The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds - 196 - Killer Bees

Episode Date: August 4, 2016

Comedians Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds examine the terrifying coming of the Killer Bees from Brazil. Oh, AND SPIDERS.SOURCESTOUR DATESREDBUBBLE MERCH

When you're staying at an Airbnb you might be like me wondering could my place be an Airbnb and if it could what could it earn? You could be sitting on an Airbnb and not even know it. That in-law sweet guest house where your parents stay only part-time Airbnb it and make some money the rest of the year whether you could use a little extra money to cover some bills or for something a little more fun. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at airbnb.ca slash host. Hello you're listening to the dollop. This is an American History podcast. Each

week I read a story from American history to my friend. Gareth Reynolds who has no idea what the topic is going to be about. Why? That's just how it had kind of landed on it organically. You know the first one we did was Cliven Bundy and then after that I don't know just sort of like what how are you already disinterested in what you just asked me. Why? I'm not playing the wise. No. Why? Nope. I got into this with my niece the other day. I'm not doing it. I knew that is a good opportunity to do another one. Not Gary Gareth. Dave okay. Someone or something is tickling people. Is it for fun? And this is not gonna come

to tickle you quite good. Okay. You are queen fakie of hate uptown. All hail queen shit of Liesville. A bunch of religious virgins go to mingle. And do my thing. Hi Gary. No. Has he done my friend? No. Super weird today. Super weird vibe from you so far. I'm tired and you know I'm tired. It's just days of going out and looking for Pokemon with my kid. How's that going? Well we found some big ones. I'll tell you that right now. See that's what matters. We woke up the other day and there was a draggy-no. Draggy-no. Sure. Right outside. Apparently he's the third rarest Pokemon in the world. What'd you guys do to him? I caught him.

Okay. We captured him. He's in our he's in our phone now. Oh. My kid's iPad. Same account. Well that point is everything sounds fine and normal here. I am on orders when I go to Australia to catch a rare Australian Pokemon that only exists in Australia. Oh yeah. Well while we're there I mean you may as well see all the sites get that quack a cage and then pick up a digital bird or whatever. I mean look we're all living we're all living life the way we're supposed to. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. I did like how that guy did that because he wanted kids to go outside and play more and I love that that's a thing. We have to make video games to get kids to go

outside and play. It's working though. They're all over the place. It is. They're all around everywhere I went. It's dad's and they're in there and now I miss the days when the kids are staying inside and not playing. That's what I'm talking about. You know what I mean? That's what I'm talking about. I got fist bump. Shut down. Bam. 1933. Okay. Peace time. Peace time? I don't know. I just said that. Okay. Three respected science magazines science scientific American and popular mechanics published articles about a new threat to mankind. Already already tasty David. This was worse than the Dust Bowl or the rise of Nazi Germany or the Great Depression. Oh

gosh. Black Widow spiders were coming. Oh well they are bad spiders. The Piper Mechanics article was titled the Black Widow Spider Public Enemy. Wow. Yeah. Not fucking around. Yeah. Quote. It is now recognized that drop for drop the venom of the female Lactodectus macrons is far deadlier than that of the diamond black rattlesnake. Who can who we finally aren't afraid of anymore. Finally we get past the snake and now there's a spider. But they are terrible spiders. Black Widow spiders. They're so. Look you can get bit by a black widow spider and be fine your hand will swell up a little bit. There are want bites. Well it's also I

don't yeah but there I'm okay. It's not a great spider to be big. No I'm just curious how we get to that. Right. Fatalities from the bite of this eight leg killer have been reported in 17 states five persons having died in Texas last summer. That's very suspicious reporting. Why. That you just not that many people die from black widow spiders. Yeah. And if they were there in Texas and I've seen I've literally seen Texans be crazy with spiders where they're like just some of the spiders there are nuts and my ex-girlfriend's like uncle took a cup like put a cup over a spider through the web once and it

was one of the weirdest things I've ever seen. I don't know if that was a good story. What what makes a story. Well it seems like that might have been or how are you a begin they always say a story needs a beginning. Right. Got it. Okay fair. The black great black widow spider scared the gun newspapers then picked up and ran with it from the San Bernardino County Sun July 27th 1934 headline use broom to destroy black widow spiders urge state entomologists. They are very afraid of brooms. That is the Achilles heel. And then the article went on to detail how you should kill a spider with a broom. Yeah. Yeah. No that's definitely

the yeah for sure. Kill it with a broom. That makes the most sense because then it's more of a game. Yes. Thank you. And it's a little like field hockey. The entomologists also acknowledged that pest exterminators would work and that he owned a broom company. Quote the handle of the broom is long enough for practical purposes and the broom is straw which is sufficiently strong enough to enable the crushing of a spider. And it seems like a shovel. Let's say shovel. Shovel. Shovel seems like it's maybe an upgrade from broom. The entomologists also stated using an exterminator could be costly. So gasoline was a decent substitute. Okay. So

