[Stinging Insects] Honeybees: Gotta love 'em!

lA ot of people get up, put on a suit and go to work each day without thinking much about it. But when your suit is a bee suit, complete with a helmet, veil and protective gloves, you’re really making a choice. Add to your specialized "uniform" the prospect that you might at any time be called upon to climb a 40-foot ladder and take on a horde of tens of thousands of angry, attacking insects, and you realize that it takes a unique breed to become a specialized bee technician — an individual who respects and, yes, perhaps even loves, these little creatures enough to spend every working day with them.

What’s to Love? Willie the Beeman — a.k.a. William Sklaroff, Ed.S. (education specialist) — is one such individual. He tells the tale of his first encounter with bees: As a teenager, while walking through a field to visit his girlfriend, he wandered onto a bee farm, where he found himself surrounded by 20 hives. He was fascinated. Twenty years later, he began beekeeping as a hobby and then the bee removal business found him.

"I was a teacher by day but a beeman by night," he recounts. "People knew I was a bee hobbyist, so they started coming to me with their bee issues. Eventually, I had so much business that I retired from teaching and dedicated myself to bee control."

Today, Willie the Bee Man is nationally known. He’s received media attention ranging from NPR to CNN based on his expertise and effectiveness in controlling bees. "The most important aspect of being successful in bee control is understanding bee behavior," says Willie. He offers a quick primer on honeybees:

There are two broad categories — European and Africanized bees. You can find either type in the wild (feral bees), but only European bees are farmed by beekeepers for use in crop pollination. Africanized bees are ancestors of an aggressive colony that escaped from a lab in Brazil in 1956. These bees, which made their way to the U.S. in 1990 (Hidalgo, Texas) and have been hyped by the media as "killer bees," are more aggressive — and thus more dangerous.

"Their venom isn’t any stronger than that of European bees, but the entire colony will come after you, so you can get stung hundred of times," Willie says. "They also attack with much less provocation than European bees, so if you’re expecting relatively calm bees but get these fighters instead, you can get into trouble quickly."

That’s why Willie and his team treat every bee as if it’s an Africanized bee. Nothing about the insect’s looks will tell you which kind it is; it takes a microscopic examination. So the only smart approach is a better-safe-than-sorry approach. In fact, many counties have strict requirements for pest control specialists to treat all feral bees as if they are Africanized.

So Willie’s team is relentless. They go in to get the job done and don’t quit until they’re certain they’ve removed every trace of bee activity.

"Some companies just do a spray-and-seal," Willie says. "But many times, that’s not enough. If layers and layers of honeycomb have been built up, the queen will simply move to another part of the structure, and the breeding and activity (will) start all over again. We do a complete hive removal; that’s the only way to guarantee you’ve stopped the hive."

Master of the Africanized Honeybee.
Another bee lover, Steven C. Thoenes, Ph.D., grew up on a bee farm in Tucson, Ariz., where he later established BeeMaster Inc. He has devoted most of his life to the study and management of bees and has become a renowned expert in the Africanized bee.

Thoenes worked with the Carl Hayden Bee Research Center in Tucson for eight years, during which time he made many trips to Central America to study these fascinating creatures. His research resulted in the development of swarm traps, artificial nesting sites that enable pest professionals to prevent bee infestations. He then joined the Arizona Department of Agriculture and began training pest control companies in bee control. When he saw the lack of specialization in the market, he decided to establish his own company.

"In the areas where Africanized bees have become prevalent, the market for bee specialization is huge," Thoenes says. Those areas include all of Arizona and Texas; much of New Mexico and Oklahoma; southern and central Florida; southern California, Nevada and Utah; and parts of Louisiana and Arkansas.

"I did 400 removals the first year BeeMaster was in business — 1993," he recalls. "Due to the rapid growth and spread of Africanized bees, I did 1,500 the next year, then 2,500 and then kept growing to the 14,000 to 15,000 removals a year we handle now."

Why the exponential population growth? "Africanized bees throw off so many swarms," he says. "To give you an idea of just how many, if you start a year with one colony of European bees, you end the year with three colonies. Start with one Africanized colony and you end the year with 30."

That has to do with the hardiness of the Africanized bee, which has learned to adapt to all kinds of predators and weather conditions. That’s why the bee has been so successful in pressing farther and farther northward.

A frustration of Africanized bee removal experts is the lack of approved pesticides. "Manufacturers hesitate to identify bees on their labels because they don’t want to get blamed for the decline in European bee populations," says Thoenes. "A lot of products already on the market will kill the heck out of bees, but since that application isn’t included on the label, we can’t use them. Manufacturers need to realize that if they specify the product works on Africanized bees, consumers will understand, and we can do a more efficient job for our clients."

Where circumstances allow, Thoenes prefers to drown the bees with soapy water or vacuum them up — both environmentally sound solutions. But in many cases, pesticides are warranted. "A pyrethrin aerosol followed by a residual approved for treating bees usually does the trick," he said.

Advice for the Undaunted. The founder of The Bee Man, bee removal specialists who have been in business since 1977 in Mission Viejo, Calif., was a bee hobbyist.

When he turned his company over to co-owners Marsha and Jerry Bryant, he recognized their love of bees as well. Jerry is the guy putting on the bee suit every day, while Marsha handles the business side. "It’s hard to find technicians willing to face the challenges of bee removal every day," Marsha said. "But it’s something Jerry has always loved. He respects the bees. And when it comes to protecting our customers from the damage they can do, he is unstoppable."

The Bee Man serves customers in Orange County, Riverside and parts of Los Angeles. The majority — 85 percent — of their customers are commercial, and their focus is on honeybees, wasps, yellow jackets and bumble bees.

Jerry and Marsha are committed to treating the environment — and the bees — with respect while protecting their customers. Their advice to pest control professionals taking on the challenge of bees:

• Learn about bees before you start treating them. "Pest control education and testing generally only touches on bees; it’s certainly not enough to give you the background you need to treat them effectively," Jerry says. "Seek out programs that offer more information. I speak to a lot of groups about the special characteristics of bees and the tools you need to manage them. Unless you feel that you have a solid understanding of bee behavior, call a specialist before you get into a bad place."

• Wear the suit! Protective gear — a bee suit, hat, gloves and veil — is mandatory if you want to save yourself from attacks and injury.

• Be aware of your surroundings and the temperament of the hive. Marsha warns that behaviors can range from very calm to outright combative, and that temperament can change based on your level of interaction with the bees. Noise and other vibrations can flip the aggression switch quickly; sometimes even breathing near the colony can spur a stinging frenzy.

• Be cautious as you approach. Until you take out that wall or lift up that roof, you don’t know whether you’re facing 1,000 or 50,000 bees. Be ready for anything.

• Clear the area of people, animals and food before you approach. Take every precaution to secure your work area to prevent injury and contamination.

• Don’t overuse product. A small amount of pesticide is usually enough to accomplish your objective. "We recognize the need to act responsibly in the use of chemical treatments," says Marsha. "Our preference is a low-toxicity, lighter-than-air pyrethrin aerosol. It gets the job done with minimal effect on the technician, our customers or the environment."

The author is a PCT contributing writer and can be contacted at anagro@giemedia.com.