The bad behaviour of Brazilian bees
One day when we were shopping for something completely different, I spotted a hummingbird feeder for sale. I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it before, but I love birds and I find hummingbirds particularly wonderful. As soon as I saw the feeder I lost interest in everything else! On the way home I was already googling how to make the sugar solution and where best to place the feeder.
Before long we had several hummingbirds visiting regularly and I started taking photos. All was peace and harmony in the garden until one day, this happened:
A couple of bees discovered that there was free nectar on offer. Guess what happened next…
Well, you know bees – they just love to do that dance back at the hive. Before you know it, they’re having a bee party all over your hummingbird feeder:
One plucky little hummingbird buzzed around the feeder for a bit, presumably with the idea that there was enough nectar for everyone. However, it seems that these particular bees don’t like to share.
The next day a full-on swarm had taken ownership of the feeder and I decided something had to be done. I found that simply moving the feeder to another spot on the roof was an effective solution – the hummingbirds found it straight away but the bees didn’t.
I guess it isn’t exactly news that bees like sweet things. But I have noticed something about the bees here: they’re a little pushy. Now I don’t want any Brazilians reading this to feel upset that I’m criticising their bees (not after sushi-gate!). It’s just that I am used to bees being fairly polite creatures – in England, bees generally spend their time around flowers – they don’t get involved in the activities of people. They leave that job to wasps!
The Common Wasp, Vespula vulgaris. These fellows can detect a jam sandwich from over a mile away and have ruined countless Great British picnics. Unlike bees they can sting multiple times without dying and they have a really bad attitude.
Back in England, wasps are extremely demanding around sugar – they will buzz around your face, land on your food and if you flap at them too much you may well get stung. Here in Rio it seems that bees have taken on that role. At work, my colleagues and I eat our lunch outside and the bees are such a pain that everyone drinks Coca Zero (Diet Coke) because drinking the regular sugar-filled version is like wearing a bee sign which says “Harass me”. Perhaps this is a new dieting fad just waiting to happen – insect diet enforcement!
Bicho de Luz
Seeing as we’re on the subject of the local insects, I should should also tell you about bicho de luz. Last August I was getting all excited because I spotted the full moon rising rather magnificently over the horizon. I grabbed my camera and started snapping away.
Doesn’t the moon look impressive when you catch it near the horizon?
As I was taking photos I became aware of a slight fluttering sound and then something landed in my hair. I looked up to see hundreds of flies buzzing around the light above my head. I went through to the kitchen and saw this:
Bichos de luz – flying termites. They all come out at once and before the moon is fully bright they will flock around any light source they can find.
As there was a cloud of these things around every light in the house, I went up onto the roof, forgetting that I had left the light on earlier:
I’ll admit that I’m not good with cockroaches, but bichos de luz aren’t so bad. As soon as the moon got up into the sky, the huge swarm just flew off into the night.
I have found that the best strategy on these bicho-de-luz nights is to simply turn all the lights off in the house and wait until the moon has risen. If these had been cockroaches I would have left Brazil immediately!
What do you think? Am I being unfair to Brazilian bees? Do the bees where you come from have good manners? Have you experienced similar insect invasions? Is anyone else feeling a bit itchy just looking at that last photo?
This is great!
Are there no wasps in Brazil or something? Because here, we have everything, and it’s really bad.
We have regular bees, who seem to be like the English Bees you described above. The temperament of these guys is great, they never touch me and just basically fly around minding their own business. Same goes for the bumble bees, they are generally happy, and I’ve never been stung by one.
Then, we’ve got the wasps. They’re mean. They will sting you any chance you get.
Next, we have the africanized bees and wasps, which are GIGANTIC! If you get stung by one of these, you better run to the doctors office because they pack a lot of venom.
NOW, the worst. These MICROSCOPIC tiny fly-bees. I don’t know what they are called, but they are the size of a fly or gnat, with stripes like a wasp. I got bit by one of these in the leg, and within 10 minutes my leg had swollen up to around 3 times wider than normal, it was harder than a rock, and it was HOT. I had to get steroids to make it go down, and it only worked after 3 days. I could hardly even walk!
