Protecting from swarming killer bees

August, dangerous month for attacks

AUSTIN (KXAN) - It's prime season for killer bees and thousands of these small and deadly insects can be living right in your backyard.

And as we have seen just this week , in three separate attacks, these tiny insects can pack a punch. Swarms can be as large as 150,000 bees.

While it's a sight you don't want to get close to; experts say there are some things you can do to protect yourself.

What a lot of people are unaware of is that bees are also a necessity for our food supply.

Keith Huddle of Keith's Bee Service explains: "There are actually colonies in China where they ha vent been able to keep bees and people are actually pollinating pears by hand."

Huddle works with bees every day when he removes large bee hives from people's back yards. He says there are things you can do to keep the bees at bay. 

For example, it's best to keep large containers out of your back garden and stay calm once you do come across a large swarm of bees.

"It's all about pheromones and scents and they're very territorial. If you come to close, they can sense that just by your breathing because of the amount of CO2 in the air," said Huddle. 

And experts say the bees should die off by October. The month of August can be a very dangerous month because bees are trying to produce as much honey as possible before winter sets in. 

And if you do see even a couple bees it's a sign of a bigger problem and you should call an expert to check it out right away.

Honey Bee Kind , an Austin based non-profit organization,  will remove the endangered honey bees free of charge and relocate them to a bee farm instead.

http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/local/austin/protecting-from-swarming-killer-bees

Swarm of bees tells Hillary Clinton to 'buzz off'

Hillary Clinton’s six-and-a-half hour trip to Malawi literally went by in a buzz. The US Secretary of State has received not-so-warm welcomes from several countries she’s visited, but in Malawi she was reportedly chased onto her plane.

Chased onto her plane by a swarm of bees, that is.

Clinton ran for cover and boarded her jet to escape the bees, which attacked her at Malawi’s international airport, the local Nyasa Times quotes witnesses as saying. The Secretary was preparing to board a Johannesburg-bound flight when the stinging swarm forced her to make a quicker entry than planned.

Clinton wasn’t the only one spooked by the bees: “There was a slight panic as the bees winged across the airport. People could be seen running away to keep cover as the Secretary of State swiftly boarded her plane to avoid any stings,” a witness told the Nyasa Times.

The Secretary of State visited Malawi as part of an 11-day tour of Africa. While there, Clinton held bilateral talks with President Joyce Banda and pledged $36 million to strengthen Malawi’s agricultural value chain, the Nyasa Times reported.

Clinton began her African tour in Senegal, and has already been to Uganda, South Sudan and Kenya. She is expected to end her tour in Ghana on August 10, where she will attend the funeral of the country’s President John Atta Mills, who died on July 24.

Though her visit to Malawi was just a few hours long, Clinton will likely remember the trip for a while to come.

http://www.rt.com/news/hillary-clinton-bees-mawali-962/

Flight gets delayed by huge swarm of bees

A flight from Pittsburgh to New York had one of the weirder flight delays last week when a swarm of bees attached itself to the wing of the plane. Since honeybees are a protected species, the crew couldn’t just grab a can of Raid; they had to transport the creatures to a safe location. Of course, Pittsburgh International Airport should be used to this problem by now – it’s the fourth swarm this year! When a bee colony becomes too big, the queen sends a swarm to find a new home, even on an airport tarmac, but someone should let the bees know that airplane wings make terrible houses.

http://news.uk.msn.com/blog/trending-blogpost.aspx?post=76963999-e214-4a4a-8bd5-6f8a677afa4f

Phew, it's swarm out

IT was the day a Hampshire town was invaded – by a massive swarm of 20,000 bees.

Stunned onlookers described how the air turned black over parts of Romsey when the honeybees flew around residential areas on the lookout for a new home.

Even the police were called as the giant swarm moved south where some settled on homes and the corner of a garage in Anderson Road.

Resident Ian Little, of Footner Close, first spotted them as he drove into his road.

He said: “The air was literally black and it wasn't until I came to a stop that I realised what it was.”

Shocked Mr Little got out of the car and heard an “intense buzz and the slamming of windows”.

Volunteer beekeeper Peter Grimes was called out to deal with the bees, estimated to be between 15,000 and 20,000 in number.

He said they could have come from a hollow tree in woodland, outbuildings or someone’s chimney.

Mr Grimes, a member of the Romsey and District Beekeepers Association, was contacted by police to remove them and he used a protective veil over his face and gloves to move many into a temporary swarm box on the roof. He was watched at a distance by local residents.

Continued: http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/9729309.Swarm_of_20_000_bees_invade_Hampshire_town/