Derry's very own 'Rat Woman' talks swarming bees, wasps and 'adorable' rodents

Patricia, who owns and runs North West Pest Control, has had over a hundred calls of people worrying about swarming bees but the experienced pest controller says that bees are usually nothing to worry about.

She said: "We are flat to the mat at the minute with bees. We never had a year like it! I think a lot of it is to do with the heat, it’s just driving the insects mad, not just bees, but other insects that we might not have had any bother with. The red spider mite is one that we’ve been getting loads of calls about recently with people saying they’ve been coming out of the grass and crawling up the sides of peoples houses in their hundreds.

"We’ve seen a massive increase in the tree bumblebee up around the Belfast area, not as much here. We’ve had calls into double figures now. This is the first year I’ve ever come across them in these numbers but they’re very common. They’re kind of scary looking, they go into the roof or on the tiles or whatever and a couple of times during the day, you get what looks like a swarming affect. What happens is the male bees are hanging around the entry into the nest, waiting for the queen to come out. They basically attack her wanting to mate with her and it looks like they’re having fights and things mid-air but they’re not, it’s just a mad courtship. The male bees don’t sting and they have a very short season, it usually wraps up buy mid-July so people are usually very happy to hear that and leave them ‘bee’.

“Honey bee calls are also mad this year and people are under the misconception that they are a protected species, but they’re not. There are some bees that are endangered and they probably will be placed on the protected list soon but they’re not yet. As a company, we have a no kill policy when it comes to honey bees and bumble bees.

"In regards to honey bees, once they decide to move in, they stay there. The honey bee hive gets bigger and bigger so, in those instances, we have someone we call or recommend who does what’s called a ‘cut out’, where he removes the bees and the honeycomb from your house and he takes them up to his own apiary.

"We got a panicked call on Wednesday evening from someone saying wasps were coming into her bathroom in their hundreds. Once people say that, you know it’s not wasps because wasps don’t swarm. So we were dealing with a bee swarm in the area, where the scouts were coming into her bathroom. Once the swarm arrives, the queen will rest and all the workers will gather round her to protect her and that’s what gives them this beard effect. She will hang out there for a rest and she’ll send scouts out to look for somewhere to set up the hive. Sometimes the swarm will move on and when the scouts return, they’ll hang about that area because that’s where the queen’s pheromones are the strongest. That’s when people see them knocking about but we always advise people to wait three to four hours because they can move on. They key is not to panic because people will go out and spray them with water or insecticide, and we advise against that. If the bees are sprayed with insecticide and then go back to the apiary where they come from, they can contaminate that hive and the beekeeper has just lost his whole hive.

"It’s crazy the amount of calls we’re getting for honey bees, bumble bees and these tree bumblebees but it’s nothing to worry about. Wasps on the other hand – I got a call there about someone who’s getting her garden hedges trimmed and came across a wasp nest on the ground. Unfortunately, a wasp nest has to be destroyed because you can’t relocate it. Wasps do have an important role in the environment, because they’re pollinators as well, but there is more risk associated with them. Bumblebees are the gentle giants of the insect world and you can happily sit and watch them come and go but wasps are very protective of their nests and can become aggressive. One wasp can sting you six, seven, eight times whereas the honey and bumble bee only sting once and then they die. I know people don’t like it that we have to destroy the wasp nests but if you have a two or three year old kid running about the garden playing football and the ball accidentally hits a nest, you could have two or three hundred wasps attacking that kid. You have to weigh up the risks and we will asses each job so if there’s a nest up high, we’ll advise to leave it alone but if it’s in an area where there’s a risk to public health, we have to do what we can to protect people."

Patricia’s ethos is to ‘educate or relocate’, where they tell clients about the animal or insect they are having bother with or they move the ‘pest’ to a different location. She often teaches schoolchildren about wasps and bees and to keep them safe and informed.

"People are becoming more aware of our beneficial insects like the bees and even the wasps,” she said. “They all play their role within the environment and the new Council concept, No Mow May is brilliant. The past few years, when you’re driving in the summer, you would always get the insects smashing into your windscreen when you’re out driving but there hasn’t been as much the past few years. This year, I had to get the van washed three times in a month because I couldn’t see out the window with the amount of insects! I think it’s brilliant to see that there’s so many around. It got me thinking, this No Mow May has definitely increased the amount of insects, which are being predated upon by other bigger insects, which goes on up to the birds and mammals, so that concept has been very, very beneficial for everything.”

Patricia is affectionately known as the Rat Woman, which is an ode to her father who started the business almost 50 years ago.

"Everybody knows my daddy Charlie, the Rat Man. He started the business in 1975 and I started working with him in the 80s. I’ve been working here now for over 30 years and I bought the company in 2017. We’ve been spreading out now over the whole of Northern Ireland, hiring more staff and just going from strength to strength.

"People think pest control is all about killing but it’s really not. We’ve come a long way now so it’s all about management. We will go out to do a job and tell people that they’re better saving these guys, we tell them why and help where we can. We will manage rats and mice in a way that we don’t necessarily have to kill them. There’s things you can do; if you’re feeding the birds, clean up after yourself; don’t leave any water lying about; if you have any household waste or sheds above the ground, take away one or two of those things and the rats will go. Rats need food, water and shelter to survive so if you take one or two away, the rats will go. People can help themselves by doing that."

Although Patricia’s job is not for everyone, it is certainly a dream job for Derry’s own Rat Woman. “I love getting up in the morning and coming into work. When you’re in a job you love, you never work a day in your life – it’s a really true saying.”

To find out more about the services available by North West Pest Control or to avail of their services, visit https://www.facebook.com/ratwomanpage