From Phu Tho province to Nghe An to 'hunt' for wasps and earn tens of millions of dong

(Baonghean.vn) –Mountainous districts of Nghe Anis a “paradise” for bees… Accordingly,many people dobeekeeping brings in millions of dollars. This activity takes place from March to November every year.

Once a year, Nguyen Anh Tuan and three brothers from Son Hung, Thanh Son district, Phu Tho province travel nearly 350 km to the mountainous districts of Nghe An to hunt for ground bees (also known as bumblebees). This is one of the most poisonous bees, but for Tuan, when he sees a bee, he is "as happy as if he had found gold", because if he is lucky enough to catch a large bee nest, he can earn tens of millions of dong a day.

After a day of conquest in Nghia Lam commune, Nghia Dan district, Nguyen Anh Tuan and his brothers captured about 2,000 bumblebees and 8kg of bee pupae.

Tuan and his three brothers' tools were contained in two small bags, including four sets of raincoats, gloves, pickaxes, and bee nets... On two motorbikes, these four young men roamed the roads and fields, and whenever they saw a flying bee, the whole group would approach.

Usually, the group has to go into the forest, climb hills to "hunt" or go to families that raise honey bees to "hunt" for the bees. Because the bees often come to capture the worker bees of the honey bee hive and make them "prisoners" to build the nest and carry soil out of the burrow for them.

In Nghia Dan, people raise a lot of honey bees, so Tuan and his group members just had to ask around to beekeepers to find clues about ground bees.

If you are lucky enough to catch a beehive as big as this one, you can earn tens of millions of dong a day.

However, when a few wasps are detected, finding the target is not simple, it requires a very elaborate and time-consuming process of monitoring and following.

Nguyen Anh Tuan shared: For the locals here, they usually burn bees to get pupae, during the burning process, the bees are all dead, but for hunters like us, the bees must be caught alive. Sometimes we know the dangers lurking, but the job is already ours and it is hard to quit. Among us, everyone has been stung by a wasp.

They are called ground bees because their nests are built underground, similar to termite nests. When catching bees, you must carefully observe the entrance and exit of the bees. Use a hollow tube to insert into the end of the mesh bag, then insert the other end into the exit of the bees. At the entrance, use dry straw to burn, when the smoke enters the nest, the bees will rush through the tube into the mesh bag. To avoid being stung by some of the bees outside, the hunters must wear raincoats and helmets.

Blanched bee pupae are sold for 350 thousand VND/kg

Nguyen Anh Tuan said: Our people also often buy them to soak in wine and buy pupae to eat. However, because the quantity caught is quite large, after being caught, the wasps are sent by truck to import to China, the price ranges from 3,000 VND - 4,000 VND/bee and 350,000 VND/1 kg of pupae.

On lucky months, each person earns 15 to 20 million VND; on bad months, they only earn 1 to 2 million VND.

Bees appear in large numbers in mountainous districts of Nghe An such as Nghia Dan, Quy Hop, Que Phong, Quy Chau... attracting many bee hunters from other provinces...

Dinh Thuy