Bees at Ocean Beach Pier

by Orlando F
(San Diego CA USA)

My wife and I spent the day fishing at Ocean Beach pier yesterday Aug 18 when at around 4 pm bees started converging on my wife's canopy chair roof.

They were swarming all over the place but hurting no one. We had to abandon our things and moved farther away. I could not move the cooler because the umbrella was tied to it so I had to go back and forth to put a caught fish or to get bait.

Every time I went near, a (scout) bee would hover around me to check me out... I was expecting to get stung. At around sunset, they dissipated except for a few hangers on. It was time for us to go home so I just calmly folded the chair and slipped it in the bag. No stingers (whew!) We were wondering though why they (bees) only converged on the canopy of the chair...we had unconfirmed answers like could it be the bright color of the canopy chair or was there a manufacturer chemical they sprayed as fabric preservative that attracted the bees?

Hi Orlando

The short answer is that I have no idea what was going on. If there had been many, many more bees I would have said it was a swarm, although it's getting pretty late in the season for a swarm.

I wonder if a swarm had taken off from Seaworld, I know they have some bees there, they may have got separated from the main swarm as they crossed the water and stopped on your canopy to rest and re-group. Maybe they were attracted to a patch of green in so much blue.

Thanks for sharing

The Bee Guy