Bee swarm in Larbert? Help is a minute away.

Larbert is a residential town on the north bank of the River Carron between Falkirk and the Forth shore, best known for the Forth Valley Royal Hospital and the extensive parkland of the former Larbert State Hospital grounds, which carry mature sycamore, lime and mixed woodland in a sheltered setting. The Carron Valley to the west provides a productive wooded corridor; the flat agricultural Carse between Larbert and the Forth shore carries oilseed rape in season and white clover on the improved pastures through June and July. The River Carron itself carries hawthorn and elder scrub; the open amenity grassland around the hospital grounds provides abundant clover through summer.

Oilseed rape on the Forth Carse between Larbert, Grangemouth and Airth provides the main April-May flow, one of the most productive in central Scotland. White clover on the improved Carse pastures and the amenity grasslands of the Falkirk and Larbert parks is the mid-summer backbone from June through July. Sycamore is the dominant early flow tree on road margins and hedgerows throughout the council area. The Forth and Clyde Canal and Union Canal towpaths carry himalayan balsam strongly from late July into September — one of the defining features of the Falkirk beekeeping calendar. Hawthorn on the Carron valley hedgerows and the canal embankments peaks in May; gorse and broom appear on the Kilsyth Hills fringe above Bonnybridge and on the Slamannan Plateau in the south. Heather on the Carron Valley moorland above Denny and on the Slamannan Plateau provides a modest late-season upland supplement. Ivy on older stone buildings closes the calendar in October.