Is Texas Beeworks’ Erika Thompson actually “saving the bees?”
Photo: Getty Images/Texas Beeworks/TikTok Oh, honey, we’ve got bee drama. Popular TikTok account Texas Beeworks is facing backlash for its bee-removal and beekeeping videos. Texas Beeworks’ Erika Thompson is best known for videos that show her gently scooping up dozens of bees with her bare hands. They’re usually accompanied by a soft-spoken voice-over explaining things like how she finds the queen and why the bees she’s relocating have swarmed a particular surface .
“It’s true that bees sometimes get tangled in hair; usually it’s defensive bees,” said Hilary Kearney, a beekeeper and the author of QueenSpotting, a book exploring the life of the queen bee. Kearney also explained the criticism of Thompson’s dark clothes via email with the Cut: “The theory is that bees have evolved to be defensive towards dark colors because of bears and skunks and other predators that are typically furry and dark.” Hence why beekeepers’ protective gear is often white.
Kearney echoed the importance of understanding bees’ behavior in determining the risk of interacting with a hive. “Every bee colony and every situation is unique,” Kearney explained, noting that the necessity of certain gear varies depending on the situation. “Many beekeepers work with minimal to no protective clothing.”
There are also questions about the videos being staged or “faked.” Thompson has been accused of staging some colony removals or using precut pieces of honeycomb in order to make the bees easier to handle. “Even if she’s going in with the suit and doing the entire removal herself, she then takes off the suit and poses as bee-removal Barbie, holding little bits of comb, wearing inappropriate clothes with her hair down, and it’s fake,” L.A. Honeybee Rescue said in one video. “She’s faking the job.
Is she actually “saving the bees”? Like most buzz-y issues — excuse my pun — bee conservation and “saving the bees” is more complicated than merely interacting with any species of bee. “[Texas Beeworks] claims to ‘preserve, protect, and increase bee populations across’ Texas without ever mentioning supporting our native bees on their website or TikTok,” entomologist and pollinator-conservation specialist @EntomologyAbby said on TikTok.
There is also concern that viewers may be unaware of the major differences among bee work. On Friday, LA Honeybee Rescue, whose TikToks have frequently been cited as a source of Texas Beeworks criticism, spoke to the Cut by phone. After their videos started gaining attention, LA Honeybee Rescue’s TikTok page was suspended; they told the Cut their account was reported for being run by someone under 13. The account has since been reinstated.
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