now we're getting into a strange area of recommendations. What do you mean? Well now that he's saying he's saying to ignite them. Well no I think just throw gas on gasoline around the house or if the broom doesn't work throw gas on them. Yeah or whatever. Yeah. Just put gasoline all over your garage. Yep. Quote gasoline will kill them as readily as a proprietary insecticide carrying a fancy name. Gasoline is particularly effective. Yeah. I don't you know go with the name you can trust. Gasoline. Okay. So that guy's a terrible entomologist. Why? He's trying to save people money. Yeah. Gasoline. I mean imagine when you're like and he got

through the broom. Get the gas. That didn't work either. The house is on fire. Like a horror movie. Just the brooms on fire. The spider bit me. The spider bit me. The brooms on fire. The spider bit me. The curtains go up. Oh my god. The house is on fire. Everybody out. Everybody out. We need more brooms. And then the house is burning and they're all standing outside and the sheriff rolls up. What's going on Tommy? Oh you know what there was a spider in there. You done the right thing. And then you see the spider go like run away. It's still there. Headline. Front page of the Gallup Independent of New Mexico. Broom sale. Skyrocket. Professor identified

Gallup spiders as black widows. Oh snap. The professor had found two black widows. That was the summary of the entire story. Well I think it's time for us to drop the nukes. Front page. Yeah. Front page of a newspaper. A guy found two spiders. Of a whole city's newspaper. He found two. That's big. You find one that's page six. You find two that means we have a married couple and they're looking to birth. That's fair. Think a couple steps ahead David. What if they were gay spiders? I am on record. I completely support the Union of Gay Spiders. Okay. I've said that for all the arachnids. So are you saying we

should be as scared of a gay spider couple as a straight spider couple? Absolutely not. No. I think equally scary spiders. Equally scary. Yeah. But one can breed and one can't. The gays can adopt. The gay spiders can adopt. They can easily adopt. The first way you qualify. They go egg shopping. Okay. The what? Well the first way you qualify the story was by saying that because the two spiders could breed they were more dangerous. So I'm just saying you are now saying that gay spiders. They can adopt. Don't don't try to don't try to like you know paint me into a corner right now my man. Okay. I know what I

said. I am equally as afraid of gay spiders as straight spiders and I have always said that. Okay. Go check my car for the bumper sticker. I support the Union of all gay arachnids. Okay. Gay arachnids. The news journal of Wilmington Delaware November 17th. To be fair it's Delaware. So whatever it is if they blew it out of proportion it's understandable because in Delaware they're like new loaf of bread eaten. Black widow spiders poison us to humans. That's the headline. They were a little slow than everybody else. It's just in. Yeah we just found out. Holy shit you know I came across the ticker tape. Why isn't anyone

telling Delaware anything. Hey there's a whole pile of well it looks like ticker tape news behind this desk. Can we not be reading these. Oh my god we need to get brooms and gas. Holy shit they're poisonous to humans. Oh man. There's a couple of gay ones out New Mexico. I support the Union of them no matter what. Los Angeles. I've always said that. November 22nd 1933 from a column. Okay. Which will you have acute appendicitis or the bite of a black widow spider. Your chances are equal living either way says Dr. Irving Wills spider expert. Spider expert. Yeah it doesn't seem to be as big of an expert. Anomologist at least is like. I mean what. Sorry what's your

degree in. I'm a spider expert. I've actually been studying spiders for a while and appendixes. I have two two things I'm very interested in that I put all my time into and that's an appendix and a spider. When he's in the lab and he like has this revelation he's like my god you have as much of a chance to have appendicitis as to be bit by a black widow. Both equally evil. Both can be cured with brooms. I'm a spider expert. Why. Yes I'm single. Why is Dr. Wills just been in his office staring at an appendix and a spider for nine months. Don't open that door. Something has to give. Going to come to me.

There's something between these two. Correlation. Think Wills. Think. Use your training from spider you. This is the moment they were talking about. I went to fly you. That's for the choice of a spider bite or an appendectomy. You can give me a nice wall and a firing squad every time. What. So. Okay. He wants to be murdered. He is saying to people who have a. Now. Now people with appendix issues are like I need to die. Yeah. Well anybody if you've been bitten by spider or you have appendicitis you zombie treatment. Choose to be shot against the wall. Yep. It's fair. Yep. The Salt Lake City Tribune July 15th 1934

quote the chief symptoms of poisoning by the spider are acute pain, profuse, perspiration, dizziness, restlessness, nausea and vomiting, difficult breathing, abdominal cramps, weakness in the legs, constipation and unconsciousness. Jeez. Acute pain. Is that when someone's like oh that hurts really fast. That hurt me. I like how constipation is listed in front of unconsciousness. You think unconsciousness would be the first one. No. But in this order guys just like I can't shit. Although the creature dwells in the southern parts of the country. It is left a trail of dread in Indiana. So that's yeah. But you can like

there's a lot of dread trackers who they will go across the country and they can sort of see the footprints of dread. Sure. In many species. Oh, oh, you know Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire. So four states have dread. I don't. Mm-hmm. I feel like I feel like the black widows are not up in new. Well they're driving. Oh, fair. They're driving spider cars. Yeah, just to be clear. I forgot that in the 50s they were. Yeah, there's not because if you think about the fucking distance they would have to cover. It's hard. Years. Yeah, I always forget that when we in the 50s we were like, you know, we shouldn't let the

new spider car. We should let black widows be truckers anymore. The new spider car. Go ahead. That's all I got. In one section of Oregon, so many spiders had been reported that a control campaign was initiated. Certainly every attempt should be made to exterminate this fierce looking and vicious little insect. In Professor Luitis's opinion, there is no specific antidote known, but he says sedatives are derivative of opium and bromades and he recommends hot applications of strong black coffee. I mean, that guy just sounds like a good time. Well, he's he's the right doctor to opiates and coffee. So what's going on,

