CHANTHABURI - To stop wild elephants rampaging through their crops, farmers often put up electric fences, set off firecrackers and even switch crops, from pineapples to pumpkins, which the jumbos don't like much.
Trouble is, nothing much deters them. So, try Plan Bee.
In a pilot scheme run by the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, farmers are deploying bees as a new line of defence, exploiting elephants' documented fear of bee stings. The idea to play on the phobia came out of Oxford University research and has been used successfully for several years in Africa. It is now gaining a toehold in Asia.
The problem is quite severe in the eastern province of Chanthaburi, which has thick forests near farming communities that grow rice, cassava, pineapple and rubber.
"In the last two years, elephants have come out and destroyed farmers' crops almost every day,'' said Prasit Sae-Lee, head of tambon Phawa in Kaeng Hang Maew district.
"Elephants travel in a herd, a big herd, razing everything to the ground everywhere they go. The ground is flattened so much so that a 10-wheel truck can drive through after they had gone.''
An image taken by a drone shows a herd of wild elephants in tambon Phawa of Kaeng Hang Maew district on Aug 13, 2016. (Photo by Chamnarn Chueram)
Government officials suggested farmers stop growing the pineapples that elephants love. "The latest suggestion was for us to grow pumpkins. But that didn't solve anything. They destroyed the pumpkins, pulled them up by the roots, stepped on them and even ate them,'' Mr Prasit said.
Help for the residents of the remote Phawa village came from a government wildlife research station, which is helping them raise bees. It is a simple technique. Traditionally beehives are placed on the ground, but here researchers raise them on stilts, putting them at eye level for the elephants. The string of beehive boxes are connected with a rope, creating a fence.
When the elephants try to enter, they push at the ropes and that shakes the beehives, causing the bees to swarm out in a fearsome cloud of buzz and venomous sting that the animals are unlikely to forget.
"At first I thought it would not work. Even the forestry officials did not think it would work,'' said Boonchu Sirimaha, 66, whose family were the first in the village to participate in the research project. "But after we put the beehives up (two months ago), it worked. The elephants were stung by the bees and they have not been back since.''
The downside of the project is that it is not feasible on a large farm because it would involve putting up thousands of beehives, which would be expensive. Each has about 10,000 bees and costs 4,000 baht. But it is a good solution for small farms, and for people like Mr Boonchu who want to protect their homes, which can be ring-fenced by beehives.
"They will have to figure out ways that are cheap for everyone to use,'' said Tony Lynam of the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society. "Methods they can set up by themselves such as fences with bells, and guard posts ... firecrackers, beehives, all of these things can be used together but any one of those methods by itself won't be a solution,'' he said.
Mr Boonchu's daughter, Dararath, is happy with the bee strategy.
"The elephants come out at night. They come all the way up to the house,'' said Ms Dararath, 36, recalling the horrors of the past. "They've banged against our door and windows. They've tipped over parked motorcycles, pulled down tarpaulins and knocked over our washing machine.''
Ms Dararath has now taken up bee keeping.
A spin-off benefit is that for every 50 boxes she cultivates, she harvests 300 kilograms of honey, which sells for 150 to -500 baht per kilogram. The beeswax fetches about the same price.
There are an estimated 3,000 wild elephants in Thailand, according to the Thai Elephant Conservation Centre. And as farmers push into forests for agriculture, elephants have been forced to venture out of their shrinking habitats in search of food.
The clash with humans is inevitable.