A PEST controller is urging residents to help the honeybee over the next few weeks.

Dave Nash from Wythall based Pestbusters is calling on the public to help the bee thrive as a recent report showed a decline in the number of hives in the UK.

The British Beekeepers Association reported that 13.6 per cent of hives died last winter, the fourth year in a row showing a high number of casualties.

Mr Nash said: “We feel it is our responsibility to help educate the public about the plight of bees.

“We get telephone calls regularly asking us to destroy these nests, but they are a species under threat and the decline of them could have serious knock on effects for both biodiversity and agriculture.

“When we are called out to bee activity we work on the premise of don’t destroy but re-deploy, moving the bees to a different environment.

“Unfortunately not all pest control companies take this attitude.”

Experts have said in the past that lives could depend upon the existence of bees and the human race could potentially starve if they became extinct.

Mr Nash added: “The plight of the honeybee has received lots more attention in recent years and while, by the nature of our business we are very aware, there are still a vast majority of people oblivious.

“We have to do what we can to get the message across.”