VietNamNet Bridge - The highly poisonous earth bees in Thanh Hoa province are believed by many to have strong medicinal qualities.

On my way to Sam Son beach in Thanh Hoa province, we make an unscheduled stop at a roadside restaurant. My travelling companion is intrigued by a sign that reads “ruou ong dat”, a kind of rice liquor that is made from some kind of bee. On shelves inside we can see the insects in glass bottles with no labels. Nguyen Hoa, the restaurant owner, appears to tell us that this alcohol is very good for one’s health, most especially your libido.

According to Hoa this kind of bee is considered to be a cure-all by some. You can use bee-products to treat a fever, clear up pimples, clean a wound and even “placate a fit of epilepsy”. Whether the bees’ medicinal power is retained after soaking in a jar of alcohol is not known but Hoa is more interested in sales. “Tourists like this alcohol and often buy a few bottles,” says Hoa happily.

This species of bee is called ong dat (Earth bees) as each colony lives in a large hive made from mud. He assures us the venom is poisonous and brags that five bees could technically kill a strong man and 20 could fell a buffalo in several hours. During the anti-French and US wars it is said Vietnamese soldiers placed the hives in traps set for enemy forces as an organic, poisonous and potentially lethal landmine.

Hoang Bay, a farmer from Vinh Yen city’s Tam Hop commune, and a regular customer of Hoa’s, has dozens of jars in which various wild animal parts from snakes, birds, monkeys, porcupines and goats are soaking in alcohol. He claims he even has zebra’s skin, gibbon bones and crocodile parts in his collection. Bay smiles when Hoa boasts that people “could be seriously injured or even die” hunting bees, adding that, “Several men in my village have died doing this.”

Traditionally, “bee hunters” put on a thick pair of gloves, a long-sleeved shirt and a hat that covered their head and neck. Then they would throw a sheet around a hive and smoke the bees out. But despite the fact Bay, Hoa and others like to talk up the element of danger, pursuing bees is likely to be less dangerous than before. With his tongue loosened by ruou, Hoa admits he could pick up any beehive without fear of being stung.

When I ask how he says “it’s a secret”. I had imagined he had a traditional trick up his sleeve but in fact it’s more probable he uses some kind of chemical. Later we learn from Bay that two years ago using Chinese-made chemicals became common. Certain pesticides and even mosquito repellent can knock the bees out cold, making it a far less risky vocation.

The bee hives or ruou is then sold at markets like Hung Loi in a remote mountainous part of Thai Nguyen province. There eye-catching adverts state that the earth bees’ products are nutritious and highly medicinal. Beehives cost from VND60,000 to VND80,000, pots of ready–to-drink-liquor VND200,000 to VND250,000. A man from Hanoi purchasing a hive claims that he comes here for the low prices but also because “the earth bees here are caught in the forest, which means they are more potent”.

When I ask if he’s heard about the use of pesticides, he shakes his head and says: “No problem, you can see, the wasps are still alive.” Locals who capture a beehive can also sell it in the capital where it could fetch a price of up to VND500,000 ($30). The city is full of restaurants and traditional liquor restaurants (Quan ruou dan toc) where you can find all sorts of animal and insect liquors. More often than not these liquors are believed to be “good for man”, a euphemism for an aphrodisiac.

“Many say that this alcohol is very good for health,” says a waiter in a restaurant on Hanoi’s Au Co street where a large table of young men are drinking from a pot with no label. None of them know why the alcohol is “good for health” but none of them doubt it. When I speak to a conservation advisor from Flora & Fauna International in Hanoi on the matter he points out that the removal of bees or wasps for the production of either rice liquor or medicine from protected forests is illegal.

Even if the forest is not protected the Vietnam’s natural biodiversity is being affected. There is also a problem that people who drink bee liquor then go onto drink liquor made with sea horses, pangolins, cobras, wild cats or even monkeys – all of which are endangered species. The conservation advisor had just met two Scottish tourists who had ended up drunk on pangolin ruou in Ha Giang unaware it is critically endangered animal.

They just wanted a drop of hard liquor and that’s what they got served. It is clear that there needs to be some serious myth busting and education on protecting Vietnam’s wildlife for both Vietnamese and foreigners as people clearly don’t know how to bee-have.a

(Source: VIR)