Jimmy? I can't spider bite. Yeah, here's a they got some oxys and are you okay? What? What was the problem again? You had a knee thing? We were gonna have lunch. Here's some oxys. I don't need those. And you said to come by for lunch. Excuse me. You need oxys? No, I don't need oxys. We were gonna have lunch. All right. Hey! Huh? Do you have an appointment? Yeah, my god. You're my brother, right? No. Okay. Do you need some coffee? Yes, I would love to. I was just rubbing some on this guy. What? Hey, he's got a thing. My gosh. How many are there? You're stacking them. Yeah. I'm a doctor. No, you're I'm a spider expert. But contrary to the fear

campaign, there was no mass attack by Black Widow spiders. Hundreds did not perish at the hands of the legged monster. The Black Widow spider scare slowly petered out. In truth, people rarely die from spider bites, so it was hard to keep the fear fest going. There are only an estimated 200 deaths from spiders per year in the world. That's a good amount. I guess. But in the world, I mean, in the world, it's not. But I mean, that is for millions. I agree. Few of those happened in the US. For instance, there were no deaths from spider bites in America in 2007, 2008. Just one person died from a spider bite

in 2006. But spiders still rank as the third feared animal when Americans are polled behind snakes and rats. What? The snakes and rats? Rats come first. Have you never been attacked by a rat when you're sitting on a toilet? No. Oh, yeah. Never. That happens all the time. Never. Yeah. You should go to America. Oh, I'd love to go there. I've heard your podcast. That sounds great. I would think sharks would be above. Yeah, I think a lot of things. Rats. I'd be more afraid. Alligators. I'd be more afraid of dog. Dog bites. Yeah. Wild boars. There are wild boars. I mean, remember the wild boar epidemic of the 40s? Yeah, that was terrifying. The boars are

coming. Terrifying. Without people dying from spider bites, it's hard to keep people scared of spiders. Soon, they would shift back to being afraid of another type of bug. When Europeans began to explore the US, they brought with them their beekeepers and bees, which they knew were needed for crops. Oh, no. But in 1622, the European honeybee was well-established and taking over America. The European honeybee is by far the most dominant bee in the US today. Okay. There is also an African honeybee that was originally domesticated in South Africa. It was more productive than European honeybees getting up to work an hour earlier. What? The African honeybee

gets up an hour before the European honeybee. That's amazing. Even the bees are like, we have a shittier house with this country. They're more resistant to diseases and make more and better honey. So the country of Brazil in 1956 was like, I want some of them bees. Them are the bees. What is happening right now? They commissioned an English professor, Warwick Kerr, to introduce the bees to South America. The plan was to make a bee that made more honey and was better adapted to tropical conditions. A super bee? A super bee. Oh my God. He brought 132 African queen bees to Brazil. But due to a visiting scientists error, some

were accidentally released into the wild. So that happens. A guy just like, the guy just like open. You had one job. The guy just like open the fucking, the BK. Oh no, nine got out. Oh, you trying to leave the door open? Okay. Hey, let's just be cool and quiet about this. Oh, you know what? This is my first time science thing. Yeah, I should close. Bees can fly. I should close doors. You know, they don't let me go to the CDC anymore. Good news, bad news. What do you want first? Bad? Okay. Why don't we go with good? Okay. A lot of the bees are here. Oh, great. And the bad. A good amount of them are not. What kind of science do you

practice? What's your field? Why are you shaking your head? I'm a bee expert. What does that mean? I don't know anything about bees. Okay. So how are you a bee expert? Can I have my check, please? So the bees, the Africanized bees were quite good at taking over other bees hives. That's so great. More aggressive. Hey, me and some of the fellas really like the hive you built over here. Like your place. You mind if my my queen comes in? Maybe we do all switch a roof for a little while. Is this your queen? Get out of here. Hey, you just fell down some stairs in the hive. What happened to your queen? Hey, this is our queen. She'll take a place.

