下のスクリプトは事前提出されたものですので、ビデオの音声とは一部異なる場合があります。

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To Bees, or Not to Bees: That is the Question!

TAMURA, Hideki  (Oshima N.C.M.T.)

How many Oshima Islands are there in Japan? Perhaps no one knows the exact number of them. Our Oshima Island is located in Yamaguchi Prefecture, the third largest island in the Inland Sea. Oshima is a place full of nature and beauty. So my house is surrounded by forests and fields. Needless to say, there are many insects as well as small wild animals. Some are even in my house. The reason is simple. Our house is an old house, built 50 years ago. That is why the insects are free to come and go through any of the numerous cracks or holes. I think that they live quite naturally in my home.

One day in May, 2006. It was a very fine day. I opened the window and was sweeping my room and airing out my futon. Suddenly I faintly heard what sounded like groans in the distance. I couldn't be sure if I actually heard anything. The next moment, I saw something in the distance, a black mass in the air over the mountain. The groaning sound that I heard was getting louder and louder as the black mass gradually approached. The black mass flew under my house, more specifically, under the floor of my room. That was in fact a swarm of bees. The bees came in a large swarm. A lot of bees were flying all around me. Later I got to know that they came to build a new beehive to leave their descendant because the queen bee was born in them. Bees make honey, and can sting.

To exterminate the beehive, my father and I made a plan to drive them away from our house. First we located where they were. The bees enter from a lattice under the floor, a very narrow entrance. They were building their hive in a place outside our reach. Secondly, I sprayed them with an insecticidal spray. Some of the bees fell to the ground, but for the most part it was ineffective. The first attack was not successful. The insecticide would perhaps need some time to take effect. Thirdly, I tried putting a mosquito repellent at the entrance under the floor. This strike ended up to be ineffective, and it seemed to merely dull the bee's movement a little. Furthermore, my father tried flushing them out with the water hose. The bees were still alive, though. Finally, I spent several days fighting against the bees. However, they continued working hard, flying in and out of the entrance under the floor. We decided to let them be.

Last year, what do you think happened? Several very big hornets, about the size of my finger, appeared at the same place. A hornet is an insect with wings and yellow and black stripes across its body. It has a painful sting like a bee but does not produce honey. They swarmed near the entrance under the floor. They came to prey on those bees. They had come to prey on the bees, the same species as them. The enemy was larger and stronger than before.

Soon after that, we had the first victim. My father was stung by a hornet while farming in our field. The hornet stung him on the top of his nose. My poor father had a bump on the nose. At the sight of it, I almost burst into laughter. But, if he is stung again, the chance of surviving lowers due to an allergy symptom of anaphylaxis. In fact, it is not a laughing matter. At last, we decided to leave everything to the passage of time and do nothing.

Several months passed, the season changed. The bee's fluttering was completely gone. Since they had not been seen, my father peeped into the entrance under the floor. There were a lot of dead bees piled up on the ground about 10cm deep, due to the actions of the hornets. The hornets had killed the bees in overwhelmingly large numbers. Now the place under the floor was peaceful in the dark. What was all that disturbance about between bees, hornets and our family? This spring, I opened the window to clean my room. Several bees entered the same place under the floor as in the past. Apparently, the bees had returned to build yet another beehive under the floor.

It is often said that history is a continuous process of helping and being helped by others. This time, the connection among bees, our family and hornets seems to be a kind of ‘Food Chain.' In other words, we cannot help leading our life under Nature's Providence. Even if we do not rush into action, it is likely to be solved by a happy dispensation of nature. I am hoping for the power of nature to take effect again as the bee hive is still under my floor. It is quite ironic to think that I should rely on hornets' power. Are we friendly to Bees or not to Bees?