Erika Thompson Responds to Accusations She's A Fake Beekeeper & TikTok is Buzzing!
Erika Thompson, who has amassed a ton of fans and followers on social media for her epic beekeeping skills, is responding to false accusations that she’s not a real beekeeper.
The allegations stemmed from another bee rescue, who in now-deleted videos from TikTok, claimed that Erika was flirting with danger as she’s pictured moving hives to new locations in some of her videos with not a lot of protective gear on.
Click inside to see how Erika Thompson responded to the allegations…
In a new Instagram post, Erika addressed the false reports that she was not actually rescuing the bees.
“Recently, a series of untrue and hurtful attacks was made about me and my work. Then, journalists chose to support and reward this online harassment by perpetuating a false narrative without taking time to check the facts. It’s a sad day when people see a woman doing something that’s so outside of the norm, they assume there’s no way she can actually be doing those things, and if she is, she must be getting help from a man,” Erika started in her response.
She continued, “Thank you to the mass of experienced beekeepers, leaders of the beekeeping community, and all of the beekeeping associations who were quick to come to my defense. And thank you to the journalists like Drew Schwartz from @vice who took the time to check the facts before supporting online harassment.”
“As a professional beekeeper, it’s my mission and my purpose to help people understand and appreciate the work of bees and beekeepers, and I’d really like to get back to doing that now. If you see a swarm or hive of bees that needs to be removed, don’t call an exterminator, call an experienced beekeeper to relocate the colony. Experienced beekeepers are the only ones who should be handling bees in these situations, because sometimes… bees need a helping hand.”
In another Instagram post, Erika revealed why she sometimes doesn’t have the protective gear on in the videos.
“First of all, I know my bees,” she told fans on the post. “After beekeeping for nearly ten years, I’ve learned to read the bees’ behavior and how to tell when they’re aggressive or agitated.”
She added, “It’s just like how you can tell when your dog or cat is happy or sad or scared. I always take time before I enter a hive to observe the bees and see how they respond when I start smoking them. I also work hard to manage the health and wellness of my hives so they don’t become stressed out and defensive.”
“In general, bees don’t want to sting you. If I’m entering a hive of bees that I’ve never managed before or doing a live bee removal… I always wear gear.”
Watch Erika‘s latest bee rescue video below:
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