You're good. So we was thinking, get out. Get the fuck out of here. Thank you. The beesy. You're not real bees. Yeah, we're the Jersey bees. I know. Why do these bees come from Jersey? I don't know because I don't really know. I mean, I'm not sure. An African bee was how? Well, I mean, I guess South African is a little. Oh, yeah, South African is. That's where they're from. Blood diamond. We got to go get the blood diamond. Yeah. There you go. I don't think it's like that. And really, all I know is the badly inherited caprio accent from blood diamond. Right. Right. We need to go get the blood diamond. There's the blood diamond over there. I feel like I'm sitting

with him. It also has a little bit of Christopher walking to it. That is Chris. That's that's what I like to call a South walking. I was going to tell you about it. The bees. So some of them got out. Kerr, the English, right, gentlemen, got all loudmouthed about the brutality of the Brazilian government's human rights record, because that was a dictatorship at that point. Uh huh. So he starts mouthing off about what they'd done to someone that was a friend of his and blah, blah, blah, okay. Torture, whatever. Yeah, but he had. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Torture, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So he was arrested. And then we're

talking. They held him in jail for a while. Uh huh. And then he got out and then started fucking blabbing again. What's his problem? So they arrested him again. And after that, the government decided to discredit him. Okay. So they pushed the narrative that he was sort of a bee Frankenstein and that he had carelessly allowed these crazy bees to escape. He was a bee Frankenstein. Yes. And that he sort of he made he made these he was an evil mad scientist. So the bees fucked or whatever bees do. Sure. And then he let them go like. I think they suck things. Exactly like Frankenstein. Right. Yeah, exactly. Yep. And then they

weren't dead. It's a hive, a hive. Well done. So newspaper stories stories followed that Kerr had been importing crazy vicious African bees, which were called killer bees. These bees, it was said, could attack humans on command. You know, what's amazing is that I'm probably about to learn how killer bees aren't real. And I totally thought it was a thing forever. No, no, you'll see there's a okay. It's a little more nuanced than that. Okay. But this is how the name came about and it stuck. These bees, it was said, could attack humans on command. Kerr, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, we can't go by that too quickly. It's okay.

So it's like this. Bees attack. And then they go here, boy, here, boy, go here. Smell that bandana. Hey, go find this guy. Go find this guy, girl. Go, go, go, go, guys. Yeah, that that's how murder me be talking. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then off they they're like, oh, you're like, yes. By the way, when I was researching this, there's a couple of websites about bees that have bee sounds on whenever you go to their website. And it drove me crazy. That is such a great call. It's for the people who love the sound. No one. So, so they can attack humans on hand. Kerr was the man who created the killer bees. He was labeled, which made him suspect

as a scientist. So they had done their job just crediting him. But now the myth of the killer bee is born. Right. In truth, the African bees were not any more venomous than a European bee. And they don't attack humans or animals for the hell of it or on command. They're just more defensive. On command is just such an insane thing to suggest or awesome. I mean, look, I'm all down. I'm down for domesticating bees. They learn to swarm as a way to protect their hives from predators in Africa. The common German bee is more aggressive. But as we know from American history, nothing is more tainted than when it comes to giving

giving something the label African. In Latin America, they actually call them brave bees, not killer bees. Interesting. Yeah. Fun spin. But they quickly became known as Africanized bees or killer bees here in the US and in Brazil. Stories began appearing in print about Brazilian dogs, pigs and chickens being stung to death. It was only a matter of time before the US caught on. In 1972, the US Department of Agriculture issued a warning that a ferocious strain of African honey bees were spreading northward from Brazil. The press in the US immediately started calling. Is it like a meteorologist for bees? What?

Like somebody who's like, I'm watching them where they're going. It looks like a five day forecast. Well, I'm a meteorologist. The US. Well, that's the job. The US Department of Agriculture is supposed to tell you when there's agriculture things going on. Right. And bees coming, which would fuck with your hives, are legitimate. How can you tell the bees are coming? They're, well, that's the problem. They tweet it. They look the same. It's a, they can't, I don't know, be expert scan. Maybe when they cross. So we are talking about meteorologists. Maybe when they hit, when they get to an area, they flip a lever.

So you know they've gotten that far. Okay. I get that. That's what I think. I get that. Yeah. I get that. The lever theorem. Or they set off a horn. Oh, okay. Or they're just horning. I swear to God, I thought that was a real horn. If you saw my face, I did. I was like, what? It was very shocked. You're like Michael Winslow. You're the human sound machine. So, so they put this out. Then the US press immediately started calling them killer bees. But the warning was only about how domestic honey bees in the US would be attacked and taken over by the African bees, not that they would kill people. Okay. Good. It was said the bees

are moving north at a rather slow rate of 200 miles a year. Might be a minute. Soon the black widows are like they're beating us. Soon the press turned it. Oh my god. Oh god. It's everything okay. You just gotta wait till the dogs are working. Okay. Soon the press thingies off. Oh. Soon the press turned into hysteria. Later that summer, the Associated Press put our story about the impending killer bee nightmare. Okay. It said that swarms of ferocious honey bees that were known to kill people and animals were headed toward the US at a terrifying rate of 200 miles per year. Interesting. It's the same news. Just a

nice little spin on it. Right. There was no way to stop them according to the news. It would take four to six years before they crossed our border. Let's build a wall. A huge wall. A giant wall. A giant wall that the bees can't even get over. I'm gonna build a wall. Be high. That's right. Their aggressive nature was highlighted. That's the best thing you should say to the bees when they're doing that. Oh be hive. Oh boy. Their aggressive nature was highlighted. Quote hundreds of bees become airborne and pursue and sting any animals or people within a hundred meters of the apiary. That's a high set of hive. Right. According to the

