| David’s bee beard. The swarm will follow the queen’s pheromone. Put her on your chin and see what happens! |
David Marder was eleven years old when a swarm of bees landed in a tree in his neighbor’s yard. Having just seen a beekeeper days earlier on Sesame Street, David decided to catch the swarm himself.
He ran into the garage and returned moments later clad in his dad’s motorcycle helmet, gardening gloves and windbreaker, and carrying a garden hoe.
He set the box on the ground, whacked the branch with the garden hoe, and lo and behold, the bees all flew straight into the box. For his 12th birthday he received a bee book and some proper beekeeping equipment.
Thus, the Bee Buster was born.
David began beekeeping as a hobby and became an expert beekeeper at a young age. Before the profession of bee removal was heard of, David also began helping his fellow Orange county residents and commercial enterprises by doing live removals (keeping and hiving all of them.) The name Bee Busters was coined in approximately 1982. In that year he had over 500 hives in Orange County. David continued to keep bees and perform live bee removal throughout the county and built a large client base that includes private homeowners, commercial enterprises and government entities. David was even working for some of our cities before age 20!
David tending to a colony in Thailand
David has traveled extensively around the world to study these amazing creatures. His travels include South America, Africa and Asia. David was able to observe the Africanized bee in South America before it migrated into the states, as well as study them in their native habitat in Africa. There are interesting variations of the bee family to be found throughout the world. David has seen first hand the largest (Apis dorsata) and smallest bees (Apis florea) in the world, both of which are found on the continent of Asia.
When Africanized Honey Bees began moving into Southern California the bee removal industry changed drastically. David captured his first swarm of Africanized honeybees in the late 1990s. With this change on the horizon, David sought the expertise of Eric Mussen PhD from UC Davis. Dr. Mussen told David, “ I don’t want you keeping these bees, or giving them to beekeepers.” The temperamental Africanized bees began mixing in with the local population to form hybrids with their more docile European relatives. This was going to create a big problem.
David participated in many studies, committees (including the Governor’s Steering Committee on Africanized Honeybees) and other educational programs to inform government agencies and other entities about safety and appropriate ways to deal with the problems to come. The Africanized honeybee transformed the bee industry in Southern California, and public safety and liability became the foremost concern. Bee Busters has responded to countless ‘stinging incidents’ due to Africanized Honeybees and has been featured in the news many times for solving such problems. Check out our In the News for some details on our spots in National Geographic, The Wall Street Journal and local news.
Bee Busters, Inc. today is dedicated to removing bees and other stinging insects such as wasps and yellow jackets in the safest way possible. David is still an avid beekeeper and keeps a couple of hundred domestic hives in the Southern California Area. Our bees visit the almond orchards for pollination services as well as produce honey for sale.
Click here for more information about Beekeeping, Bee Removal or Bee Rescue.
