Now, normally in this country, if you're watching tennis, it's usually rain that stops play. But it is a very different story in the Californian desert, where a quarter final in the Indian Wells tournament in Palm Springs was brought to a halt by a giant sworn of bees. Of course it was. At the World number 2, Carlos Alcaraz was stung on the forehead before play was halted for nearly 2 hours. So what do you do in a situation like this? You call in a professional Bee remover, of course. Lance Davis, the owner of Killer Bee Live removal, happened to be in the area, and he popped by with, as you can see, his Specialist Bee Vacuum Cleaner to Clean the Court. I'm sure he's going to have a word with me in a second about what it's actually called. With the bees safely sucked into container, play could finally resume. Story of the week, this one for me. I am delighted to say that Lance joins us now, live from Palm Springs in Southern California lands. An absolute pleasure to meet you. Welcome to Sky News on a Friday night.

Thank you for having me, Neil.

Tell me just a little bit about what has been going on at Indian Wells. Where were you when you got the call. And what exactly happened to you?

I was in Palm Springs doing another job off of a roof, and I got the call from Ricardo, and he said, You got to get out here, man. This is going on. I said, Okay, fine. I'm on my way. I got out there, and on the way there, as I got closer to the Indian Wells Tennis Gardens, the traffic got really bad. But once I got through all that hustle and bustle, I went ahead and got to Gate 7. They directed me right up there to the outside of the elevator shaft. I went up to the fourth floor with all my equipment and got ready. Then they brought the spider cam. They were on the spider cam, and it was coming over. They brought it over to me. It was like, really great. What happened after that was I started vacuuming up the bees and taking them out. I saw everybody down below, they were really sparse. They got out of the way completely because I guess the bee stung an alchera, and he was really leery about going back out there again.

No wonder. No wonder, Lance. We're just watching you at the moment. Of course, as you say, you have arrived with your specialist equipment, which appears to consist of, and correct me if I'm wrong here, a pair of sunglasses and a vacuum cleaner. Where's the beekeeping suit?

That's for amateurs. I don't do that anymore. I've been doing this for a long time, and I really have learned how to handle the Afropinised honeybees that are here in the desert as well as the European honeybees. That's what I started with, and it went really well.

When you say that this is, and I completely agree with you, clearly, amateurs are the ones who put on the beekeeping suits. How do you know that those bees which were previously swarming, which previously stung the world number two on the forehead of all things, that they weren't going to come after you?

Well, I really focus on the bees and how they're handled, and I bring my qi down low and keep it nice and calm and relaxed. I give them a lot of respect because I know what can happen if they get out of hand, and I didn't want that to happen, especially in a stadium stadium, like we were in, a completely round, circular stadium. It could have got a lot worse, and I didn't want to excite them. I wanted to make them feel very relaxed. I was going to really take care of them. When you deal with these, you got to greet them like when you hold a newborn baby. That's the feeling you got to have all the time. Really? And they will usually respect you as well because you're giving them respect.

The problem, Lance, is I'm going to make myself look like an absolute Egypt here. At the age of nine years old, I was chased down my street by a bumble bee, or at least I thought I was. The thing was right here. Ever since that point, the idea of taking my hands and scooping up a big pile of swarming bees, it doesn't exactly grab me in quite the same way that it clearly grabs you. But let's be fair about it. You saved the tennis, you're enjoying some international praise from all the world. Absolutely. Even film stars like Ben Stiller are getting involved to say, What a hero you are.

Yeah, he's a great guy. I love him.

Is this newfound fame something that you have been Something that comes a bit of a shock to you? As I've just been discovering today, plenty of people are interested in B-rescue like this. You've even got your own TV show as well.

Yes, I do. It's on EarthX TV, and in England, in the UK, It's available as well.

It's on the sky platform, in fact, I'm told.

It is on your platform, exactly.

So tell me... Sorry, carry on.

Oh, I just want to say, I've seen what can happen from other people that try to do what I do, and the bees get out of control. In fact, I was just over in Bermuda Dunes, which is on the way to Indian Wells, about four days ago, and somebody took a beehive out of somewhere in the back of somebody's yard, and the bees were singing the kids across the street, which were at the Desert Christian Academy. They had to call me out there and investigate where it was. I said, I can go in there and finish the job because there's bees everywhere. They're really mad. The lady says, No, he'll handle it tomorrow. I go, People are I get it stung now, but you want to wait till tomorrow. I go, It's all the liability is on you. Nobody else but you. So that's where it's at. And I left it. I couldn't do anything.

Let me just explain, why exactly were the bees swarming? And why on earth did you choose that camera hanging, dangling above the tennis court as the place where they were congregated?

Yeah, that's actually a very interesting question. And the reason why they were doing that is because, first of all, there's people movement all around there, but the low-frequency soundways, they don't hear, but they can feel the vibes. That's why they came in there is because of the fact that they're attracted to that low frequency noise from the vibrations. And They came there and then see the top of that cam, that spider cam? That was in the sun, so it's nice and warm. That's probably the only warm thing there for bees because of the fact that they are cold-blooded creatures. And anything below 57 degrees, they don't fly, and they don't do it any well at about 65 degrees. So it was about 64 degrees. So they were looking for a place that was warm and comfy for the night that they could relax on.

Lance, given that for the day job, you pick up bee swarms with your bare hands, what do you do to relax?

Go home and watch a news channel or maybe Netflix or something like that. Just relax and play with my daughter. She's three years old. She just loves her daddy. We just have a little fun doing the button push where you push for different things on the map and it says what it is. I can't remember the name of it, but it's really fun. I play with her. Her name's Cathy. She's great.

Well, do you know what, Lance? I am certain, like many, many other people, not least of which, of course, the world number two, Carlos Alcorath, that your daughter will be very, very proud of her daddy. Lance, I'm afraid we have to leave it there only for reasons of time. I could talk to you for another hour, but I just want to say thank you on behalf of the tennis and indeed on behalf of Skye for talking to us.

Thank you very much, Neil, for having me. I appreciate it.