American press media both animals and people were being killed in Brazil by these horrific and deadly swarms. The first articles were based on a report put out by the National Research Council and the National Academy of Sciences after a group of scientists traveled from America to the Africanized bee area in northern Brazil. So they're going down there to check out this bee situation. Right. The scientists labeled the bees objectionable and dangerous. Okay. They're very objectionable. And dangerous. But you had to say about the bees. I object to these bees. And they're dangerous. They stated it was

essential to do whatever could be done to keep the bees out of North America. It was emphasized that the killer bees would become angrier than the bees now living in the U.S. Yeah. They they'll get angry. Well all that travel. They're mad. I mean just you're kind of just irritable really. Yeah. When you're traveling a lot. Yeah. It's a long travel day. In December of 1972 the Medill News Service put out a story with a large headline reading killer bees are coming. A smaller not centrally placed sub headline read may damage crops. Ah. Amazing. Opening sentence of the art killer bees killer bees. I mean if this

was written by like a corn paper like a paper that was for corn then I think that would be okay. A paper that is for corn like corn is supposed to read it. Yeah. Like it's yeah like the corn like the corn journal like corn corn monthly. Yeah. And then now but corn is not reading it. People make corn or it's called your world is corn like the San Francisco cornical. Good night. Good night everyone. Honey did you hear about this bees are coming to eat us. I can't believe we're continuing with this story because that was the perfect ending. So the opening sentence of the article killer bees are coming and nobody knows

how to stop them yet. Except for experts. The article like fine print. Yeah. Several people that know what they're doing. The article then quickly shifted into it and said that the African bees could have been could have had serious consequences for American agriculture explaining which crops could be in danger and the high cost of their arrival. Okay. So they just they literally just put killer bees in the headline and then killer bees in the first sentence. Well you got to move units. Got to move the units baby. After a reasonable explanation of the killer bee for a few paragraphs the article really got into the hysteria.

Quote an angry swarm of American honey bees will sting perhaps 10 times a minute. That's OK. That's almost normal bees if you make normal bees angry. Wait if you if you fuck with a hive of just regular old bees. Oh my god. 10 times. Yeah you get 10 times. You'd be lucky to be like thank god. Yeah. Someone who irritates a swarm may be in for 200 to 300 stings a minute. OK. But who who is this idiot who's fucking with the hive. Yeah. Who's going hive hidden. Have you ever heard of hive punchers magazine. Oh that's a good one. Those guys for sure. Yeah. That's a good one. It then stated that 300 to 400 human deaths were

occurring in Brazil a year from killer bees. Well I mean if those numbers hold up I think they have every right to say what they're saying. This of course failed to mention that many people who died from bee stings died due to allergies. Right. In the US at that time 100 people a year were dying from normal bees due to allergies. Sorry killer bees. OK. Yeah. Well OK. They killed them didn't they. Fair OK. And most of those people had underlying health issues and were elderly. I still think it's like killer bees. Horses were said to be very vulnerable to the African bee and commercial beekeeping was going to turn into a high risk

profession as many beekeepers would be killed by their own hives. Wow. Yeah. Mutiny. The fucking nightmare. Scientists were recommending what was being called a genetic barrier. Sure. Which would be an area 20 to 30 miles wide stretching across across Central America from ocean to ocean that we would be flooded with a breed of bee superior to the African bee. Wait. There. So they put an area like a it's a basically a genetic barrier. So when the African bees fly in those bees are better and probably more aggressive and they fuck the they fuck. Sorry. They start banging the the sweet.

Their solution to the killer bee problem is to add worse bees scientific discussion. So they they they they fuck the African killer queen. I think what fuck is being thrown around. You're not these bees are more sedate and not as vicious. But they're in a fucking lady African bees. Is that really the idea. The idea is that they found a hornier bee that's just going to bang the other bees and take their mind off of their mission of killing us. The idea is that they're that this bee will take over the African bees hive but not be as dangerous to human animals. OK. So it's just it's strange to be like we're

scared of these bees. Let's get worse bees. But they're not worse bees. They're just that they're just they're kind of hippie bees. Well they'll take over. Hey man. What's the rush. So they'll kind of talk about it comes in punching and then everyone. Hey bro bro bro bro bro why all the flying bro. Exactly like that. Chill out for a minute. What's with your swarm. Lay on some of this comb bro. Check this out here. Take a hit. Take a rip of this man. This is fucking delicious shit. Hold it in. What's that. That's a beach man. Chill out man. You guys got to relax dude. Let's just sit here dude. Think about it

for a minute man. Just relax. I'm in here and you've been killing pigs and shit. How about this. When was the last time you took a vacation bro. Right. Come here the commune. That's what we're talking about. We're all banging each other's queens. All banging each other's queens. It's a real weird vibe man. It's a super weird vibe man. Hey take another hit of this man. Keep hitting this dude. Just so I can take some of that. That's our leader's name Dave. Dave's our leader. We've been following him for a couple of years. He's awesome dude. He's been stocking up on Kool-Aid man. Gonna love it man. I don't know what that's all about

