ABSTRACT: The biology of the 'Beehave' phenomenon is now well understood. Bees are naturally sensitive to alarm pheromones from other insects. In the hybrid bees the sensitivity extended to human pheromones. When humans become angry or upset the hybrid bees misread the pheromones as an alarm.

There has been less attention to the social-scientific history. Perhaps the best investigation to date is the work of the Entomology Section of the National Science Research Centre, from which the following is taken.

SUBHEADING: Item 1: Diary of Lorraine Houston - March 11, Marfa, Texas

Lorraine Houston, age 14, was attending a local horse show and witnessed one of the first stingings by a Beehave bee. Her diary entry was later used as evidence in the divorce of her friend's parents, thereby becoming the earliest known record of the phenomenon.

Kate and I were at the 4H show, outside the ring watching Sarah ride Buck over the jumps but Sarah's mom was being a total pain. Buck took down two fences, and Sarah's mom was just SCREAMING at Sarah. It was so LAME.

All of a sudden, Sarah's mom stopped yelling at Sarah and started jumping around, slapping at her arm and neck. She was yelling "get it off" and stuff like that a bunch of times.

Kimmi and I started laughing but trying not to show it. Pretty much everyone thinks Sarah's mom is so much a pain, even Sarah's Dad says it sometimes. And it was kind of cool to see her jumping around because of the bees.

It seems likely that this is the first instance of the hybrid bees coming into contact with an emotionally volatile situation and reacting in the now-familiar pattern.

Item 2: From the Minutes of the Pecos County Health Council Monthly Meeting - March 26, Fort Stockton, Texas

West Texas authorities soon noticed a pattern of bee stings at public gatherings but failed to make the connection with human behaviour:

17. Several members of the Council commented on an apparent increase in bee stings this year compared to previous years.

Dr Springs commented that he had seen two similar cases. In one case, three drivers were stung at a road construction site. They were upset by the delay from the roadwork and were complaining to the crew when they were stung. In the other instance, a fight between two young boys at a swimming pool ended when both were stung.

Dr Martinez said several of his patients were stung at a reunion picnic. Two women started to argue about "who was the real tramp" in their high-school class. They started pushing and shoving before they were stung.

Item 3: Field Notes of Dr Norman Daniels - Odessa Agricultural and Cattleman's College - April 5, Abejo, Texas

Dr Daniels, a professor of apiculture at Odessa Ag College, became aware of a mass-stinging incident at a little league baseball game in nearby Abejo, Texas. He signed out the college research vehicle (a 1984 Ford utility) and went to investigate.

After finding nothing unusual at the ball field, Dr Daniels interviewed the umpire for the game, Wayne Earl. Because he tape-recorded this interview, Dr Daniels' field notes include Earl's comments verbatim.

"I never seen anything like it. It was in the ninth inning, and a damn close game. The boys on the Deere team were pretty well catchin' up to the Ford guys. Well one of the Deere kids - I think it was the Martinez boy - hits a good, solid double. The outfielder bobbles it and the boy goes to third, but with everybody from Deere screaming go, go, he tries to stretch this double all the way to home.

"The outfielder gets hold of the ball - I forget his name - and he throws it to little Robbie Watkins at short. He throws to the catcher and I call Martinez out at home.

"Now even though he was out pretty clear to me, lots of the parents from the Deere side come running out and yelling something fierce. And of course that just gets the Ford parents going, and in about two seconds the whole home-plate area is pretty much all dads and some moms yelling one way or the other about the call.

"Then a few of 'em change the way they're yelling. Y'know, it goes from an angry yell to an I'm-in-pain kind of yell. And lots of 'em were slapping their necks and faces and stuff, and yelling about bees. Nobody in the stands was getting any stings. None of the players got stung, either. Best I can figure the nest was somewhere on the third-base line and somebody must have stepped on it.

"But I tell you what, those bees got them back on their behaviour double quick. In about a minute flat, things were pretty much quiet again."

Dr Daniels then wanted to interview the sting victims. Despite getting names and addresses for several of the stung parents from Mr Earl, the umpire, and going to their houses, not one of the stinging victims was willing to discuss the event.

Two not home. One wife says husband stung, but won't talk about it. "Gets him mad - he's like that." Fourth house: refuses to open door. Threatens to call police. Watkins' house has 'beware of dog' sign and dog guarding front steps. Rodgers' also with 'dog' sign and loud barking.

Sting victims isolated/inaccessible. Attitude - behaviour - sting linked?

This note is the first record of the professor's "Beehave Hypothesis".

Item 4: Diary Notes from Dr Daniels's Attempt to Identify and Trap Bees - April 27, Abejo, Texas

Dr Daniels's next step was a high point in the history of scientific insight and inventiveness in experimental investigation. And a new low in the treatment of graduate students.

After a few days reflection, Dr Daniels designed an experiment to test his hypothesis that a strain of hybrid bees had reacted to the emotional state of the angry parents. He took four graduate students to Abejo to help search for hybrid bees. He deliberately mistreated two students, in the hope of triggering the Beehave response, as the diary of Entomology grad student Elizabeth Raffen recorded:

Daniels is nothing like I thought he was when I enrolled. He took us to a baseball field where some people were stung. He said he wanted to get specimens from the particular hive that did it.

Daniels had John and me ride in the back of the pickup truck, out in the sun the whole way. When we got there he made the two of us do all the work of unloading the smokers and other gear while he went off somewhere with the other two - it was incredibly inconsiderate and unfair.

