Our current mini-series is all about bee-friendly gardening, but your gardens are shared spaces that need to stay friendly for people and pets, too. Get the bee safety buzz on sharing your garden and other outdoor spaces with bees. Safer and happier bees, people, and pets. Yay!
Ouch! That Stings!
Bees aren’t usually aggressive, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get stung if you inadvertently make them feel threatened. Like I accidentally did to a bumblebee caught in a blossom against my leg while pruning spent roses. Ouch! Fortunately, we both survived relatively unscathed.
Unlike wasps, bee stings usually occur in defence of themselves or their hive/colony. The most effective way to avoid a sting in a shared space is usually to avoid being perceived as a threat.
Bee Alert, Bee Aware
Remain conscious of bees in the vicinity whenever you’re out working in or enjoying your bee-friendly garden. And, of course, if you have an active bee hive or nest in your habitat, take extra care around that area of the garden. Give them space and enjoy the garden together.
Be particularly alert for bees when you’re harvesting fruit near blossoms or cutting/deadheading flowers. When birds have been thieving fruit in our garden, I also often find bees (or wasps) on the pecked fallen fruit. Clean up requires extra caution to avoid accidentally touching or squeezing bees. Bees are drawn to the sweet scent of the opened-up ripe juicy fruit.
Bee Calm, Bee Safe
If a typical garden bee is buzzing around nearby or alights on you, try not to panic. You don’t want to transform from a random landing pad into a perceived threat for defensive stinging.
If possible, keep calm and stay slow, gentle, and quiet with your movements. In my experience, they usually buzz away and take off quickly without any action on my part. If they’re lingering or I’m getting uncomfortable, I sometimes blow on them gently for a little encouragement to move.
Bad Bees: As a buzz of caution, if you are ever targeted by aggressive bees, seek immediate shelter and alert anyone else in the vicinity to do the same – see more on aggressive bee safety.
Avoid Bee-ing an Object of Interest
Away from the hive, foraging bees are usually too busy collecting to be interested in us silly humans. It can help to avoid looking or smelling attractive. Or looking potentially threatening.
Limit floral perfumes and other heavy scents before heading into the garden. As a bonus, this can also help reduce mosquito bites. Consider dressing in muted colours since bees favour flowers in bright colours like blue, purple, and yellow as noted in our bee-friendly plant selection post earlier in the mini-series. It can also help if you avoid shiny materials and jewellery, not that either of those are likely the style of your favourite garden work gear, but hey!
And on the subject of style, avoid looking like a natural threat. Black and dark brown carry some predator associations for bees. Not that you’re likely to be out gardening in faux-fur (hehehe…), but if you have dark hair, like my wild and crazy mane, then tying it back and/or wearing a hat can be helpful for bee safety. And just generally helpful. I’m always getting leaves, twigs, and other little things caught in my hair while working in the garden. Bonus for extra sun safety, too.
Dress Safer When Gardening
In addition to style, as noted above, you can dress for a bee buffer. Make sure that you are well covered for added sting protection, when feasible. Long sleeves/legs, closed toed shoes, gloves, and a hat can help. It will also keep you sun-smart and can help to avoid scrapes and other injuries from working in the garden. Avoid billowy clothing that bees may fly into or become trapped inside. Eek! And as a lesson learned from my own bumbling bee experience of being stung through leggings, thin clothing might not give you a buffering layer against stings.
Educate Children on Bee Safety
If children are sharing your bee-friendly garden space, then it’s especially important to teach them about maintaining a safe distance and staying calm around bees. Take the opportunity to talk about how to identify garden friends from garden foes, and which insects may bite or sting. If you’re not sure, why not learn together? I still struggle with bug ID sometimes!
Protect Pets from Bees (and Bees from Pets)
Pets are harder to teach than the rest of the family. In most cases at least. Haha! Want to make you pet-friendly garden a little safer for sharing with the bees? Distance is a good defence.
Position pet beds, bowls, and houses away from any high activity areas for bees in your garden. Ensure that your pet bowls are not the only available source of water in the garden. If you have active hives, try to keep them isolated from your pets if possible. In case there is ever an incident, know basic bee sting first aid for your pets (see below).
Know Basic Bee Sting First Aid
In the event that you or a family member/guest (pets included) experience a sting, know how to apply appropriate first aid, including safely removing a stinger, if needed. Be attentive for signs of anaphylaxis (allergic reaction) and seek emergency assistance if a reaction is suspected.
Pets will sometimes sniff or bite/swallow bees, so they have a much higher risk of stings to the face than for us humans. Stings can be incredibly painful in these extra sensitive areas, but also extra dangerous. Seek advice from your vet if your pet experiences a facial sting, especially if localised swelling has the potential to affect your pet’s vision or respiration.
Bee-Prepared: If you or anyone in your household is known to be allergic to bee stings, make sure that you always have the appropriate allergy kit(s) and that everyone capable of first-aid has the knowledge to locate and use them, if needed. If you’re close any of your neighbours, consider making them aware as well in case they see an emergency unfolding over the fence and rush to assist and/or call for help. This is especially helpful if you’re often home alone.
