45 000 bees invade tot's room
2008-10-07 23:41
Rustenburg - A normally crabby baby from here lay smiling contently in her cot while about 45 000 bees flew into her bedroom and started building a hive in a corner of the room.
The baby, who is only a few months old, lay there quietly for almost two hours before a beekeeper, who'd rushed all the way from Pretoria, removed the "visitors" with a bee vacuum.
The baby wasn't stung once.
Pieter Saunders, 27, a beekeeper from Akasia, north of Pretoria, said at about 11:05 he received a call from a man saying he had a bee problem.
"When I told him I didn't work in Rustenburg, he said 'You don't understand. My child is in a room full of bees.'
"I grabbed my equipment and protective gear, jumped into my car and was in Rustenburg in less than an hour. In the meantime, the father had told me over the phone that he was allergic to bee's poison and that his wife had never been stung.
Told to leave baby in cot
"They said the baby was lying under a mosquito net which they used to protect her while she slept."
Saunders said he advised the parents to leave the baby in her cot rather than trying to grab her and run from the room, because that could be dangerous.
The father told him that they had put the baby to bed in her room at about 10:15 after feeding her.
"When the dad checked on the baby at about 10:30, she was quiet.
"He said the baby had made a funny noise at about 10:45. He went to check and when he opened the bedroom door, there were bees everywhere."
Saunders said the father was stung twice, but that he had taken his medicine.
The bees had settled in a corner against the ceiling.
"I sucked them up with my bee vacuum, and securely closed them in a holding cage. The parents were very grateful that the child, who is normally difficult, had not cried once.
"The bees are now going to make lovely honey for me," Saunders said with a laugh.