but it's gonna be cool. Now we're talking about making a slip and slide later bro. Man summertime all the time. Oh god I feel weird. I think I took too much acid. Yep that might have been it because I just realized I'm not a bee. I'm a person. Yeah we're people. What am I. Well I'm talking to a bee. Yeah I'm also I'm gonna go peel myself. All right. And done. So the idea is that this genetic barrier will halt the advance of the bees. Sure. Okay. The big problem with this idea is that no type of bee existed. Okay. So the problem is they're dreaming. I mean that's kind of it. Yeah okay. We've got a solution. Except the key component doesn't exist. Well it's kind

of like what people were saying about global warming when they're like we'll just take the carbon out of the air. Right. I'm excited for that part. Yeah. Could we do that soon. Yeah we'll do that about 500 years. No we'll wait. Wait on that. Technology is available. Well they did it nicely but on a grander scale. It's not happening. Oh that'll be fine. But that's whatever. Ah the solution is we'll just put some stuff up there. Dude we got a big sky vacuum. We're gonna suck all the bullshit out of the air. What are you fucking worried about. We'll do it 500 bucks. Boom bam boom. One scientist said quote man's knowledge of bee breeding is where child breeding was

a thousand years ago. So good. So we're not. I read that sentence and it was in an article about killer bees. I have no idea what it means. It's anti right. But I put it in there. I don't know what it means but it was in the article. What a weird way to quantify it. It should be included in this. That's like who why did anyone put that in anything. These are these were the great scientific minds who were working against killer bees. Was that guy like there will be no follow up questions. This is like us watching bees fuck now is like when we used to watch kids fuck. Look we know about as much as we do about bees as we did about carriages 55 years ago. So take care. So another problem with the killer bee was that it looked just like any other

bee living in America. Oh man US Department of Agriculture alerted countries between the bees and the US about the problem and it urged them to establish bee quarantines to prevent people from importing queen killer bees. OK. What but they warned quote even quarantine will not be foolproof however for a queen or a tube of semen could easily be smuggled in. What is the OK. Let's go on. Circle back. They're people importing queens. Yep. They're concerned that obviously obviously now we're talking about terrorism. I mean who we've got a watch list. These are. Hey what's up man. Huh. Yeah. Yeah I do actually. But what's the plan. Who's semen is that. Wait. Sorry. Real quick. Who's semen is that. Who. Dude get the semen away

from the queen for a second. Who's semen isn't. Dude don't don't not now. Who's semen. Who's cut is that. Who's semen is that. Got all over her face. What are you doing. Why are you just coming on anything. But I'll tell you what that's a good movie. What I I I came here to do something else but I made a good movie. What. Yeah. She's. OK. Poor queen. It's all right. She's she doesn't use to it. She can't breathe. Oh she looks mad. It's a thick fluid. The one big plus was that killer bees did not like the cold. So the place is affected where swaths of humans would be killed by bees was just in the south and southwestern United States. Other news reports said that quote there were many reports of animals and people being killed by bee stings. Apparently to make

matters worse the killer bees were very easily agitated quote any slight jarring or vibration of the hive can set off a chain reaction that explodes within seconds and causes whole apiaries to go out of control. But you could do this headline for like if bulls will attack if you get into the cage and shake them. That's your problem we're talking about killer bees. Yeah but everything is like if you go look if you kick the hive they're going to be huge dicks. I don't know what your problem is. Stay away from the hive. This is where they got their name. They aren't different than regular bees who lose their shit when you attack their hive but they do swarm and attack as a group. This would also be a huge problem for commercial beekeepers because ground

vibrations from farm equipment would lead to horrific death. But is this the case quote hundreds of bees becoming airborne and pursuant sting any animals or person within 100 meters of the apiary. The story morphed and now the scientists who had traveled to Brazil to investigate the bees. Remember those guys. Now apparently they had been stung several times themselves despite anticipating the danger and wearing protective gear. Okay now that story is that those scientists were attacked through their gear. Yeah so now they can break through anything. Yeah they get through locks. We need bee bullets. The bees were also said to follow people over great distances. These bees were like the Michael Myers from the movie Halloween. Well have you ever gotten into

one of those like predicaments with a bee where it's just kind of won't just get out of your shit. Would it like single it's like singled out a person. It's my favorite thing to watch and my least favorite thing to go through. No I went through it the other day. It was like a couple weeks ago there was one just following me. What's up dude. It was not difficult to freak people out. A lot of people are allergic to bees so this was their nightmare scenarios and you can't really avoid bees. It's not like jaws where you dunk on the water. You can't not go outside. No what you do is you just go in the water. So people are obviously getting very scared. Attacking the bees from the sky with a plane using poison was being considered. Oh good. But spraying anti

bee spray could stop an attack but the problem was it would be hard to do over populated area when the bees are attacking. So you'd be spraying the bees with poison and you'd be getting the people. You'd be poisoning people. Our solution is to poison the people. Well we'll just kill the people getting stung. Think about it. You know what there's got to be some death here. Think about it. Someone's got to go. They'll be the weakest of the herd. People who raised bees in their backyard as a hobby were certain to have to give up their pastime. It was believed. Quote they rarely have problems with the gentle bees they keep now but the African bees take over their hives. They might get worked up every time a neighbor came near. It would

