A CONSTRUCTION worker who tried to dislodge a swarm of 10,000 bees which landed on his dumper truck could have lost his life if he had continued with efforts to remove them. Instead Eamonn Doherty had a lucky escape after making a bee-line for safety, a decision prompted by the fact young children were playing nearby. The drama unfolded at the site of George Wimpey's Woodland Grange/Forest Park housing development off Moorend Avenue, Marston Green. The 29-year-old was driving along when he noticed a digger driver flashing his lights and looked up to see a swarm of bees making straight for him. Eamonn put his foot down in a bid to escape but unbeknown to him the swarm was on the move and it its centre was a queen bee. They started landing on his truck and Eamonn tried to dislodge them by reversing the truck at speed. But when he saw children playing nearby he decided to get away and help usher them to safety. As he ran away he picked two children up and told the others to make a run for it. Soon after all the bees settled on the truck and it was decided to call in an expert. Site manager Stephen Smith contacted Solihull Council's environ-mental health department who gave them a list of a local bee keepers and one came out to deal with the swarm. Eamonn later discovered his decision to get away could have saved his life after the beekeeper told him had he antagonised the bees he might have been subjected to a full scale attack. "I had a lucky escape and could have been killed," said Eamonn. "We were trying to reverse the dumper truck very quickly to get them off. If we had carried on doing that they would have thought it was an attack on the nest and attacked me. There's no way I would have survived that many bee stings. "The beekeeper said they can sting you up to seven times and with 10,000 of them that would have been 70,000 stings." Miraculously Eamonn was only stung three times as he tried to swat bees away. The worst one saw his leg swell to the size of a tennis ball. The drama lasted for four hours until the beekeeper removed the bees in a special box to take them to a new and more appropriate home. He estimated there were 10,000 of them by weighing the box. A smaller scale drama continued the following day when some of the bees who had not been captured descended on the dumper truck, attracted by the scent left by the queen bee. But an upbeat Eamonn said he was none the worse for his ordeal. "I am a bit more wary out in the garden and I certainly won't be taking bee-keeping up," he added. "When I see a black cloud coming now I just double check to make sure it is rain." | 
