The "dangerous business" behind the man's death after picking a hornet's nest:

The sale of hornet's honeycombs has become an industry. There are hundreds of "bee hunters" in the local area.

　　On the morning of September 25, a 54-year-old man, Liao Moumou, was buried in a camphor forest not far from his home in Guanyin Town, Yibin, Sichuan.

　　Three days ago, on September 22, he was trapped on a 25-meter-high treetop while wearing a bee-proof suit in the forest of Yile Town, Jiang'an County, Yibin.

When firefighters rescued him from the tree after more than 20 hours, he had died unfortunately.

　　The reporter visited the local area and found that Guanyin Town has formed an industry for picking and selling hornet's nests. There are hundreds of local people engaged in this "dangerous business", and they are called "bee hunters".

Guanyin Town is a town where there are many "hunting bee people" in Yibin, and has formed a self-contained industrial chain.

Tragedy happened

Man picking hornet's nest in bee-proof clothing

Was trapped in a 25-meter-high treetop and died

　　54-year-old Liao XX is from Guanyin Town, Xuzhou District, Yibin City. At noon on September 22, Liao XX and his brother-in-law went to the Camellia Group of Tiantang Village, Yile Town, Jiang’an County, Yibin City to pick a big tree. Hornet's nest on the top.

　　For Liao Moumou, picking up this hornet's nest is full of challenges-the diameter of the honeycomb is more than one meter, located at the top of the tree, about 30 meters above the ground, equivalent to the height of a 10-story building.

Liao Moumou needs to climb to the beehive with his bare hands, but also tries to remove the beehive.

　　On that day, in order to prevent being stung by a wasp, Liao Moumou wore an orange bee-proof suit, fastened a safety rope, and started climbing from the ground to where the wasp was.

Meteorological data showed that the highest temperature in Yibin area reached 32 degrees Celsius on September 22, the weather was hot, and the sun was harsh, which made it more difficult for Liao to pick a hornet's nest.

　　At 14:20 on September 22, a companion found that Liao Moumou, who had climbed to a height of about 25 meters above the ground, was in distress. His head was drooping, and his right knee was caught between the branches of the tree.

Liao Moumou's brother-in-law borrowed a wooden ladder and climbed up to him, but because of a wasp attack and excessive physical exertion, he could not rescue the trapped Liao Moumou.

　　Subsequently, after receiving the call, the Yibin Jiangan fire rescue personnel were unable to rescue due to the obstruction of the bee colony and other reasons.

Until 14:02 on September 23, when he was roped to the ground, Liao Moumou had been trapped in a tree for more than 24 hours, and he died unfortunately.

　　According to analysts in the beekeeping industry, Liao is not a professional in picking hornet honeycombs. The bee-proof clothing he wears has a built-in fan to provide air and heat dissipation. "It is likely that due to his lack of experience, the fan was cut off and died due to suffocation and extreme heat."

　　Liao Moumou's hometown is in a village under the jurisdiction of Guanyin Town.

A local village official told reporters that Liao Moumou is 54 years old this year. The couple earn a living from farming. They earn about 10,000 to 20,000 yuan from selling camphor oil each year, which is the main source of family income.

In recent years, Liao XX will go into the mountains to look for beehives in autumn and sell bee pupae to increase income.

　　Village officials told reporters that in the past few years, Liao XX’s only son, Xiao Liao, spent a lot of money studying, so the economic conditions of the Liao family have not been considered ample.

After graduating, Xiao Liao worked in other places, and usually only Liao Moumou and his wife were at home.

　　Xiao Liao told reporters that the bee-proof suit his father wore when the accident happened last year he bought his father online.

"Thinking that he loves to eat bee pupae, he wants to get it by himself. For his safety, he won't be stung by wild bees, so I bought him a bee-proof suit."

Business behind

Local picking hornet's nest and selling bee pupae into an industry

Some businesses sell more than 20,000 catties of honeycombs annually

　　Guanyin Town is located in the north of Xuzhou District, Yibin City.

On Jiangxi Street in Guanyin Town (opposite the Guanyin Farmers Market), the entrances of three shops are densely packed with hornet's nests.

The owner, Zheng Guoying, told reporters that these hornet's nests of various sizes and shapes were picked by local Guanyin people. They called people who specialize in finding and harvesting hornet's nests as "bee hunters", and there were about a hundred people.

　　According to Zheng Guoying, the "hunting beemen" in Guanyin Town not only collect hornet's nests in the areas of Guanyin and Yibin, but also look for "prey" in the mountainous areas of Yunnan, Guizhou, and Chongqing.

Therefore, the honeycombs and bee pupae sold in Guanyin Town come from all over the country and become delicacies on the table.

　　Local businesses that sell wild bee pupae all know that Liao XX died after picking a hornet's nest.

Zheng Guoying told reporters that as long as the bee seeker retrieves the hive, he will send it to the store for sale, and then look for it.

Hong Feng, head of the Sichuan Yibin Vespa Breeding Professional Cooperative, told reporters that the scientific name of wild bees is collectively called wasps. The wasps are only a category of wasps, and the wasps have different classifications and are distributed in mountainous areas such as Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, and Chongqing.

The larva, the bee pupae, is rich in protein and has high nutritional value, making it a high-end food material.

　　The wasps distributed in the Yibin area are dominated by "youqili" (the Qili area where the bee colony is centered on the hive). The venom in the bee sting is more toxic, and the sting is numb, swollen, and painful. , On the other hand, it destroys the blood system and causes death of people and animals.

　　According to Hong Feng, based on his many years of experience in wasp breeding and bee pupae purchasing and sales, it is conservatively estimated that the number of "bee hunters" from Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, and Hubei will be at least 5,000 people. In many towns, there are about 70 or 80 people (and some people also sell honeycomb pupae in their spare time), and they have indeed formed a self-contained industrial chain.

　　Zheng Guoying was the first merchant in Guanyin Town that began to focus on purchasing, wholesale and retailing bee pupae. Her store's main business was to sell bulk liquor. When wild bees became pupae every year, the store's main business became the buying and selling of honeycombs and bee pupae.

Zheng Guoying told reporters that her house alone sells more than 20,000 jin (10 tons) of honeycombs each year.

And her two neighbors are now also buying and selling honeycombs.

　　According to Hong Feng, "For the "hunting bee man", the average daily shipment volume is about 80 kilograms, and the per capita daily net income can reach more than 1,500 yuan."

　　Chengdu Commercial Daily-Red Star News reporter Luo Min