To make it a worse day, John and I were both stung. We were talking about what a jerk Daniels was being and suddenly I was stung six times on my face and neck. John was stung too.

Daniels came running over with a big grin on his face and pulled several of the bees off the two of us and into his collection jar. As I said, he's a real jerk.

Item 5: The Abejo Baptist Church Weekly Newsletter - May 2, Abejo, Texas

The bees became the topics of conversation in Abejo, becoming the basis for a Sunday sermon at the Abejo Baptist Church.

Reverend Laughlin's sermon this week will be on the subject of God's design for the natural world. The sermon's title is The Sting of a Bee: God's Reminder of His Plan.

Item 6: Pecos County Law Enforcement Bulletin - May 15, Pecos County, Texas

Daytime violent crime became almost impossible due to the anger-and-stress pheromones emitted by a violent criminal.

2. Crimes of violence are down significantly in the past 60 days. The comparison to last year in the county shows that assault is down by 63 per cent, rape down by 57 per cent, and murder (including attempts) is down 84 per cent.

Several officers have reported that bee stings have prevented violent crimes. A Fort Stockton DV [domestic violence] victim who believed that her ex-husband was stalking her suddenly heard him yelling outside her house. When officers responded to her 911 call, they found the male suspect incapacitated by a series of bee stings.

Item 7: Flyer From the Bulletin Board of the Abejo Free Library - May 17, Abejo, Texas

The Beehave phenomenon caused an increased interest in various self-control disciplines. The small - and badly outnumbered - Buddhist community of Abejo tried to play to this interest.

FREE SEMINAR ON THURSDAY NIGHT: BUDDHIST MEDITATION TECHNIQUES AND SELF-DISCIPLINE.

ABEJO MIDDLE SCHOOL GYM - 7.30PM THURSDAY

As we've all heard, a new type of bees from Mexico is stinging people who lose their temper or get upset. This free lecture will introduce the basic principles of Buddhist meditation and self-control techniques. Come to the gym and find out more.

The group that gathered - almost two dozen people - was a record for the Buddhist community outreach in Abejo.

Item 8: From the Notes of Vice Principal Van Horne - May 22, Abejo, Texas

As adaptable as insects seem to be, teenagers are even quicker to adapt. Some saw the opportunity to use the Beehave situation to their advantage by creating anger in their victims. The following is from the disciplinary referral by Vice Principal Van Horne for several high-school students who were caught harassing a neighbour. To preserve confidentiality, the names of those involved have been omitted.

[Student 1] admits their plan was to trick [the homeowner] into coming outside in an angry frame of mind and let the bees do the rest.

On Wednesday, they were ringing the doorbell repeatedly then running away. On the third occasion, [the homeowner] came running out the front door yelling, but was almost immediately stung repeatedly.

The involved students were given detention for three days.

Item 9: Memorandum of Warden Neal Walton to Texas Department of Prisons - July 27, Lamesa, Texas

The warden of one West Texas prison quickly saw the possibility of using the bees for rehabilitation and applied for permission to start a beekeeping program in his prison.

Inmates showing appropriate motivation to rehabilitate would be permitted to enter into a beekeeping vocational program. The bees would sting inmates who are unable to manage their antisocial impulses, providing a meaningful negative reinforcement for undesirable behaviour. Since the bees would naturally cause the negative stimulus, the prison would be immune from ACLU-type [American Civil Liberties Union] liberal criticism and inmates would rapidly modify their behaviour.

I have already found a market for the honey potentially produced by this program: a health-food chain is willing to buy honey from these bees for its 'relaxation' qualities and the Highway Patrol has suggested they might buy live bees for use in crowd control.

Although any link is officially denied, the Texas State Parole Board subsequently granted 94 per cent of the applications from inmates with beekeeping experience.

Item 10: Field Report of Lt Col William T. Morris on Field Exercises of Texas National Guard - August 7, Fort Bliss, Texas

During the first summer of the bees, war games were conduced in West Texas by various units of the Texas National Guard. Once the effects of the bees on the ability to conduct war were observed, Lt Col Morris prepared a formal report at the request of the Pentagon. Although some of the report remains classified, the following excerpt correctly anticipated the larger effects.

Conclusion: Infantry warfare will be impaired in locations subject to the bee infestation. Except where troops are fully and completely insulated from the bees, their operational effectiveness is reduced quickly to zero. Despite the traditionally acknowledged willingness of experienced soldiers to remain focused on task regardless of extreme injury (as has often been seen in live-combat situations), there appears to be a primal and instinctive reaction to a bee sting that supervenes upon the soldier's commitment. A stinging bee simply cannot be ignored.

To respond to this environment, soldiers should be issued a full-covering bee suit and veil, as well as appropriate bee-proof gloves. At the platoon level, smokers and/or rapid-acting insecticides should be issued.

We must consider the likelihood that bees will constitute a novel and highly effective offensive weapon against a poorly equipped enemy, such as guerrilla, insurgent, or civil unrest combatants. It is recommended that recruitment of apiarists be prioritised and that bee delivery systems be investigated and developed.

The full-scale militarisation of the phenomenon followed, including conscription of the nation's beekeepers. The U.S. Military Academy at West Point added beekeeping to its curriculum and the Air Force Research Laboratory developed the "Buzz Bomb". For more technical details consult Jane's Fighting Insects.

CONCLUSION: Two years after he identified the Beehave hybrid, Dr Daniels retired to a flower-surrounded estate in South Carolina. It is rumoured that he made a fortune by investing in insecticide companies.

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