The swarm made their home in the green Volvo when it was left in Edinburgh Airport's short-stay car park during the family's holiday abroad.

Beekeeper Nigel Hurst, from Livingston, was called out to the unusual situation when the shocked parents and their two children arrived back from Italy to find the car cordoned off and swarming with the bees.

Nigel, 56, who is the president of Edinburgh and Midlothian Beekeepers Association, said: "I've never heard of them nesting in a car before. It's rather unusual.

"My wife Marion and I grabbed our equipment and jumped into the Beemobile.

"We found a nice, neat swarm hanging off the radiator. Calmly, we used a brush to get them into a straw skep, which is a kind of basket. It took about an hour to solve the problem."

Nigel, who has eight hives of honeybees and also works as a engineering technician, added: "It's probably a good job the family didn't drive off because starting the car up might have panicked the bees and they might have become angry.

"The best thing you can do in any situation where you are surrounded by a lot of bees is to stay calm."

Airport staff were first alerted to the problem of the bees last Thursday. They placed traffic cones around the car and contacted Enid Brown, who was managing the beekeeping tent at the nearby Royal Highland Show, to find out what step to take next.

But it was not until the family returned from their trip on Saturday that the bees could be coaxed away from the vehicle because nobody could get into the bonnet.

Beekeeper Enid, 56, said: "You could see a bulk of them hanging inside the grill but we couldn't do anything.

"It was funny because that very morning I had been asked to go on the radio to comment about a swarm of bees that had nested on a lamppost in Glasgow's Regent Street. But that was just a handful. There were a lot more bees under the Volvo. It looks like the bees were out in full force that day."

Despite meeting the family and waving them on their way, Nigel did not have time to find out their name or where they were from.

"In all of the drama there was no time to catch any personal details," he said. "We are very glad to have been able to help though."

&#149 Are you the family or do you know them? Contact the Evening News newsdesk.