Humans must see bees as co-existing habitants of the planet

In the 1978 American horror movie The Swarm, great swarms of angry bees attack entire cities stinging hundreds of people to death. At the time it was thought that such fiction could never happen in nature, but today strangely enough thanks to an insect called the “Africanized killer bee” encounters are sending individuals to the cemetery. Deaths in Guyana from killer bees is nothing new, but what is highly unusual and visibly absent is the presence of stringent and continuous measures on the part of the government to put an end to this mortiferous apiarian carnage. In 1956, in an effort to improve the health and hardiness of the European honey bee which came from Portugal in 1834, and also to increase the country’s honey production. Dr. Warwick Kerr, a Brazilian geneticist, imported 26 queen bees from Tanzania. The existing tropical conditions in Brazil suited the African bees well. The killer bees were created when bees from Southern Africa mated with local Brazilian honey bees.

However, in what appears to look like a plot from a horror movie swarms of bees were accidentally turned loose by a technician at a genetics lab in San Paulo. The bees spread northward at a rate of about 200 to 300 miles per year, and today every country in Latin America except Chile has established populations of Africanized honey bees. In October 1990, the first natural colony of Africanized honey bees was found in the United States near Hidalgo, Texas. The bees are exactly as their name implies “killers”. International reports state that Africanised bees are typically more aggressive and defensive than other species of bee, and react to disturbances faster than the European honey bees. They are sensitive to vibrations mistaking them for approaching predators. Another strange characteristic of this apian species is the displayed almost human-like behavior. They are very determined insects. Human victims have reported seeking refuge underwater to avoid the sting, but the bees are willing to wait. The insects are alleged to have continued their attack when their targets have come up for air. With each sting a pheromone is released, signaling for more bees from the colony to join in the onslaught. There have been reports of swarms of 300,000- 800,000. What is the Guyana government doing about the continued loss of lives at the hands of these flying threats?

As far back as January 2007 children from Zeeburg Secondary School were attacked in school, forcing the school to be closed until an experienced beekeeper visited and removed the nest. In the same month beekeeping expert, Linden Stewart, contracted by the Ministry of Agriculture removed a swarm of about 60,000 from the roof of Venezuelan Embassy in Georgetown. According to Mr. Baydewan Rambarran, Regional Education Officer Region Three a similar attack took place at the Zeelandia Secondary School, Wakenaam Island, and the nest was destroyed. Abdool Hamied, farmer of Friendship, East Bank Demerara, was attacked by killer bees on his farm and died while being transported to hospital.

Among the list of fatalities over the years: ● May 2009, Yvonne Abrams and family of L’Oratoire Number 1 Canal Polder was attacked by the killer bees, four dogs and 1 sheep were killed.

● August 2010 Kawal Singh of Parika, 2011 Sheikh Hassan of Eccles,

● February 2012, at Cane Grove, Mahaica Sanicharra Abdullah a pensioner was killed by killer bees

● September 2012, Hazim Bacchus a gravedigger was rushed to the Fort Wellington Hospital following an attack, but was pronounced dead on arrival

● August 2014 - 9 year old Romesh Samaroo of Lima Housing Scheme , Essequibo, 2015 Guysuco Sugar Estate workers attacked at Utivulgt, 1 worker, Corinne Greene, of WestMeten-meer-Zorg succumbed

● March 2016 Romesh Lalaram, of Bath Settlement, a GuySuCo Worker for 23 years, became another statistic.

● October 2016—- Jeenarine Taijram , tractor operator for Guysuco severely stung to death while working on a dam at the Skeldon Estate, Berbice

● November 2017, a male identified only as Romaine, was killed while walking along the Mon Repos Public Road enroute to the market.

The apiarian killer instinct knows neither bounds nor boundaries, in 2019 Martin King returned to his Parfaite Harmonie residence to find that his six ferocious dogs had seemingly met their match in the form of killer bees, March 2019, Rameshwar Poonoo was clearing bushes while employed at the Albion Sugar Estate, when he was fatally attacked by a swarm of bees. In Guyana, every