Storm of Stingers : Marauding Wasps Have Los Angeles Zoo Under Siege

Bee ware. The Los Angeles Zoo is under attack.

Since early September, the recurring problem of yellow jackets in search of food and bare skin has prompted zoo officials to post signs at the park’s entrance cautioning visitors about the yellow-and-black wasps with powerful stings.

“They can find a Slurpee at 10,000 paces,” said Jerry Greenwalt, interim zoo director.

Although zoo officials are technically incorrect in referring to the pests as bees, the buzz is that the stings reported by visitors recently--as many as 30 a week--can be just as horrifying as any from a bee.

“My daughter Jeannie, who is 8, got stung in the arm by one of the things there last week and she howled for an hour,” said John Moore of Pasadena. “So we went to Traveltown, which is near the zoo.

“Guess what? She got stung there, too.”

Visitors and zoo officials say that the problem has also been plaguing other parts of Griffith Park in rerent weeks.

Simon Trujillo Mendez, a businessman from Tijuana who visited the park last weekend, added: “My family loved the observatory in Griffith Park. But the bees there stung my friend. She had a drink in her hand and they came out of nowhere and got her.”

Traditionally, yellow jackets invade the zoo in droves in search of food during the summer. In recent years, yellow jackets have been a stinging problem in Western public parks stretching from the Sierra Nevadas to British Columbia.

But the recent record temperatures in the Southland, which have shot over the 100-degree mark, apparently have prompted the current siege of marauding insects at Griffith Park.

“We didn’t have a problem early in the summer but the hot temperatures have apparently caused this rash of problems,” Greenwalt said.

Zoo officials have been taking a number of steps to combat the wasps, he said, including vigorous cleaning of trash cans, tables, areas near food stands and well-traveled areas. In addition, park crews are setting traps and searching for wasp nests.

Some zoo workers have taken to walking around with fly swatters, with varying degrees of success.

“Well, sometimes I get them,” one zoo employee said Tuesday.

“Bee Aware” warning signs have been posted at the zoo’s entrance to caution visitors about the problem.

But Greenwalt said the situation has not prompted zoo officials to consider closing the facility.

“We have never really considered that,” he said. “The public continues to come to the zoo. We just have to warn people that bees are part of the natural environment of the zoo.”