Melissophobia (or Apiphobia) – Fear Of Bees
This article was first published in the newsletter of The British Beekeepers’ Association (No. 222 – April 2015).
I feel I need to come clean. I have mixed emotions when inspecting bees, alternating between delight and wonder, to slightly nervous and occasional panic.
Melissophobia is an unreasonable fear of bees. Surely, there should be a word for a reasonable fear? With a particularly aggressive colony, my fear seems reasonable. Those little buzzing things sting.
Having a fear of bees is somewhat unfortunate for a beekeeper but it must be quite common. Surely most beekeepers heart beat increases when they hear the roar of 60,000 bees – especially if you have kamikaze bees. Not all beekeepers can be the type that are happy to inspect their bees with little more than cotton wool in their nose and ears. Surely some, like me, are what they call metrosexuals (i.e. men who have been known to run away from spiders).
Fatalities due to honeybees are rare. In October last year it was reported that a beekeeper in the UK (with known anaphylaxis) died of a honeybee sting and the article I read quoted an Office of National Statistics official that a man last died of a bee sting in 2012 in the UK. There seems to be a higher proportion of deaths attributable to bee stings in the USA, where in 2000, the World Health Organisation reported that, there were 54 deaths attributable to bee stings (from a population of 281 million people and where 90 people/year die of lightning strikes). Perhaps, this is due to an increased prevalence of Africanised bee. So with these low rates of fatality it is apparent that my fear is not rational. I know that probably the worst I’ll get is some painful stings, a swollen leg and a lack of sympathy from my wife – but still, when you’re faced with a hive, it’s not just a bee you’re contending with, it’s thousands of them. Yes I know that the average adult can safely survive a thousand stings, but what if they ALL get me?!?
Facing The Fear
Of course the recommended treatment for phobias is to face your fear, something I will be doing quite a lot over the coming months, with the first inspection of the hives imminent.
This year though I’m going in prepared with my apiary armoury.
In my early days I had some lovely bees and thought that smoke was an unnecessary accessory. As the bees created stores and had something to defend I became a smoker. I now have a bucket-sized smoker. I am resigned to being the Dot Cotton of beekeepers.
Clothes-wise, I have learnt that trainers with socks over jeans does not provide much protection especially when you stand in front of the hive entrance. I have discovered that bees don’t sleep and that feeding at night does not mean that the bees won’t fly/pour out of the hive.
I currently find myself with a particularly aggressive colony*. When I remove the crown board the bees surge upwards and pour out of the hive like a scene from my worst nightmare. They attack every weak spot. Down my boots. Through gloves. They even sting the tips of my ears where they touch the suit.
I now wear marigolds under my regular gloves. I tape up my boots. I wear thick shirts and jeans under my bee suit. I wash my gloves and clothes regularly to reduce any sting pheromones that might linger and that would initiate more attacks. I have all the rumoured remedies on hand (onions, toothpaste, lemons and half the contents of Boots). Any pretence of me being a brave-beekeeper is well and truly annihilated.
When I do an inspection, of this aggressive hive, I’m in and out and do the minimum required. I have decided they are impossible to inspect after June.
My Skin Breaks Out In, Err, Hives!
Usually I go through the normal cycle of pain, swelling, itching and very tired for a few days if I’ve been stung by upwards of ten bees, but one time due to a combination of being stung and high anxiety – my skin broke out in, er, hives. It was so bad even my wife was sympathetic. This is all somewhat ironic considering I started beekeeping as a way to de-stress.
The solution is obviously to get some nicer bees. Ones that like their beekeeper and welcome a yearly raid of everything they’ve spent their little lives working towards.
My plan is to requeen as soon as possible this year (June) and an old boy has offered to come and jointly inspect the colony in April and perhaps requeen with some of his more gentle Queens. I think he thinks I am either doing something terrible to the bees rather than me having a particularly aggressive colony. Either way – it will be fantastic to see an experienced beekeeper working with this colony and see if he is able to charm them.
Advice
It’s always good to know how other beekeepers handle their hives. Have you found any impenetrable material to protect us from stings? How do you make your inspections less risky? If nothing else, how do you illicit more sympathy from your other halves when you do get stung? Do let me know if you have any ideas.
* When I wrote this article for BBKA News I did have an aggressive colony, but unfortunately I lost it at the end of February (Post: Colony Post-Mortem).