be an impossible situation. And this is all basically without evidence. Yeah they're just making stuff up. Right. Okay. 100 percent. Okay great. In 1973 a story in a local paper led off with quote a ferocious race of man-killing bees is moving northward through Latin America toward the United States. Who is this meteorologist is like if you watch their patterns. There come the bees. Look they're signaling. In 1975 the UPI reported that the bees were steadily advancing toward the U.S. and they had already killed 200 people and thousands of animals. Now they were immune to any kind of geographical or weather barrier and were capable of nesting anywhere and they would attack with several thousand at once. The bees would also try to

sting people on their faces and necks which would cause death by suffocation. They knew where the kill zone was. Neckbees. They knew what they were after the neck neck and head. Yeah. Get right after it. They know what they're doing. Getting that fix. Yeah. A month later a newspaper took it up a notch reporting that the bees would quote cluster madly on the throats of victims each bee stinging as often as 60 times a minute. The concentration of venom brings on fast and fatal shock. Is it. Now I know that this isn't connected to reality but the bees can't sting multiple times. So are they. Is that. Now these are still the one and done bee. OK. But the terror didn't really begin until the killer bee movies and books started

coming out. Oh boy. Which came in March 1975. Oh boy. March 11th the ABC Tuesday night movie was called Killer Bees. Oh boy. But of course it had a twist. An aging matriarch dominates her family and terrorizes a town by her strange power to control killer bees. Oh. So she had ESB. Saturday Night Live began making fun of the bee history with sketches about killer bees. In which job was she and other cast members would dress up like bees. Yeah. But that movie did nothing. The movie did nothing compared to the hysteria that began with Jack Leffen's novel The Bees. The book opens. What gradually caused. It'd be great if the book opened and bees flew out. So great. What gradually caused docile domestic insects whose normal function was to

gather honey and pollinate crops to become cantankerous assassins prone to strike without warning kill people and animals spread terror throughout an entire continent. I mean. Right. Now you're scared. That was followed by the book The Swarm by Anthony Herzog which actually led to it being developed into a major motion picture. Obviously. In 1978 starring Michael Cain. I was going to ask is it a movie starring Michael Cain. In The Swarm killer bees attack Texas. The bees crash helicopters. Sting the blades. They trap families in their homes and eventually an entire town and they kill hundreds. The swarm then makes its way to Houston.

You know it's the old the swarm is coming. We have to warn the people in Houston. Yeah. An arrogant nuclear power plant manager is sure his plant can withstand an attack from bees. I love. I love that character already. Yeah. What are you kidding me. They can't get inside here. We're fine. We got all kinds of security and safety measures. Bees cannot. It's down this plant. How many times does you get the same thing with flies Marty. You came in here the other day and you said what is that. What is that buzz. What is. Holy God. Sting his face. Sting his face. Of course he was wrong. The bees killed everyone in the plant which was destroyed and then destroyed a town. Well what he forgot is that bees love plants.

Thank you. So then due to some quick thinking the bees were lured out into the ocean by two helicopters. Here bees. Where the bees were set on fire. Oh of course. Take them to the ocean to light them. Yeah. Day saved. Sure. But for how long. That's the question. I wonder myself too. I don't know. It was a horrible box office bomb. Michael Cain still says this is the worst movie he ever made. Still people remain vigilant about the coming of the bees. But then they took so fucking long to get here. Next the movie the bees came out. In this one killer bees attacked all of the United States. Good. The people fought back by bombing the bees. Right. Uh huh. The bees took out bombers. Sure. Yep. Helicopters. Of course.

And fighter jets. Thank you. Scientists try to stop them but instead end up making a super intelligent killer bee. You know I mean it's a fine line between stopping them and making them impossible to defeat. Finally the bees reached out and communicated a warning. Okay. That unless a man stops abusing their environment they would eliminate man completely. So there was a cute message. The bees end up running the planet. In the end. Mankind rejected the bee treaty. Do you want me to say it again? The bees end up running the planet. In what way? It's smart bees now. What way? I saw the end of it and the bees were like talking to the United Nations. What? You've got an actual bee. They're talking through a guy. The guys like the bees say that

they're in charge now and we have to do what they say and everyone's like fuck all right we'll do it. You promise you speak bee. Is there that scene? It all turns out to just be one guy who's crazy. I talk for the bees. So I just got back from lunch with the bees. I mean we should probably have a screening of that movie. Absolutely. Maybe we will. Maybe we'll try to set up a screening. All right that'd be great. That's a great idea. But the bees were not coming in the 70s and people became scared of other things like AIDS and nuclear war. Years went by. Finally years later when the killer bees really did come people were over it and their coming was very subtle. Right. It was mostly just

noticed by beekeepers and entomologists. Right. In 1988 the U.S. and Mexico split the cost on a six billion dollar effort to trap and kill killer bees but they could not stop the bees. They finally crossed the border and colonized Texas in 1990. In May of 1991 Jesus Diaz became the first person to be attacked by killer bees in the U.S. while mowing a lawn in the border city of Brownsville. Okay. Texas that's Texas by the way. Diaz suffered 18 bee stings and was treated at a local hospital. Okay. So he's lucky he's alive. Of course now the media called them Africanized bees because at the time African bees tried to kill Jesus. At the time people were terrified of black people in America. Right. George Bush

