When Lance Davis got the call to go to the Indian Wells Tennis Garden to tend to a hive, he thought it might be in the parking lot like one he had handled five days earlier.
But this one was different. On Thursday, in the middle of the Stadium 1 court, as world No. 2 player Carlos Alcaraz battled sixth-ranked Alexander Zverev, around 3,500 bees invaded the court and landed on the spider camera filming the match.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we are surrounded by bees here,” said match referee Mohamed Lahyani before stopping play for about two hours.
Davis, who operates a bee removal business in Palm Desert called Killer Bee Inc., was summoned and weaved through traffic to get to the courthouse as quickly as possible, where, without wearing protective gear, he quickly vacuumed up the thousands of Europeans and Africans. bees to the wild applause of the fans.
He was only stung three times.
“I high-fived everyone because they high-fived me. It's good to keep the atmosphere nice and festive. It worked very well,” Davis told The Times.
Beekeeper Lance Davis, working without protective equipment, vacuums a swarm of bees from the spider-like chamber that is normally suspended by cables above the Stadium 1 field on Thursday in Indian Wells.
(Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press)
Davis said he never wears protective gear since he learned how to properly interact with bees. However, he has had some brutal encounters, such as when he was stung about 600 times by a swarm of African bees in the 1990s.
Compared to that, Indian Wells Stadium 1 was a piece of cake.
Wearing sunglasses, a white long-sleeved T-shirt and blue jeans, his hair blowing in the wind, Davis fearlessly approached the bee-infested chamber.
Alcaraz and Zverev were nowhere to be seen, having left the court during the delay.
Within minutes, Davis had hoovered up the majority of the bees to save the match. Although some Appian invaders stayed and harassed Alcaraz again, causing a second pause in the match, Davis was available to capture them.
“I was worried,” Davis said of the Spaniard. “He Said: 'There is a bee flying in front of my face. I have to focus on what I'm doing, winning this tournament. “I said, 'Yeah, that's a bummer.'”
“I calmed him down. “Bees aren’t going to be a problem as long as you don’t keep your mouth open when you hit the ball,” Davis told Alcaraz.
Alcaraz was also stung, Davis said. But if he had any impact on his game, it was not clear from the results.
Alcaraz won in straight sets 6-3. 6-1 to advance to the semifinals.
As for the bees, they are currently in Davis' garage in a “live capture cage.” Once the weather warms up, Davis plans to take them to his apiary in Thermal, where he will release them.
