A mother cannot open the windows of her home as 30,000 bees have swarmed around the apartment block where she lives. Kayley Harding, 30, said she feared the bees could enter her home where she lives with her nine-year-old daughter Lacey.
Bees have taken up residence in the flats in West Bletchley, Buckinghamshire, in recent years as the warmer weather arrives. She says her cries for help fell on deaf years.
Kayley tells BuckinghamshireLive that calls to Milton Keynes Council left her helpless as the agency told her that as bees are a protected species she could not intervene. The council also said a long-term solution was being explored.
Kayley said: “It’s an ongoing problem. It’s not even really summer this year and it’s getting ridiculous.
“I’ve noticed a big difference with my daughter’s skin where we have to keep the windows closed. Her father is allergic to bee stings, but I don’t know if she is. I don’t want to find out the hard way.
“She has global developmental delay, so she’s a little scared. I think we’re all here.”
She added: “We have over 30,000 bees. They all seem to congregate downstairs overnight, but in the morning they disperse and they’re all over the building.
“When they swarm, it really does look like a tornado. It’s terrible. They sometimes swarm at the back of the building so we don’t really get to use the courtyard.
“You can stand on it anytime because they are all in the stairwell. If my daughter gets stung, how do I know she won’t have an allergic reaction?”
Kayley said one of her neighbors on the Milton Keynes estate was allergic to bees and had to confine herself. She continued, “I don’t want to get to the point where anyone’s life is in danger.
“My neighbor with an EpiPen is being transferred to a hotel for tonight. But what will one night do? These bees have taken over.
“The Council just doesn’t listen. I don’t think they take it seriously at all.
“There are other kids on the block. It’s just ridiculous.”
A spokesman for Milton Keynes Council said: “We are undertaking a cleanup to remove the bees and have provided hotel accommodation to one resident. The council is working with our contractor to find long-term solutions.”