the first had just won an election with his Willie Horton ads which showed a black man explain how a black man had gotten out on day parole been let out by Dukakis and then he had committed another crime. Yeah. The ads helped us swing the election trying to pass welfare reform and crime bills of the 90s. Our politicians stated it was quote time to bring them to heal portraying blacks as super predators. It was all going on at the time. Perfect. So an Africanized bee was the perfect insect for the perfect time period. That is crazy. I almost that's insane. Yeah. I mean the idea that they're like well I just don't like the black bees. So this is when you know this is the crack scare. This is when everyone's like the

the black people are going crazy with their crack and their committing crimes and then murdering everyone. Right. So of course the bees are Africans. Right. Yep. Africanized bees. Perfect. This set off another wave of hysteria books and shitty movies. Strangely life. Hip hop bees. But look at them bees with their pants down to their boom boxes that they actually apologize. They don't have pants. Look they're break dancing now. Strangely life went on as usual. We were not spending our daily lives fighting off bees as we had told we would be. Well I'm shocked. But they would occasionally kill. On July 5th 1993 82 year old Lionel Lopez was the first person to die in the U.S. from Africanized honey bee stings. He was stung more

than 40 times while trying to remove a colony from a wall in an abandoned building on his ranch near Harlington Texas. The question is was he in like safety stuff? Listen he was trying to remove a fucking colony from what an 82 year old guy is like I'll take these goddamn bees out. Yeah. And then they fucking kill them. That's what we call natural selection. Right. Yeah. I'm just going to take these beehive out of my wall. Ow. I'm not going to pay someone to do this. Oh my god. You're on my face. But I'm going to look. I'm hard to go out to the family. He was stung 40 times. Most could survive that but he was old. He probably had some underlying health conditions. He won't like that for a while. Occasional bee attacks. But the killer

bee attacks did become more frequent in 2011. A 62 year old man died in Texas after being attacked by 40,000 bees. Whoa. Two public park employees in Tampa managed to survive an attack of 100,000 bees. I think the bees hate rednecks. Yep. They described the sky as going black. Oh my god. In 2014, 800,000 bees killed a 32 year old gardener in Arizona. Wow. That's a lot of bees. I mean that really is. Around 40 people a year are killed in bee attacks in the U.S. each year. But killer bees have only killed around 10 people since they arrived in the United States. Far from the number we expected in the 70s. Right. When we were seriously, we were all raised to be terror. Like we all thought. You thought you knew about bees

being like. We thought doom was coming. Oh my god. Like we were literally walking around going, how are we going to survive in this world of just constant bee attacks? It was just like you were going to go outside and one day driveway bees. Yeah. That's what you that's what we thought was going to happen. Oh my god. It turns out it's very rare to be killed by a killer bee. While not destroying our way of life, Africanized honeybees have now killed over 1000 people in Brazil. They will chase someone a quarter of a mile. They patrol 100 foot radius around their hive for disturbances. The killer bees are continuing to move north in the U.S. They migrate where there are warm temperatures, which fortunately. Oh, that's good news for us. It's

not an issue for us because there's no warm, no warming thing happening. Wait here. Dave in the in America. No, no, no. We're cooling. No, no, no. I read an article from Time Magazine in 1962. Oh, sorry. I didn't realize you were reading time. We are cooling. Okay. Today, African be Africanized bees live in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Louisiana, Florida, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee and Utah. Those are all states. Trump will probably win. I hope so. He's going to win the bee states. Yeah. That's crazy. That is. So now we should be the most scared of them. And we're not. Well, it's because it's rational to not be. It's like you said, you,

I mean, no, it's like any struck by lightning. Yeah. But also like, you know, the guy was digging in his fucking walls because they would be. Yeah. Now the gardener. Okay. He didn't know there were bees around. But still, you could argue that that is like any bee. Yeah. Because I remember when I was a kid, we were playing. We had a little league game and there was this big fucking beat like a like a classic sort of hanging beehive right over the home home runfield, you know, the wall. Oh, that's good. And I look at I'm like, holy shit, that is actually really cool. And just that I look at my teammate and he he is in throwing motion and I'm like, no. And he just wings the ball and hits the beehive. Oh my God. And then it's just everyone and then

it's just fucking everyone running for their life because the bees are going crazy. That's a good teammate. All the bees are trying to sting you. And then they had to call up the games for like three or four hours or whatever because the bees were fucking trying to sting everybody. You had to be because they're bees. Yeah. That's what bees don't leave their hives alone. These ones swarm and actually all go at you at once. So it's a different thing. Right. Still, it's you're going to get fucked if you attack any beehive. Yeah. Yeah. Just leave them alone. That's this that's what this podcast is about. It's like I said earlier. Oh, beehive. We've been we've been about the message we've been trying to put across with this podcast is leave the bees alone. Yep.

The bees are our friend. Since beginning of since we started this two years ago, it's all about be etiquette. Yeah. And it's good that we can finally get into that. Thank you. And explain that we're both actors and our names are Dave and Gareth. Right. Anyway, wait, I am Randy Sklar and this is Jason Sklar. Thank you. This has been Sklar Borough Country. Feel free to bring a car and we'll sign it. Yep.