ATTACKS BY BEES

Greymouth Evening Star, 10 December 1927, Page 12

ATTACKS BY BEES

BANK STAFF’S SCARE. Bees are having a. merry time in Victoria at present. A swarm entered the savings bank at Traralgon, in the Gippsland district ,and as the insects were of the savage Italian breed no one had the courage to attack them. They took up a position at a ventilator near the main entrance, and clients were afraid to enter, while the officials were afraid to leave. It looked as if they would become an unwelcome fixed deposit, but fortunately they soon took their leave. A Colac tea agent was accorded a stinging reception at the Dreeite Soldier Settlement. His horse, attached to a gig, was securely fastened to a fence. A swarm of bees from a neighbouring hive settled on the horse, which, resisting, was furiously attacked. The owner, unversed in the ways of bees, attempted a rescue, and was himself savagely attacked. He was taken to the Colac Hospital suffering from wholesale stinging. The story recalls the experience of a policeman stationed in Colac some years ago. The robbery of a hive was reported, and the policeman was told off to investigate. In his search he saw a bee droning along a hedge, and he proceeded to trail it. But the bee objected to surveillance, and, turning quickly, stung the investigator on the back of the neck. That night the constable had to call in a doctor. The case of the stolen hive was afterwards relegated to the archives of unsolved crimes.