Mill Street resident Linda Wilkins said a bear visited her home twice in the past two weeks to feast on her husband’s honeybees, destroying beekeeping equipment and colonies of the nectar-bearing insect. With the bear still believed to be in the area, Wilkins said she wanted something done.

“This is a dangerous situation,” Wilkins said. “If you frighten a bear, it will come right after you.”

While no one has spotted the bear, the creature left a paw print in a honeybee hive shortly after knocking around several others that were set up around the Wilkins’ property. After help from fellow beekeepers to set them back up, Wilkins said the bear returned exactly one week later to do it all over again.

“There is a bear in this area and he is still here,” Wilkins said.

In addition to the Wilkins property, she said bears stopped by their next door neighbor’s porch to attack a few bird feeders.

“We would both like to have this thing trapped and move to another [area],” Wilkins said.

With thousands of dollars worth of water foul, such as swans and ducks, in their backyard, Wilkins’ husband, Alan, said he also worried that the bear might endanger the birds as well.

Middleton Police responded to all the incidents over at Mill Street and have referred the matter to the state Environmental Police, who stopped by the home this week. However, unless the bear causes more property damage, officials simply recommend refraining from storing any type of food, including honeybees and birdseed, outside, according to police.

“He just woke up and he’s hungry,” said Middleton Police Sgt. James DeCosta.

Marion Larson, an information and education biologist for MassWildlife, said that unless the bear cannot find its way back to a wooded area or represents an “imminent” public safety threat, the Environmental Police would not attempt to relocate the bear.

“The mere presence of a bear is not a public safety or health threat,” Larson said. “the best thing to do is not to panic.”

While the bear is coming out of hibernation now, the Wilkins family still cannot explain why they are seeing one this year.

“We’ve lived here for over 30 years, and haven’t ever seen a bear,” Wilkins said.

Larson said that the bear is most likely a young male black bear that recently left its mother.

Black bears are native to the state but reside almost entirely west of the Connecticut River. In that area of Western Massachusetts, MassWildlife said black bears have a density of 1 per square mile of forest.

With recent construction in the area, DeCosta said the bear might have been pushed from its home.

“There is so much building they are losing [habitats],” DeCosta said.

Larson said that this is not the case, though, as MassWildlife believes the black bear has not inhabited Essex County for hundreds of years.

There have been no other reported bear sightings recently in Middleton.

According to MassWildlife, the black bear population in Massachusetts has grown over the past 30 years, from only 100 in the early 1970s to 3,000 recorded in 2005.

Black bears may become aggressive when approached or teased, but will typically flee into the woods when people are around. If a bear is sighted in your neighborhood, MassWildlife suggests leaving the animal alone and letting it return to the woods.

If the bear situation occurs in a densely populated area, law enforcement officials advise calling the Environmental Police at 1-800-632-8075.

http://www.wickedlocal.com/middleton/homepage/x1092976931/Bears-making-a-mess-in-Middleton