So, when you come to the Northeastern USA, watch out for these suckers!
Abraço
Alex
Jeez Alex – you are going to be fine here. Compared to New Jersey, Brazil is a walk in the park!
I haven’t noticed any wasps here – certainly not the annoying ones that sting you for no reason.
And don’t you just love bumble bees? I miss those fuzzy guys – as far as I know you don’t get them here. When we went back to England my wife was fascinated by them! :)
Phew, I’m feeling a little better now, cause you had me worried! The only thing we don’t have here are flying cockroaches (Baratas Voadores) but we’ve got other beetles like Cicadas and June bugs, and the hated Water Bug, so I think I can deal with a few tropical beetles every once in a while (NOT A LOT THOUGH, i HATE cockroaches..)
And yes, I really do like Bumble Bees. They are cool, and they seem nice and happy all the time, unlike the nasty wasps.
=D
Tom,
You are totally correct, but I have to say, you are actually talking about AFRICAN BEES (Abelhas Africanas), they were introduced in Brazil by accident, in the 1970’s and mixed with local and once docile Brazilian bees. Now our bees have turned into this aggressive new breed of bees that will sting you often and also kill other native Brazilian bees.
The AFRICAN bees have been moving north and have already been found in some states in the South of the US and they are doing the same thing with the bees here… :(
Ray
Wow Alex, I had no idea the Africanized bees had already arrived as far north as New Jersey… :(
Although perhaps there is cause for a little optimism. This from Wikipedia:
Gentle African bees
Not all African hives show overly defensive behavior; some colonies are quiet, which gives a beginning point for beekeepers to breed a gentler stock.[24] This has been done in Brazil, where bee incidents are much less common than they were during the first wave of the African bees’ colonization. Now that the African bee has been “re-domesticated”, it is considered the bee of choice for beekeeping in Brazil.
It’s still very sad that the indigenous bees have been wiped out though :(
Yep, we got em! And they are the size of BIRDS! It’s horrifying when you see one.
New Jersey has become a semi-tropical paradise in the past 5 or so years, with all these weird exotic bugs, and the southern/tropical plant species are become more and more common here, also. I’ve got a nice little Palm Tree in the back yard that’s been growing for about 3-4 years and makes it through the winter fine and just keeps getting bigger and bigger. GLOBAL WARMING! =(
I simply panic when I see bees nearby – which would happen very often in Brazil (and I always drinked regular Coke so imagine…) . I´ve been “beaten” 4 times and have allergy so I just hate them. Luckly for me, they are no common in Argentina and I feel safer. Other insect inavasion that always happened at my home in Rio was of ants. It would only take a couple of minutes after letting something sweet unprotected for them to came and invade in that very organized way – uuuuurgh.
Tom,
This is so cool, thanks for sharing, yeah, I agree with you, our poor little native Brazilian bees are no more!! :(
But thanks for sharing the good news!! See what happens when you leave your country for 15 years, they even re-domesticate the bees… :)
Abracos
Ray
*come (and sorry for any other mistakes. Spanish is killing my English and it sucks. lol)
Sthephani – no language apologies on this site please! ;) Hee hee! I understood you perfectly.
Tom,
The biggest loss so far has been to the Brazilian honey industry because the Africanized Brazilian bees produce way less honey then the former native Brazilian bees.
So you all you had to do to avoid the bees was move the hummingbird feeder. It appears that these bees are dumbasses (thank god).
All this insect talk reminds me of a peculiar situation I was subjected to here in Brazil. I was having dinner at a Chinese restaurant, where I would often chat with the owner: a Chinese immigrant whose Portuguese resembles the sound a pig would make while abused by a rhino. Anyway, at one point in the evening he appeared from the kitchen and came over for our usual chat. He then proceeded to tell me that I should be on the lookout for ants in my toilet bowl, since this would indicate that my urine is very high on sugar content – which could mean diabetes. He told me this WHILE I was having dinner. Being the diplomat that I am the only thing to do was to inform him that I actually always flush; yet I respect his concern for the environment, and thank him for the diabetes related info. I was hoping that this would be a quick path to another topic; but then he answered, “What do you mean by environmental concerns?”.
