Aug. 1, 2008
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| UC Davis apiculturist Eric Mussen (left) explains bee behavior to vanpool driver Keir Reavie, head of the Biological and Agricultural Sciences Department at Shields Library. (Photos by Kathy Keatley Garvey) |
DAVIS—It was a honey of a ride—for the commuters and the bees.
When four UC Davis employees approached their commuter van at 7 a.m. Friday, Aug. 1 in the BART parking lot in El Cerrito, some weren’t sure they wanted to board.
A huge swarm of bees bearded the entire passenger side of the vehicle and part of the windshield.
“We didn’t want to hurt them,” said vanpool driver Keir Reavie, head of the Biological and Agricultural Sciences Department at Shields Library. So “the unstung heroes” boarded the vehicle from the driver’s side and took off, hoping to disperse them.
In an un-bee-lievable sight, the white van, accompanied by the bees and their queen, buzzed to the UC campus on a 60-mile freeway ride.
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| Bees slipped through the door frame. Click to enlarge. |
When the vehicle pulled into the Shields parking lot shortly before 8 a.m., so did a long line of bees hanging around the door frame.
“We lost most of them along the way,” Reavie said.
How did the survivors survive?
“Some bees must have slipped inside the door frame and held on to the others by linking legs,” said Eric Mussen, UC Davis apiculturist. “The queen bee was probably inside the crack.”
Lynn Kimsey, professor and chair of the Department of Entomology and director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology, noticed the bees on the van when she pedaled over to Shields Library early Friday afternoon.
She alerted Mussen. But he already knew about them.
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| Honey bees feeding each other. Click to enlarge. |
Reavie had earlier emailed him, asking what to do.
Mussen recommended they leave them alone or contact a beekeeper on campus or in El Cerrito to vacuum off the swarm. “The bees in a swarm usually won’t bother you unless they are significantly disturbed,” he said.
Meanwhile, the social insects spent the day on campus, periodically leaving the van for food and water, while others—the scouts—searched campus buildings for a new home. Some bees parked on the “Van Pool Parking Only” sign and the motorcycle permit parking sign.
At least one bee casualty occurred in the parking lot: a bee flew into a nearby spider’s web. When Mussen arrived at the site, the spider was feasting on the web-wrapped bee. A taste of honey.
What happened to the bees? "I was not able to contact the person Eric suggested on Friday afternoon, so nobody came to take the bees," Reavie said. " When I returned to the van at 5 p.m., most of the bees had left, but there was still a large group on the passenger side rear view mirror. Some of these dispersed on the trip back to El Cerrito and the few remained were gone when I checked on the van Saturday afternoon."
As for the commuter van, it’s now “the bee mobile."
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| Spider eating trapped bee. Click to enlarge. |
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--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894
