A woman was shocked to see thousands of bees swarm outside her home.

Marlene Bicchieri was horrified and did not know what to do with the insect invaders, but Wild Island Apiaries came to the rescue and bagged more than 15,000 bees for rehoming at no cost.

Ms Bicchieri, from Southampton, was alerted to the bees when she heard something strike her third-storey window last Saturday.

She said: “I heard this pinging on the window, which made me look up.

“I looked outside and they were just everywhere, just swarming and going out on the balcony. I panicked.”

She called her neighbours for advice and one suggested she should use a burning newspaper to smoke the bees out.

However, Ms Bicchieri decided against it.

She explained: “I was so panicked I would have just caused a bigger emergency.”

Another neighbour suggested she call the Bermuda Fire and Rescue Service and they referred her to Jonathan Hitchcock, of Wild Island.

She said: “Here I was in what was to me a horror story and they send me to someone called Hitchcock.

“He showed up in this big black flatbed truck looking like a superhero. They had this calm about them and set to work.”

Ms Bicchieri said Mr Hitchcock had caught most of the bees, but a few “stragglers” had evaded capture.

She added: “Some made it inside the house, but because I called so early they didn’t have a chance to come in and swarm in the rooms.”