Bees!!

Discover Magazine Blogs (blogs.discovermagazine.com)
June 3rd, 2009

"Bees on a Plane! 10,000 Bees Swarm an Airplane Wing in Massachusetts"
Written by Allison Bond

While experts are still stymied over why bees were strangely and inexplicably dying off (or whether they were ever dying off), they appear to be back, and on a rampage. A few weeks ago, a large swarm trapped employees inside a New York City GameStop store for several hours.

Now, things are getting even stranger: The AP reports that about 10,000 honeybees swarmed the wing of an airplane used for flight school at an airport in Danvers, Mass. After first gathering on the side of the plane, the bees migrated en masse to the left wing.

The owner of the flight center called the cops, who then called in a local bee removal expert. He collected the bees by sucking the swarm off the plane with vacuuming tool. The insects then were shipped to hives, where they will spend the rest of their days producing honey.

Experts speculate the swarm congregated on the plane to protect the queen bee, who might’ve settled on the wing. Or maybe they just wanted to give their wings a break.

LINK: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/2009/06/03/bees-on-a-plane-10000-bees-swarm-an-airplane-wing-in-massachusetts/

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Live Science (www.livescience.com)
May 24th, 2009

"Bee Swarm Descends on NYC Store"
Written by Jeremy Hsu

Thousands of bees swarmed a GameStop store in New York City and trapped employees inside for several hours on Saturday.

No help arrived until a local ABC Eyewitness News team called the police department, which first referred them to the fire department, 9-1-1, 3-1-1, and even the mayor's office. One intrepid passerby lured many of the bees into a bag, before an NYPD bee specialist finally arrived and used the queen bee's scent to trap the rest of the insects.

There's no word on why the bees targeted the GameStop, although they originated from a nearby hive on one wall of the building that houses several merchants. But the lack of reported injuries suggests a more docile breed of bees, unlike the Africanized "killer" honey bees that are known to attack people and animals in the Southwestern United States.

Honey bees remain critical for agriculture and food production because of their pollinator role – more bee species exist than bird and mammal species combined. Bees also hold huge fascination for researchers because of their democratic social lives, counting ability and even their mid-life switch to different jobs.

However, non-experts would do well to follow the instinctive reaction of animals such as elephants and stay away from bee swarms.

The USDA has some basic information on the highly unlikely event of a bee swarm attack.

LINK: http://www.livescience.com/strangenews/etc/090524-bee-swarm-descends-nyc-store.html