By Christina Mann
All honeybee colonies in the oilfields should be treated as if they are Killer Bees and should be removed by paid professionals. The Africanized Killer Bee genetics are so strong that no European honeybee varieties can survive around those colonies.
Killer bees visually tend to be smaller and dark or black overall. They prefer to nest underground. In 26 years of beekeeping, I’ve only seen one good colony in the base of a tree that was partially underground.
I did an oilfield job in April this year. A shipping container had been placed on a graded pad. It was used for the electrical controls for the equipment at that station and also housed a small office.
Unfortunately, the shipping container was placed on top of a large red ant nest. Early this spring, when a Killer Bee swarm was looking for a home, they evicted the red ants and moved into the tunnels underneath this steel shipping container. As the bee colony grew, men began to get stung by bees while trying to access the electrical controls.
I got there and could observe the activity under this shipping container with my industrial endoscope. Then I started plugging holes, first with newspaper and then with spray expansion foam. At the same time, I was spraying the bees with soapy water as they attacked me. I had to bring several gallons of water and soap, as there was no water on-site. Bees were even coming out of cracks in the ground, but finally, I was able to kill the colony.Genetic testing of Killer Bees is no longer done; the honeybees let you know right away of their genetics when you get close to their queen. If the guard bees report to the colony that any human or animal is a threat, the whole colony responds defensively.
The three men attacked on August 2 in the oilfield were covered in stinging bees the moment they tried to remove the colony, and all three were transported to the hospital as an emergency. The man who lost his life had a Cardiac response triggered by the envenomation from so many stings.
The situation was avoidable. A good beekeeper comes at the colony first with a vacuum (if possible), removing all of the worker bees. With the majority of the working bees contained, in the case of good bees, they can be reunited with the brood comb inside a wooden beehive, or if they are Killer Bees, the beekeeper can simply suck up some soapy water into the bee vacuum and send the demon bugs back to Hell!
Remember, all honeybees are invasive non-natives. The narrative that we need honeybees for pollination is completely ludicrous. Consider this: with honeybees NOT native to the Americas, don’t you think that insect pollination occurred on this continent before they were first brought over in the 1800’s? Hasn’t every schoolchild heard of wind pollination? Not to mention other pollinators such as beetles, moths and butterflies, hummingbirds, and even bats!
Continuing his work removing the bee colony, the beekeeper picks up every bit of comb, placing it in airtight tubs. It must be removed or else it will be a welcome mat to the next honeybee swarm. Finally, the good beekeeper will wash down the site with soapy water. The surfactant kills all bees on contact but is not a toxic insecticide.
In conclusion, I just want to reiterate that any person in the oilfields needs to give honeybee colonies a wide berth. Aggressive colonies should be reported to the nearest Agricultural Commissioner. Killer Bees are an ostensive threat. They cannot be ignored, and they are not going to be easily removed with shovels. Please report Killer Bees and compensate the beekeeper; the service they provide could save your lifeOilfield Bees
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