I’M sure that no one can have failed to notice on the news in the past 12 months the alarming decline in the honey bee population both here and abroad.

It has also been repeatedly emphasised how absolutely vital these tiny busy little creatures are to the production of the food that we all put in our mouths every day.

This letter is quite simply a plea to all who read it to please consider this when encountering bees this summer.

It is clear they are being hit hard by a number of factors including climate change, disease and pesticides and really are struggling to survive.

My husband is a pest control officer who has seen the number of calls due to bees fall from about 70 per year to just two in 2008!

This really brought it home to me just how serious this problem is.

As such, for the past two years when being called to deal with bees, we have tried all possible methods of rehoming the bees or making the area safe for the bees to live without having to resort to exterminating them.

We have a list of beekeepers waiting to attempt to retrieve swarms of bees and put them in hives, where they can continue to go about their daily and vital work whilst also very kindly supplying us with honey.

Anyone who comes across a swarm of bees please, please, please consider its inherent value to us all and instead of looking for ways to exterminate it, contact the National Beekeepers Association, which has swarm co-ordinators in all areas of the country.

It will arrange for a trained beekeeper to attend and remove the swarm.

In the case of other bee species, such as bumble bees and hover bees, many of which forage on their own, please be aware that these are also important pollinators and are also declining in numbers.

I’m asking really that wherever possible please leave these little creatures alone (we need them), they will not sting unless absolutely compelled to do so.

We must all make an effort to be more accommodating to all of nature’s creatures or we shall be the poorer for it.