Bees in a Palm Tree in Silverado Ranch in Las Vegas
Bees in a palm tree are far more common in Las Vegas than most homeowners would guess, and the photo above is a good example of why.
This colony had hung its combs in the crown of a palm, tucked under a curtain of dried flower stalks and old frond material, in full view of anyone who thought to look up. Nobody thought to look up. That is how most of these calls begin.
From the ground, a palm crown looks like a green mop on a stick. From a ladder, it looks like a penthouse. There is shade from the fronds, a roof from the dead material, and a lot of tight pockets where a colony can hang comb without anything touching the sun.
Honey bees figured this out long before landscapers started planting palms along every driveway in the valley.
We have pulled colonies out of palm trees in Henderson, Summerlin, and North Las Vegas, and the setup is almost always the same. Look closely at the photo and you can see five or six parallel combs hanging side by side, pale wax fresh enough to glow, with the bees clustered across them like they pay rent.
They do not pay rent. We checked.
What is surprising is how exposed this looks. In a wall, a colony hides behind drywall and you only know about it from the traffic at one small gap.
In a palm tree, the comb is right there, and the bees are working it in the open. That makes it look simple. It is not. The comb is built into tangled fibers and stalks that sit well above head height, and the whole structure moves when you touch it.
Taking it apart means working slowly from a ladder or lift, supporting each comb as it comes free, and keeping the brood and the queen together so the colony survives the move.
That last part is the point of everything we do. We bring the comb down piece by piece, secure it into frames, collect the bees, and move the whole colony to one of our apiaries. A palm tree is a fine place for bees to visit. It is a poor place for them to live over a patio.
People occasionally decide the tree needs a trim first, with the bees still in it. This rarely ends the way they pictured it going. A palm trimmer with a saw and a loud engine is a very effective way to turn a calm colony into an unhappy one, and the trimmer is usually the first to find out.
If you hire a crew for your palms and you have noticed bees going in and out of the crown, ask them to stop and call us first. We would rather meet the colony before the chainsaw does.
You can usually spot the early signs from the ground if you know what you are looking for. A steady line of bees flying to and from one spot in the crown, bees gathering on the trunk or the fronds in the afternoon, or a faint hum when you stand under the tree on a warm day.
Any one of these is worth a phone call. None of them improves with time. A colony in a palm crown keeps building, and the longer it sits, the more comb has to come down and the more the tree has to be worked around.
Once the colony is out, we clean up what comb is left, and we point out the pockets in the crown where another swarm might try the same trick. We cannot promise that no bee will ever visit your palm again.
Bees will look at any tree in Las Vegas that has shade and a roof. We can only tell you which ones they usually pick.
If you think you have bees in a palm tree at your home, send us a photo and we will tell you what we see. Most of the time, the answer is that the bees found a good spot and did not know it was your yard.
Betsy & Pete
🐝Las Vegas’s All-Natural Live Bee Removal Team
About Us: The Authors
We’re Betsy Lewis and Pete Rizzo, Beekeepers on a Mission in Las Vegas
We’re not just in the bee business, we’re in the bee-saving business. Trained by a master beekeeper and backed by hundreds of successful removals, we rescue and relocate honey bees with care and precision.
If bees have moved into your wall, yard, or block wall, our live bee removal covers Las Vegas, Henderson, Summerlin, North Las Vegas, Boulder City, and the rest of Clark County. A cluster hanging from a tree or fence is a job for our bee swarm removal, and if you’re not sure what you’re dealing with, see how our free bee removal works.
Every swarm we save and every hive we manage reflects our deep love for the bees. At our Joshua Tree Preserve, we care for dozens of thriving hives, some wild, some honey-bearing, all part of our commitment to ethical, sustainable beekeeping.
Why Vegas Bees? Because We Never Stop Learning or Caring
Beekeeping keeps evolving, and so do we. We keep up our education, compare notes with fellow beekeepers, and refine our techniques so bees and people both come out ahead.
We also support the beekeeping community with high-quality beekeeping supplies. If you’re ready to suit up and start your own journey, we’ve got what you need.
