TO BEE OR NOT TO BE: Attack of the “killer bees” is certainly a national emergency

Oct 12, 2021 Letters

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Dear Editor,

In the 1978 American horror movie The Swarm with an ensemble cast including Olivia de Haviland, Richard Widmark, Michael Caine and Henry Fonda, great swarms of angry bees attack entire cities and sting hundreds of people to death. At the time it was thought that such fiction could never happen in real life, but today strangely enough and thanks to an insect called the “Africanised Killer Bee” encounters are sending individuals to the cemetery. Deaths in Guyana from Killer Bees is nothing new, but what is highly unusual and visibly absent is the presence of stringent and continuous measures on the part of the Government to put an end to this mortiferous apiarian carnage.
In 1956, in an effort to improve the health and hardiness of the European Honey Bee, which came from Portugal in 1834, and also to increase the country’s honey production, Dr. Warwick Kerr, a Brazilian geneticist, imported 26 queen bees from Tanzania. The existing tropical conditions in Brazil suited the African Bees well. The Killer Bees were created when bees from Southern Africa mated with the local Brazilian Honey Bees.
However, in what appears to look like a plot from a horror movie, swarms of bees were accidentally turned loose by a technician at a genetics lab in San Paulo. The bees spread northward at a rate of about 200 to 300 miles per year, and today every country in Latin America except Chile has established populations of Africanised Honey Bees. In October 1990, the first natural colony of Africanised Honey Bees was found in the United States near Hidalgo, Texas.
The bees are exactly as their name implies– “killers”. International reports state that Africanised Bees are typically more aggressive and defensive than other species of Bee and react to disturbances faster than the European Honey Bees. They are sensitive to vibrations mistaking them for approaching predators. Another strange characteristic of this apian species is the displayed almost human-like behaviour. They are very determined insects. Human victims have reported seeking refuge underwater to avoid the sting, but the bees are willing to wait. The insects are alleged to have continued their attack when their targets come up for air. With each sting a pheromone is released signaling more bees from the colony to join in the onslaught. There have been reports of swarms of 300,000 – 800,000. What is the Guyana Government doing about the continued loss of lives at the hands of these flying killers?
As far back as January 2007 children from Zeeburg Secondary School were attacked in school, forcing the school to be closed until an experienced beekeeper visited and removed the nest.
In the same month beekeeping expert Linden Stewart contracted by the Ministry of Agriculture, removed a swarm of about 60,000 from the roof of the Venezuelan Embassy in Georgetown. According to Mr. Baydewan Rambarran, Regional Education Officer, Region Three, a similar attack took place at the Zeelandia Secondary School, Wakenaam Island, and the nest was destroyed. Abdool Hamied, a farmer of Friendship, East Bank Demerara, was also attacked by killer bees on his farm and died while being transported to hospital.
Among the list of fatalities over the years: May 2009, Yvonne Abrams and family of L’Oratoire, Number 1 Canal Polder were attacked by the killer bees. Four dogs and 1 sheep were also killed.
August 2010 Kawal Singh of Parika, 2011 Sheikh Hassan of Eccles, February 2012, at Cane Grove, Mahaica, Sanicharra Abdullah a Pensioner was killed by killer bees, September 2012, Hazim Bacchus, a Gravedigger, was rushed to the Fort Wellington Hospital following an attack, but was pronounced dead on arrival, August 2014 – 9 year old Romesh Samaroo of Lima Housing Scheme , Essequibo, 2015 GuySuCo Sugar Estate workers were attacked at Utivulgt, another worker, Corinne Greene of West-Meten-meer-Zorg succumbed to bee stings. March 2016 Romesh Lalaram of Bath Settlement, and a GuySuCo worker for 23 years, became another statistic.
October 2016, Jeenarine Taijram aTractor Operator for GuySuCo was stung to death while working on a dam at the Skeldon Estate, Berbice, November 2017, a male identified only as Ramnarine was killed while walking along the Mon Repos Public Road en route to the market.
The apiarian killer instinct knows neither bounds nor boundaries. In 2019 Martin King returned to his Parfaite Harmonie residence to find that his six ferocious dogs had seemingly met their match in the form of killer bees. March 2019, Rameshwar Poonoo was clearing bushes while employed at the Albion Sugar Estate when he was fatally attacked by a swarm of bees.
In Guyana, every month on an average, one or two persons die from attacks by Africanised bees and scores of others suffer stings. Two individuals recently became the hapless victims of killer bees attack. The two persons have been identified as Sirpaul Rishi Hemraj, 62, of Black Bush Polder and Dorothy Adams, 58, of Rotterdam, East Bank Berbice.
Compounding the afore mentioned saga is the fact that residents are forced to defray expenses for the removal of the nest. According to a newspaper report in 2015, the Ministry of Agriculture has long disbanded its ‘bee unit’, so that anyone or any entity faced with a bee emergency and wishing to urgently have the bees removed, must be prepared to find within the vicinity of $17,000 to $20,000 to have the bees disposed of.
The time has come when the Government must revise and devise what could or should be done with these flying assassins.
On August 23, 2020 at the opening of the 9th Beekeeping Congress held at the Guyana School of Agriculture, the Minister of Agriculture, Noel Holder spoke thus: “Our Beekeepers play a pivotal role in the sector and the work of this organisation (Guyana Apiculture Society) is an important element in reshaping and repositioning the Caribbean Honey industry by exposing new persons to Beekeeping, introducing international best practices to existing Beekeepers, developing export potential of the apiculture trade in the Caribbean and boosting local Beekeeping businesses via the promotion of local apiculture products to Caribbean visitors. This sweet liquid goodness offers a much healthier option than sugar and could become the next best natural economic earner with Guyana becoming a major producer while promoting the nation as a true emerging Green State.
The Catch 22 situation is that while Guyana is poised to become a major honey producer, the Agent of Change is an identified population reducer. What is needed is an Advisory Committee dealing with Public Education, Public Information, Public Health, a Bee Management Plan and a fully functioning up and ready Extermination Unit. The input of all relevant stakeholders should be solicited so that a harmonious and lifesaving solution can be arrived at. Apiculturist and owner of several Bee farms across Guyana, and also an expert on bees, Frances Bailey made it very clear during one of his speaking engagements, that Guyanese see bees as enemies instead of co-existing habitants of the planet. He posited that in Guyana, we have the Africanised Bee which has adapted to the climate and weather patterns of Guyana. He also noted that bees do not attack without reason. Bees are deaf but they respond to vibration and scents.
This may be true, hence the existing living arrangement between Man and Bee must be
re-examined so that the Africanised Killer Bee shows no further mastery.

Best regards,
Y. Sam

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