Goodyear, Avondale and Buckeye share the same bee problem: neighborhoods built quickly beside river corridors, farm ground and open desert. Most of Goodyear’s housing went up after 2000, Avondale more than doubled between 2000 and 2020, and Buckeye grew from 6,537 to 91,502 residents in 20 years. In all three cities a newer house is not a safer one.
Goodyear: new stucco against the desert
Goodyear pairs one of the fastest-growing housing markets in Arizona with open Sonoran Desert right at the edge of town. In Estrella and the neighborhoods against the Estrella Mountain foothills, backyards meet washes and saguaro stands where wild colonies live all year. Those colonies swarm after winter rains and again after the first monsoon storms, and the closest cavity is usually in a house.
New stucco looks tight but is not. In Palm Valley, Canyon Trails and Centerra, the three openings we close most often are the weep screed at the slab line, eave vents with no screen and open block-wall cells, because builders do not bee-proof. Water keeps colonies close: Estrella’s lakes, the golf corridors and the irrigated common areas give bees the one thing the desert lacks, so greenbelt and lake lots see more scouting bees than interior lots, and irrigation valve boxes at the property line are a routine hive site. Forage is covered too, since the remaining farm parcels and citrus along Cotton Lane and the Gila River margins keep it available almost year-round.
Avondale: where two rivers meet
In Avondale the Gila crosses the south of the city and the Agua Fria runs down from the north to join it within city limits. That confluence is the most productive bee habitat in this part of the Valley. The river bottoms supply water that lasts, cottonwood, mesquite and tamarisk old enough to rot into natural cavities, and a shaded corridor that swarms follow into neighborhoods without ever crossing open ground.
The oldest part of Avondale goes back to 1880, when Billy Moore set up at the Agua Fria crossing. Its block walls, mature shade trees, detached garages and outbuildings left from the alfalfa and cotton years give colonies plenty of choice, and the outbuildings are the ones people forget to check. Between 2000 and 2020 the population climbed from 35,883 to 89,334, with most of the new building on old farm ground along both rivers. That placed modern tile roof voids and uncapped block cells a few hundred yards from the best bee habitat in the West Valley, which is why a five-year-old house here is no lower risk than a fifty-year-old one. It just has a different cavity.
Buckeye: a building site the size of a county
Buckeye incorporated in 1929 as a 440-acre town. Today it covers 393 square miles, and it was the fastest-growing city in the United States in 2017, 2018 and 2021. Construction at that pace supplies both things a swarm needs: disturbed desert that pushes colonies off their old sites, and a constant stream of new cavities. Half-built structures, stacked materials, uncapped block walls and empty spec homes are all prime nest sites, and a colony in a house nobody has moved into yet can build undisturbed for a full season.
Where most Valley cities have one bee corridor, Buckeye has three: the Gila River running west through the valley south of downtown, the southern White Tank Mountains at the north end of the city limits, and the Buckeye Canal, laid out in 1885, framing the farm ground in between. Verrado, Sundance, Tartesso and Festival Ranch are miles apart and each sits differently against the open desert, so whether your swarms come off the White Tanks, up from the river or out of the farm ground depends on which one you live in.
What the three cities have in common
- Newer is not safer. New stucco, new tile roofs and new block walls have open cavities until someone seals them, and builders do not bee-proof.
- Water decides where colonies stay. Lakes, greenbelts, rivers, canals and irrigation valve boxes keep hives supplied when the desert is dry.
- Swarms come in waves. Peak swarm season runs from March through June, and desert colonies also swarm after winter rains and the first monsoon storms.
- Established colonies should be treated as Africanized. Africanized honey bees are especially prevalent in the West Valley and pose heightened risks to families and pets when disturbed.
The fix: take the bees, take the comb, close the cavity
A colony in a new-build wall is easy to pull and easy to forget about, and forgetting is what turns a first-year house into an annual callback. Every removal takes the bees and the comb and closes the cavity, because an open tile field or a hollow block wall left full of comb is the difference between one removal and one every spring. When a colony can be moved safely, it is removed alive and relocated to our own bee farm.
Our bee-proofing guide covers what to close first on newer builds. For city detail, see Goodyear bee removal, Avondale bee removal and Buckeye bee removal, or start with Phoenix bee removal. Busy Bee Pest Solutions answers the phone 24 hours a day, seven days a week at 623-289-3375.
