Thai farmer risks living with 200 'evil' beehives

After having a garden of about half a hectare, Mr. Lo Van Sang decided to raise wasps.

For nearly half a year now, people in Dong Kho hamlet, Nghia Dung commune, Tan Ky district have been very apprehensive about coming to Mr. Lo Van Sang’s house. “Even though I don’t have a dog or a security camera, many people wouldn’t dare to enter my garden even if they were offered candy,” the 53-year-old man said confidently.

The most aggressive beehives in the mountainous region of Nghe An hang everywhere in the garden.

Around the garden is about 5,000m2 wide²small and large wasp nests looming. Those who have ever known about this species of bee will surely not be able to ignore these brown nests hanging silently on tree branches, bamboo bushes, even right next to cowsheds or pond banks. With just a little movement, the bees will rush out to attack.

However, Mr. Sang has been living with these bee colonies since March 2019. He has a total of about 200 such nests. He also cuts bee pupae to sell to traders like people do with honeybees. Mr. Sang said that pupae of the most dangerous bee species in this forest are sold at a high price of 180,000 VND/kg.

Not many people dare to go near wasp nests like this.

It is worth mentioning that the bees did not come to Mr. Sang’s garden to build nests, but he personally went to the forest to catch them. Whenever he saw a wasp nest or heard information, he would go and catch it. The “treasure” for catching wasps is a protective suit that covers from head to toe. Just cover the entrance to the hive and catch the whole hive, then hang it somewhere at night and remove the cap. Just like that, the bees will stay.

For Mr. Sang, wasp nests are a significant source of income as he sells each kilogram of wasp pupae for 180,000 VND.

Mr. Sang also said that without much effort, the bees still produce pupae for sale all year round. The bees will know how to find food and then return to the nest. When a nest has built 3 floors, he will "secretly" cut it down, leaving only one floor so that they do not abandon it. After that, the bees will continue to lay eggs and build nests throughout the four seasons.

“According to the experience of wasp keepers, you just need to pay a little attention to the bee colony when winter comes. Pay attention to cover and keep warm so they won’t leave,” Mr. Sang shared.