Outback road forced to close after incredible eruption from underground burrows
During nine months of the year, you'd never know there were thousands of giant bees hiding underground. One lady knows how to find them.
An outback road has been closed to traffic after it erupted with thousands of giant, hairy native bees. During the summer, if you’d travelled along the stretch near Carnarvon, on Australia’s west coast, you never would have known they were there because the species is dormant for much of the year.
“You wouldn't even see the burrows, because they seal them,” Antoinette Roe told Yahoo News Australia.
When Roe was growing up the Thudgarri and Wadjarri woman knew nothing of Dawson’s Burrowing Bees — called Mungurragurra in the local language. When she’d ride her horse past their burrows she just assumed they were honey bees.
But she was lucky enough to hear the elders speaking about them, and before they died they passed down knowledge about the species. While they don’t eat the bees themselves, for generations local Indigenous people have dug up their sweet and juicy larvae to be cooked on campfire coals.
But now these bees, whose massive wings stretch 4cm across, are drawing international interest. And she’s even taking tour groups through the Gascoyne region of Western Australia during the mating season, with people travelling from the UK to learn from her.
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How do you find giant outback bees?
It’s in July that the ground erupts with a giant buzzing sound, as the bees erupt from their 30 cm deep burrows to feed on bluebell flowers and mate. Videos supplied by Roe reveal just how loud the bees can get.
“When you know they’re out, you’ll see a few flying about. And the [swarm] just gets larger and larger — they make a real buzzing sound,” she said.
“There can be up to 10,000 bees in one little area. And they’re one of the world’s largest bee species.
“I find them easy to find because they lay in the same spots every year. And they like to lay on dirt roads that people use.”
Do they behave like regular honey bees?
The burrows can contain up to seven chambers, and one grub is laid in each. The bees lay smaller offspring towards the top, to later dig it out when it’s time to leave the burrow. This enables the fatter ones to get out without getting stuck.
During mating season, the males are forced to sleep on plants, while the females sleep comfortably inside the burrows.
“The large males brawl over access to the females. Oh my God, it’s so cool to actually witness,” Roe explained.
“And they don’t sting unless you pick up an injured female. And they don’t have a queen. They’re very strange.”
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