Bees Chase Visitors Away From Nelson Splash Pad
By: Marlisa Goldsmith
Updated: August 21, 2012
"You're having to move constantly to keep them away and use your shoes to hit them," says one visitor at Abilene's new water park.
The pesky flying insects with stingers are everywhere you turn at the Nelson Splash Pad.
"I was on there and the bee stinged me right here," says Luke Jewell.
Jewell is not alone. One woman was stung just minutes after he did.
She explains, "We were just sitting here talking and the bees were swarming and they sting you."
There are so many bees at the splash park that it is making it extremely hard for visitors to enjoy.
"The last time my daughter came out here she was saying how bad the bees were and I can definitely see where there is an issue with the bees out here today," says Alina Hatcher.
Parents and children, alike, say the bees are a nuisance and they simply need to go.
"We had some complaints that some kids had been stung," says Richard Rodgers, a park supervisor for the City of Abilene.
The city says they have received a number of calls about the bees and wanted to do something about it before it became a health problem. Their solution are contraptions with soda inside.
"They are basically traps that the bees can get in and not get out. There's no pesticide involved. They only have strawberry soda in them," Rodgers explains.
Visitors, however, think it is going to take a little more than strawberry soda to do the trick.
"Traps are not working," says Hatcher.
"It's supposed to help keep the bees away from the little kids in the water park but they still come into the water," says Jace Banks.







