HELP - Wild bees acting weird and scaring me

[Homesteader]

I know this is a bee keeping forum and my trouble deals with wild bees.

But just in case someone here is very knowledgeable about wild bee behaviour I'm giving it a try here.

Quick background, we have bees here, unbelievable amounts of bees.  In addition to large vegetable and flower gardens, there are 600 linear feet of tamarisks.  When the tamarisks bloom, we are very cautious being outside.  You can hear the hum from the porch.

Okay, about a month ago, we noticed a small swarm (really small, like the size of half a cantaloupe) which moved into a plastic irrigation box cover.

The morning lows are hitting between 14-20F, with days in the 50's and low 60's.

So here's my trouble.  This morning I noticed a bee sort of hanging around me when I went outside to get the mail.  Then I see it followed me across the street to the mailbox. So then, he followed me back and on to an outbuilding.  He got what I felt was aggressive quite frankly.  Moving slowly too.  I wapped it dead.  He had at one point flown into the building, so when he came back out I killed it.

Next, I walked to the other side of the house, to find about 6 bees acting the same way and I mean they were messing with me.  To the point that I became afraid.  I stopped my activity, swatted at them with a wide gardening knee cushion to keep them away from me.

There are several doing this at both doors of the house and they are even messing with the cats outside.

If I step out onto the porch, within 30 seconds, they come back!  They just look like bees to me not any particular different color or anything that I can tell anyway.

I have never in 15 years seen this behaviour and am wondering if the swarm is where these are coming from?  Why are they acting this way?

[manygoatsnmore]

I sure wish I had some knowledge that would help you. I've never seen bees act like that, other than maybe yellow jackets in Sept if we are grilling. They will attack for meat that time of year. Could it be that they are hungry - seems too cold for them to even survive, much less be hungry, but I don't have any other thoughts. Hope someone truly knowledgeable can chime in.

[hobbitlady]

Since you are in the "desert southwest" they could be an aggressive sort called "africanized" (not black or dark color,just a nasty species that ruins the genetics of Good "normal" honeybees). If they were 100% "killer bees" you'd be stung already.
Sounds like aggressive mutts.

If you are Not getting stung it is NOT wise to swat and kill one or two!!! They release an Alarm scent when smashed and that scent will bring Many more to the area where the dead one is or to You if the scent is on you.

Usually true africanized bees Sting for no reason though,instead of just bothering a person. If the bees have a colony close they could Just be "guarding". One to a dozen bees might decide to guard their space. (they are ALL girls BTW so it's always "she",not "he" out there flying. The boys don't have stingers and don't "guard"). Are you sure there isn't a colony Under your porch? I have 3 hives within 60 feet of my porch and Never have any bees come near us or our pets in 3 years.

I'd be cautious and call a local beekeeper (or look for a local bee club to call) to Remove them if you know for sure where they are living. Any variety of honeybee gets more aggressive when they can't find food as well. They do normally fly in winter if it's over 55 degrees,so That part is not so unusual.

All us beekeepers love honey bees but Sometimes an exterminator is the only choice(and some exterminating companies will call a beekeeper for you). No one at all would ever fault you for needing to have them killed since they have invaded your personal space and that of your pets.

[motdaugrnds]

I wish I had some information that would be helpful. I am just cringing at the fact they are so interested in you and your cats. I'm wondering if your cats like to cuddle with you and you are wearing something those beese are finding attractive, i.e. a new smell maybe.

Please don't hesitate to call someone to come anihilate them for you. You don't want a large swarm deciding to attack you at once.

[Homesteader]

Thank you all for the ideas and info. I did think of the Africanized bees, and was mad at myself after killing the one but no others came.

I was telling DH about it and we are thinking, maybe that new swarm is hungry. They have not had much time to build up stores before the colder weather came. We also had a good 3 week late first freeze.

So maybe they are smelling the cat food on the cats, our food on me, the food smell when I open the door. Maybe they are just looking for food and are confused. That kind of makes sense.

Since where the new swarm is has electrical wires (they went into the cover over a working irrigation set up), we can't use gas or that type of stuff. So we are thinking to just dump some tractor loads of sand over the cover. I would think that would kill them off, then later we could just dig the sand back out.  We could easily with the tractor pile a good 6 foot high pile, and however wide we want.

I hate to kill bees but if we need to take out this one small swarm, it's a drop of sand on a beach compared to how many bees we have here.

The fact that we do have such a massive bee population on our place, for so many years and the fact that I have never had them act this way, tells me logically, to look at what is different here.

The only thing I can think of is that new swarm.

[Homesteader]

oh, I forgot to respond hobbitlady to whether there is a colony under the porch, gosh that's a good question. I will check that out tomorrow when DH is home.

[hobbitlady]

Homesteader ,Don't worry about cat food or meat smells. If bees are On the cat food landing and eating, they are Not honey bees. Honey bees are only attracted to sugars,like fruits maybe,hummingbird feeders and plain water(they need water if it freezes but they fly during warmer days). Bananas smell like a queen bee sort of(bee keeper knowledge) so That is a Very interesting scent to the girls! They are also annoyed by human sweat and breath but they are "disturbed" and "guarding" for some other reason I'd wager,since they follow you and the cats in the open air. They do consider dark furry animals as "threats" but some cats&dogs don't bother them(like white ones). Also throwing on a white overshirt might cause them to lose interest in you. Dark fuzzy cloths indicate "bear" to their instincts.

Oh, BTW if you bury them you ought to do it on a frozen day when all are inside the colony OR at night using Red lights. The fliers on warm days will get very mad at that activity and cover the mound and be mad until they die of the night's cold. Flashlights at night wake them up,unless they are on a red setting...........

[Homesteader]

Wow, thanks hobbitlady!

I came home from town just now and no bees were around, and they weren't when I left either.

All the cats are dark in color!

[aoconnor]

I am not a beekeeper, and in fact am extremely allergic to bees and stay as far from them as I can get. But I would say this, if the bees come back, at least get a beekeeper to come identify the type of bee you are having an issue with. If they are Africanized bees, your state ag department probably needs to know so they can track their movement and keep updated on where a swarm is. The behavior you described sounds like, and this is just my opinion, they are definitely not your average honey bee. Anyway, it may not be good advice, but it is my thought:-)

Good luck!

[Homesteader]

Well today DH had a bee come up and "bug" him like they had done to me. He was on the tractor and just went and covered them in sand. I had not had the chance to tell him all about doing it at night, etc., but he was just not going to put up with it so they are now covered.

[copperkid3]

And then there's a better than even chance, that the bees you are describing, aren't even honeybees.

And without pictures of the culprits, we'll never know. As far as determining whether they are Africanized

or not; you won't be able to tell just by "looking"....you'd have to send a few sample bees off to the USDA

research facility and have them check it out under a microscope. And even then....? Dumping sand on them

and then seeing if there is a cause and effect, may (or may not) solve the problem. If you are still bothered

at a later date, you may want to re-examine your method(s) of taking care of the problem. Be sure and let us know.

[moldy]

Bees that are swarming are usually full of food and less aggressive (or so I"ve heard).