Mites and other diseases had reduced their population, but wild and domestic bees appear to be recovering.

The bees are back.

After several years of heavy losses to the varroa mite in both domestic and wild bees, Kansas is seeing a return of swarms of bees.

The numbers have been sufficient for Kansas State University's Extension Research and Education division to resurrect its "swarm catchers" list from several years ago, offering homeowners or businesses plagued with the swarming insects a resource for getting them removed.

Sharon Dobesh, an entomologist with K-State, said the comeback is good news for beekeepers and for agriculture, which relies on the insects to pollinate almonds, apples, cucumbers, sunflowers, alfalfa and other crops.

Honey bees are the primary insects responsible for about 80 percent of the crops that need insect pollination. Those crops, in turn, make up about a third of the human diet, according to figures compiled by Cornell University.

The direct value of honey bees to the agriculture industry is estimated at $14.6 billion annually.

The news is not as positive for a mysterious ailment called "colony collapse disorder," which affects mostly bees in commercial operations that are transported from state to state for pollination.

Losses to that disease continue to be heavy, with 36 percent of the total colonies in commercial operations lost during 2007, according to figures from Cornell.

In Wichita, beekeeper Bill Vinduska keeps bees at his farm near Marion and answers calls for people wanting a swarm removed.

He said that he does not transport his bees out of state and has not seen colony collapse disorder in his hives.

Vinduska said that most local beekeepers charge for removing a swarm, mainly because of the expense of fuel driving to sites where there may or may not still be bees when they arrive.

In addition, he said, a lot of swarms have been infected with mites or fungal diseases and require treatment before they can be added to domestic beekeeping operations.

"I've been getting a number of calls this spring, a lot more than in the past several years," he said.

For Wichita homeowner Shirley Miner, this year's swarms are the latest in a multiple-year plague of bees that she can't seem to get rid of.

Vinduska said Miner's problem is not unique. Once bees make themselves at home inside the eaves or the walls of a house, it's hard to keep subsequent generations from coming back, he said.

"The leave a scent behind on the wax or the honey in the hive and the next year, the scout bees from a new swarm sniff that out and back they come," he said.

Vinduska said that people are usually apprehensive about being stung when they come across a hive in their yard. But swarming bees are rarely aggressive, he said.

"They are usually most aggressive in defending a hive," he said. "In the case of a swarm, they are homeless and don't have anything to defend. That makes them unusually docile."