Have you ever had a close encounter with a swarm of bees? what's the best way to react?

Question

I did today in my backyard, I was with my 2 year old happily feeding him a sweet fruit compote when i heard a really loud droning buzzing noise and looked up to see a big black could of bees coming near the house. I quickly grabbed my child and ran into the house and set about closing all the windows. it was quite frightening, the first time i had seen so many bees at the one time. I was more frightened by the thought that my child's face and hands where covered in sweet sticky fruit and maybe the bees could have been attracted to that?i've never moved so fast in my life to get us out of the way. I just waited till they had gone, i thought they would probably decide against nesting near the house since we have 3 sparrows nests under the eaves. I wonder though what would have been the best way to react if we where out in the open, just hurry away? I know it's a bad idea to swat at them.

Answer 1

Drop everything and run! Bees usually only sting to protect their hive. Run to the nearest shelter (car, house, ect.) and don't throw rocks at their nest ever again.

Answer 2

Was that supposed to make me laugh out loud?  I mean, what could be worse than a giant cloud of bees stumbling upon your yard while your 2 year-old's face is covered in "sweet, sticky fruit compote".  That's a recipe for disaster.  I picture the bees flying in form of a giant arrow, or a smiley face l*****g its lips in anticipation of the sweet fruit compote, or maybe a hammer or something.

Anyway, back to the answer:  Invest in OFF! or a similar bug spray, try citronella candles, keep some Raid on hand.

Unless your child has an allergy to bee stings, it shouldn't get hurt too bad.

Answer 3

they hate heat... any matches around?

Answer 4

PK, your rite on...  good and through answer.

I cant add nuthin to it...  i do hope these other folks take time to read yur answer tho... bee's are realy very cool critters, when you get rite down to it!!!

Answer 5

Leave the area quickly if you are attacked by bees.  The attack could last until the victim leaves the area.  Cover your face using your hands and arms to protect your eyes and mouth from the bees.  Seek shelter inside enclosures where the bees cannot enter such as a car, house, tent, or other building.  Do not jump into water for protection. Do not try to wave the insects away.

Answer 6

PROBABLE ACTUAL SITUATION: REPRODUCTIVE SWARM

Actually, the best way to react is just to stay calm. Yes, even if they land on you or your child!

A swarm of bees is actually generally not very dangerous. When a colony of bees grows too big for its current home or for its queen to maintain, they will start raising a new queen, and when she's ready, some fraction (usually around half) of the adult bees will take the old queen and go find a new place to live.

When they leave, they take food with them. Being bees, this means that they have to carry it inside them -- so when a swarm leaves the hive, the bees have drunk so much honey that they actually cannot bend themselves to sting! Their stingers still work, but you would have to take the bee and press your skin to her tail hard enough to start the puncture. You would literally have to sting yourself.

Furthermore, they don't have any reason to sting -- they have nothing to defend. They've gone away from the baby bees and the food storage.  Even Africanized bees are pretty gentle when swarming, because their "hostility" is entirely in defense of the hive. Which, at that point, they haven't got.

It still pays to be careful, of course. A new swarm with full bellies actually would have limited interest in the sweet fruit on your child's face, and even if they landed there, they'd be interested in tasting rather than stinging -- *but* it's probably really hard for anybody, especially a two-year-old, to have insects crawl on his face and hands without swatting or trying to wipe them away. And a swarm that's been out for a few days without finding a new home is going to be getting "dry" (running out of food) and grumpy, which is why beekeepers who are approaching a swarm that may or may not be "fresh" will spritz it with sugar water.

Generally speaking, you did the right thing -- get out of the way and shut the windows. If you had stayed outside and held still, you probably would have been fine, because the bees are not interested in hurting you. Even if they'd been interested in the fruit compote, they wouldn't have been interested in stinging. But it's possible to get them trapped in hairspray or loose clothing, or to move wrong and squash one if you're not careful, and if they panic or get pushed against you the wrong way then you can still get stung. Plus, it would have been really inconvenient if they'd happened to decide there was a good place to stop *inside your house* -- they wouldn't actually settle indoors in most cases, but a swarm will often stop and clump somewhere while sending out scouts to find a good sheltered area.

If you had been out in the open, you would actually have done best either to stay put, or to walk *toward* them (if they're pretty high up) or perpendicular to the direction they were going. I'd go with sitting still and just wiping the kid's face clean if you had some napkins or something, myself. They're likely to make their temporary landing in a bush or a tree, and before that point they're not likely to stay in one place for very long.

It's true that if bees are coming out in a cloud because their hive has been disturbed, it would be dangerous. But in that case they would probably either be chasing an identifiable culprit, or have an identifiable source, or be more scattered -- they wouldn't be traveling as a cohesive black cloud with no target. This sounds like a "moving house" swarm.

DEFENSIVE RESPONSE:

To avoid attacks by bees: Don't mess with their hive. I bet you'd be pretty mad if somebody threatened your child -- or your kitchen, if you knew your child would starve if they took your food away.

Now, Africanized bees are easier to provoke and very persistent, whereas you can walk around and even mow near European-derived beehives and most of them will pretty much ignore you. (My parents have some, oh, ten feet from the back door? High walking-traffic area. The bees bump into you occasionally if you stand in their path, but that's about it. They don't sting when they bump you; they back off and go around.) If you happen to be in an area that has some Africanized bees, and you notice that a bee has started *headbutting* you -- flying into you repeatedly, but without stinging, then turn around and WALK-do-not-run in the opposite direction, because she is probably warning you off from the nest. (Hey, it's more warning than you get from yellowjackets.)

Unfortunately, it's also possible to get in trouble because someone *else* has stirred up Africanized bees. If that happens somewhere in your vicinity, then the absolute best thing to do is, yes, get into a closed-up building or car, or out of the area. The second best thing is to avoid resembling a potential threat.

Running may be a problem;  if you don't have a destination, you could run toward the hive by mistake, and the pounding on the ground could upset them more. Also, bees can fly about four miles an hour, which is hard for a human to maintain over rough terrain. Walk quickly if you can to get out of the area; if you absolutely can't get away, then walk quickly to stand by a tree or post (so you stand out less), shut your eyes, protect your face, throw away or hide any shiny or high-contrast objects if possible, and be still -- that way the bees are less likely to perceive you as a threat.

Answer 7

The best idea is to run. Most bees will give up chasing you.