Bet those bees don’t seem so scary now . . .
Heh heh – interesting topic for discussion whilst eating! Did you manage to finish your wonton soup? ;)
Watch out for the flying termites. Once they lose their wings they will eat through your furniture and doors. You want to get rid of them as quickly as possible,
Thanks for the warning Andrew! Having grown up in a termite-free country I was only vaguely aware that termites ate wood, but for some reason I hadn’t made the connection. Hopefully my team of geckos will take care of business! :)
Andrew,
What should one use against these flying termites? Is there a product that should be applied to woodworks?
I found this to be interesting; but is there more we should know?
http://www.ehow.com/how_7670199_protect-wood-termites-naturally.html
You can smack them while they’re flying or step on them when they fall to the ground. :) My apologies to anyone against killing insects but even Buddhist temples have to be fumigated once in a while (and there are specific rituals to compensate for all that loss of lives).
Seriously now, we used to just turn the lights off as Tom suggested, go full whack on the bug spray (look for one that’s “contra cupim”) and leave the room for a while. Then come back and collect the little guys before they crawl somewhere safe (for them). I think as long as you keep the numbers low, they won’t be able to build up a colony.
Oh Tom! What an opportunity missed – “flying ants” (termites) are the sexually developed males and females that swarm with the rains in order to meet others, mate and go off to form new colonies. They are flying packets FULL of delicious, nutritious gametes. A feast to gorge on if you happen to be a bird, gecko, frog, shrew or a gastronomically educated human. In many parts of Africa especially in the East they are prized. As kids in Malawi we were brought up on them every September/ October when the rains came. Lights were left on the verandas to attract them then water sprayed on the concrete floor to trap them. They were swept up with brooms and put into pots with a tight lid to prevent their escape. As kids in Malawi we ate them raw – Ben and Dan did the same in Zimbabwe..but for the perfect non-crawling pre-dinner nibble, the perfect partner to an ice cold lager do this:
Put two or three cupfulls of flying ants (having dropped their wings as they do) into a large frying pan with a couple of heaped tsp of salt and if you like things spicy, some dried chilli flakes to taste plus half a cup of water. Put on a hot fire / gas ring set to high and stir them around quite quickly which kills them fast. Keep heat on and pretty soon the water boils, distributing the salt and chilli evenly over these now “late” insects. As the water boils away, keep the ants moving around by shaking or stirring around. They crisp up very nicely in their own (considerable) fat. When nice and crisp decant them into the sort of bowl you put peanuts in…open that cold one and enjoy their crispy saltiness – with the added zest of chilli burn or not depending on your taste. You can eat them hot straight from the pan – or cold as they stay crispy. Alas, it’s too cold in Melbourne but up north….
Kids: “What’s for lunch?” Richard: “Delicious gametes!” :D
I have to say that your recipe does make them sound utterly delicious! Unfortunately the bichos de luz that we get here in Rio are verylightweight (gamete minimalists I suppose). But I suspect that your recipe would work very well with the tanajura they get further north. I am yet to try these chunky ants, but they look great!
Well, that’s certainly a way to one-up any foodie.
Foodie: “I use the finest organic goose fat for my roast potatoes”
Tom: “Goose fat? I only roast *my* potatoes in flying ants! And the “herbs”… no it’s not rosemary. They’re the wings.” :)
When I was living a block away from the Jardim de Alah, between Ipanema and Leblon, I decided to put out a hummingbird feeder. Three nights later I had a dozen bats flying around the feeder and that was the end of that. I had a high speed camera, and took some pictures of them. They were the scariest things I had seen here yet, and it took weeks to get my wife back out on the patio at night.