Read More
- My journey from economy half suit to quality beesuit
- Other BBKA Articles I Have Written
- Post: Aggressive Bees & A Physiological Reaction
- Post: Bee Stings – Numbers 2 – 15
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I am in your camp! It’s kind of exhilarating though when you get through it and it has gone well. A bit of drama in an otherwise sedate life perhaps? I can’t imagine stamp collecting is half as thrilling.
Last season I made the classic mistake of assuming my girls were sweet as pie and not capable of an aggressive thought. In my stupidity I kind of disrespected them I suppose. In the process of transferring them to a lovely new proper 14×12 box from the scrappy old box and a half, I got 28 stings in one hand/wrist and 18 in the other. That made me feel very peculiar indeed. I later read more than 10 warrants a trip to A+E apparently.
Fortunately I had lots of antihistamines about the place but it took 2 weeks for the swelling to go down and 3 to be able to put my wedding ring back on. Lessen learnt. I bought a proper suit (to replace the cheap one I had started with several years ago you know just in case the hobby didn’t take off for me) and some serious leather gloves with canvas cuffs up my arm. I now feel ready to tackle anything with confidence.
I must admit the “fear” is kind of part of the fun but I aspire to developing a more Zen approach to it all-inbetween my pathetic fumblings that is.
Hi Jessica, It sounds like you too would appreciate Bill Turnbull’s thought in The Bad Beekeepers Club: “If bees didn’t sting, it would be a bit like keeping flies”. I recognise your journey and desire for Zen. Maybe if we had 100 hives we’d lose the fear faster?
I really enjoyed your article about aggressive bees , it followed on nicely from the article on dealing with an aggressive colony in the previous BBKA news. Both items seemed aimed directly at me, as one of my colonies has been on borrowed time.
I had been giving it just one last chance ( again and again) hoping it would somehow have a character change but no they would come shooting out pinging me all over and following me for some considerable distance (around my paddock) determined to hurt me , quite disconcerting. The trouble was it seemed to be a thrieving colony hence the second, third etc etc chances. But It was taking all the pleasure out of my new hobby, which I took up to try and relax and slow down from my usual hectic (percieved or otherwise ) life.
Hopefully a friend has come up with a cunning rescue plan where we can despose of said queen and unite with a small nuc colony he’s got spare ( what a friend). I was just not looking forward to waiting a couple of months until a mated queen was available to buy.
I am with you. I just did the minimum with the aggressive colony whilst I waited for a new queen. I was planning to wait from June last year to May this year to requeen … patience and calm is well tested in beekeeping.
Having stated in my first post that I was going to re queen a hive with very aggressive bees, things have changed.
Being new to Bee keeping my hive positioning was not ideal, and I decided during the quiet winter period to move them from a far too sheltered spot (too dark and damp but wind proof) to a more sunny area. A friend said it may positively affect the bees and it has. With the coming of better weather and a bit of warmth I’ve twice been able to inspect the nasties and at last clean out and replace floor and frames as required . And it’s made me feel so much better. Double suit and asbestos gloves not required. So although it may not be the answer to everyones nasty bee problems it may well be worth considering the enviroment the bees are living in.
Hi Jeff. That’s really helpful. We presume it’s the genetics of the bees but it could be their environment, or varroa, or something else.
I looked forward to the rush of introducing a nuc for the first time to there new home.I hope i am prepared.Thanks for the great read.First timer
Let us know how it goes. It’s a challenge.
I’ve been lucky with my bees – the only times I can remember being stung last year were when I accidentally squashed one. Most of the time we only bother smoking them when putting the boxes back together, so that none get squashed by the crown board.
Your bees sound really stressful! Obviously colonies get more aggressive when queen less or the weather’s bad, but yours just sound generally mean.
I must somehow take more care not to squash them. That is quite a challenge when there are so many crawling about the edges of the hive boxes. Well done you.
The aggressive bees have all died over winter. I’m surprisingly sad about this.
I have a hive which I plan to requeen this season as the original queen is into her third season and I read I’m on borrowed time if I want to avoid swarming. That said I note you Roger had a five year old girl with the colours when you found her corpse to prove it-respect! I hope you got a daughter out of her!
I am using a UK bred Danish strain Buckfast producer so let’s hope she turns out to give me some calm happy bees. Certainly I have had good results re calmness with this type in the past.(the above episode I described was truly a one off (I hope) and not representative of their usual nature!)