The other day I was asked an interesting question.
I was out and about with one of our bee removal technicians at the hardware store. We were stocking up on garden supplies for the bee hive boxes at the bee farm (where we keep our bees). As we were walking down the aisle, an employee reached out to us and asked us the following: “How come bee keeping suits are always white?” he asked. “Why not have a blue or black suit instead?”
It’s a good question. Why not a blue or black bee suit? For that matter, why not a pastel tie dye hippie retro suit?
The explanation is pretty simple. The darker the color, the more attractive it is to the bees. You see, bees instinctively are drawn toward darker colors, especially when they are aggressive and looking for a target to attack. Our owner here at Bee Best Bee Removal found this out pretty quickly when we first started the company back in 1993.
“I thought it would be great to have advertising on the back of the bee suits.” explains owner Jeff Lutz. ” I special ordered several suits to be embossed with our company logo on the back…It wasn’t the best decision.”
Closest Example of Our Old Suit (Above)
Lutz smiles and laughs as he remembered what transpired after the suits came in. “It was bad” he explains while shaking his head. “I made the mistake of embossing the back of the suit with dark black lettering…Let’s just say it didn’t go well.”
So what happened? “Whenever we got into a hive with some aggression, the bees instinctively started attacking the black letters on our backs.” Lutz remembers “It’s funny thinking back on it now, but back then it was a very painful learning experience…the bees were stinging us through our suits!”.
Today the suits used by our technicians are all white, and specially designed so that the bees can not sting through the suit. But that doesn’t stop the bees from having a target. “I have to tell new employees not to wear dark colors”. Lutz explains “Boots, watches, gloves…they can all be targeted if they are colorful.”
“There is still one item all of our technicians wear that stands out” Lutz explains, “The Go Pro camera…it’s not available in white yet.”
It’s true. The lightest color available is a silver grey model. The problem is that all the harnesses seem to be made in black. “Its not as big of a deal now that we have better suits” explains Lutz, “In some ways its better to have a black camera…It’s makes for more exciting video footage when the bees decide to target and attack the camera.”
Wanna see the proof? Take a look at the video clip below. Its a clip of the bees attacking the go pro while the technician is removing a live bee hive.
