Bee-chasing experts keep venomous wasps at home, and it has even become an intangible cultural heritage item
“Three ground wasps can kill a cow, and one nest of hornets can sting a person to death.” Even with such dangerous targets, nothing can stop the Lisu people of Sichuan from tracking hornets. Local bee hunters say that when the Lisu catch wild wasps, they have no protective measures at all; sometimes they do not even wear a simple head covering, just a pair of rubber gloves, relying on experience and wisdom. They find the nests according to ancient methods, take the nests down and bring them home to raise, and the harvested bee pupae are either eaten or sold. This year, this skill was also rated as an intangible cultural heritage of Liangshan Prefecture.
In Shanmugou Village, Nanshan Lisu Township, Dechang County, Liangshan Prefecture, there is a group of mysterious "bee-chasing experts." They toy with venomous wasps in the palms of their hands, cleverly using strands of hair to tie white paper strips or chicken feathers and fasten them around the waists of wild wasps, and by this means travel several kilometers or even dozens of kilometers, climb trees more than ten or twenty meters high, take down wild wasp nests and bring them home to raise, and the harvested bee pupae are either eaten or sold.
The local custom of raising wild wasps already has a history of three or four hundred years. On July 20, at the Dechang Lisu "intangible heritage" exhibition and training session held in the village, this mysterious beekeeping process was shown to the public for the first time, stunning the world. This year, in this village of more than one hundred households, the number of wild wasp colonies raised exceeded 1,000 nests for the first time, with nearly 20 kinds of venomous wasps raised, and this skill was also rated as an intangible cultural heritage of Liangshan Prefecture.
The whole village raises more than a thousand nests of wild waspsThere are nearly 20 varieties of venomous wasps
Shanmugou Village sits deep in the mountains at an altitude of 2,000 meters, surrounded by verdant pine forests, and 107 Lisu households live here. Walking into this small mountain village, one sees hornet nests hanging in front of and behind the houses, as small as a fist and as large as a washbasin, with hornets flying back and forth, forming a unique sight.
Right now is the harvest season for the first batch of bee pupae. On July 20, 52-year-old villager Li Mingsong put on a simple head covering made from a sack and rubber gloves, took a knife and walked into the fruit grove in front of his house, found a hornet nest the size of a washbasin, and prepared to take the nest. Before he had even fully approached, hundreds upon thousands of hornets swarmed out and attacked in full force.
Facing these venomous hornets, Li Mingsong showed no fear. He quickly picked up the knife and cut the nest into two halves, taking away the nest full of pupae and leaving the queen. “As long as the queen does not run away, they will keep building the nest and laying eggs, and it can be harvested 3 times a year.” Li Mingsong told a Chengdu Business Daily reporter that he had been raising hornets for 37 years, and this year he had raised more than 100 hornet nests under the eaves or in the orchard, making him the village's largest professional beekeeper.
According to Luo Xiaoming, Party secretary of the Nanshan Lisu Township in Dechang County, Shanmugou Village has always had the tradition of raising wild wasps, with a history of three or four hundred years. More than 10 years ago, very few wild wasps were raised here, but in recent years the number has soared, growing by multiples. This year, the number of wild wasp nests raised in the whole village reached a thousand for the first time, and basically every household is raising them.
Cleverly using strands of hair to make "marks," chasing dozens of kilometers to find nests
Although it is called farming, it is actually moving wild wasp nests from the mountains and fields to near the home, letting the wild wasps reproduce in the nests. “Because wild wasps cannot be artificially bred, we can only find nests in the wild, transplant them back, and raise them to maturity.” Li Mingsong said that because the nests cannot reproduce in the following year, in March or April of the second year, local bee hunters go out to look for bees.
To find wild wasps, the local Lisu people have a peculiar method. Bee hunter Zhang Zhengshun demonstrated the entire process of attracting bees to a Chengdu Business Daily reporter. “Usually one or two locusts or other insects or meat are caught and fixed to a thin stick as bait.” Zhang Zhengshun found a small wooden stick, clipped a piece of pork on it, and placed it beside a fruit tree by the roadside.
Soon, a hornet flew over and began biting and tearing at it. “Although hornets are fierce, they are also very stupid.” Zhang Zhengshun said with a smile, “They are typical of caring only about the head and not the tail.” Immediately afterward, Zhang Zhengshun pulled off a hair several centimeters long and skillfully tied a slipknot at one end, while tying a small white paper strip, plastic film, or chicken feather to the other end.
“Tie a tail on the hornet as a reference for tracking, and you can find the nest.” Seeing the hornet focused only on gnawing and carrying the meat, Zhang Zhengshun seized the moment and slipped the hair slipknot around the wasp's waist. “At this time the hornet does not sting people.” When the hornet had gnawed off the meat, it picked it up and flew toward its “home.” At that point, Zhang Zhengshun followed in pursuit of the hornet.
Village Party secretary Li Zhengrong, standing at the scene, said that because they have captured prey, wild wasps are much slower in agility and flight speed, and the bee catchers follow the white reference object in pursuit. Usually, bee hunters in the village chase a few kilometers at the nearest and dozens of kilometers at the farthest. Many wild wasp nests are on treetops more than ten or twenty meters high, and local bee catchers can climb up as easily as monkeys and take the nests down from the trees, so they are also called "treetop flying men."
Not afraid of being stung by venomous wasps; beekeeping becomes an intangible cultural heritage of Liangshan Prefecture
Since ancient times, the Lisu people have had a saying: “Three ground wasps can kill a cow, and one nest of hornets can sting a person to death.” Even with such dangerous targets, nothing can stop the Lisu people from tracking hornets. Local bee hunters say that when the Lisu catch wild wasps, they have no protective measures at all; sometimes they do not even wear a simple head covering, just a pair of rubber gloves, relying on experience and wisdom.
“Aren't there any dangers?” Zhang Zhengshun said with a smile: “As long as you do not provoke them, hornets will not actively attack people. Every household here has raised bees, and no one is afraid of them.” Even so, these bee hunters are still often stung by hornets. Li Mingsong pushed up his sleeve, and a scar on his arm was clearly visible, caused by a sting from a thumb-sized ground wasp. This kind of wild wasp is highly venomous. He said with a smile, “I get stung by wild wasps more than 10 times every year. It feels very ordinary. As long as I apply a little medicinal liquor, it heals in a few days.”
“The bee hunters here seem to have antibodies themselves, and being stung feels very ordinary.” According to village cadre Li Zhengrong, ordinary Lisu people generally take no measures for treatment after being stung and just let the swelling go down. Sometimes they apply self-made medicinal liquor, pickle brine, cooling ointment, or other external remedies, and recover in a few days.
Township Party secretary Luo Xiaoming said that he had served in the township for more than 10 years, and there had never been a single case in the village of someone being sent to the hospital because of a wild wasp sting, let alone anyone dying. Today, raising wild wasps has become a path to prosperity for Shanmugou Village, with annual income reaching hundreds of thousands of yuan. “At this year's price of 50 to 100 yuan per jin, the household that sells the most can sell several tens of thousands of yuan worth.” At the same time, local bee hunters also form teams to go to Chengdu, Deyang, Ziyang, and other places to help people remove hornet nests, earning a certain amount of income.
Recently, the Dechang Lisu custom of raising wild wasps became an intangible cultural heritage of Liangshan Prefecture. They say they will also preserve the tradition and continue going up the mountains to find and raise wild wasps.