Bee swarm descends on Auckland shopping centre

Bees swarmed around this car in the St Lukes area this afternoon. Photo / Supplied

A fearless caretaker has single-handedly stopped thousands of swarming bees from disrupting Christmas shopping at the St Lukes shopping center in Auckland.

The bee swarm flew into the carpark outside the Warehouse in the shopping center at about 1:30pm.

JB Hi Fi worker Vlad Petrovic said shoppers had to stay inside for about 25 minutes as the bees flew outside the store entrance.

People were only able to exit the building when the entire swarm moved onto the window and bonnet of a red Toyota, he said.

The car's "impatient" owner was then forced to wait about 30 minutes until a building caretaker, without any protective clothing on, moved the bees from the car window into a cardboard box with a rolled up newspaper.

"I asked him how he did it without getting scared? He said 'I'm an animal lover'," Mr Petrovic said.

Centre officials called a member of the Auckland Beekeeping Club to take the swarm away.

"There were a huge amount of them [bees] - in the thousands. No-one got stung,'' said shopping centre custodian Les Thomas.

He said the driver of the car was "blown away'' when he returned to the vehicle to see it covered by the swarm.

No bees were hurt, assured Mr Thomas.

Which is just as well, according to pest controller Mike Butler: "The bee population is very minimal these days, and we want to protect them.''

Mr Butler believes the bees settled on the car because the queen had stopped there for a breather. "It looks quite menacing. They move around to find a permanent nesting home, and they surround the queen to protect her.''

Mr Butler said it was not unusual for a hive of bees to move in a swarm but it was unusual to see them land on a car. He said 2000 or more bees could live in a hive.

After the Toyota was driven away the remaining bees settled on a second car in the carpark. They were expected to disperse naturally when the vehicle moved off.