I am in Soyo Zaire province in the north of Angola near Cabinda. The company for whom I work is clearing a piece of palm savanna of mines and unexploded ordinances as the country has been at war for many years. After the site has been cleared of UXOs it will be cleared of  vegetation. I am on board as the companies wild life specialist and my primary function is to capture venomous snakes, other reptiles and small mammals which will all be recorded and relocated in a suitable habitat of the work site.

During the bush clearing activities we have encounterd a few angry bee hives which did not appreciate having the tree or other hollowing in which they were nesting being pushed over and disturbed. So as I am the wild life specialist I have volunteered my services to remove and relocate the bees off site instead of killing them as I realize bees play a vital role in the environment. I have always had an interest in these creatures and have had experience of removing bee hives in Zulu land and Limpopo province while working at home in South Africa.

The bees immediately started attacking me and at that stage the only thing I could do was to run as fast as hell in the general direction of away! As I ran the bees continued stinging. Due to having long hair I could not get rid of them. I must of run about 250m to loose them but I still had many stuck in my hair buzzing away! I called the site medic on the radio and alerted him of the danger, he picked me up in the Land cruiser and drove me back to my on site snake lab were he removed about 25-30 bee stings mostly from the back of my head, one even stung me on the bottom lip which swelled up considerably. I was quite angry at the whole situation, so I got kitted up in the bee suit and went back to take on the bees, this time a bit more prepared.

 

I made a small fire and started to smoke the bees using green palm leaves which did a good job of calming them down. It was quite tough to break a whole into the old rusted water geezer to get combs out and place them with the majority of the bees in my 'bee transport' bucket. That  afternoon we headed off by boat down the Congo river with the bees and relocated them in a crack  of a tree close to the waters edge.  After that day we devised a set of clear signals between the bush clearing team to make sure that I'm not directed into another angry bee nest while expecting to catch a snake. Hope you enjoy my story Warrick. It was not so fun at the time!

Warren Klein
Snake Advisor
Angola LNG PROJECT
Cabinda Gulf Oil Company
Kwanda Base
Soyo, Angola

Warren about to relocate the bees

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