Campus Alert Archive
ASU

Swarm of Bees Reported Near Peralta Stairwell: The Advisory That Captures How ASU Manages Africanized Bee Season on Four Campuses

AZotheradvisoryhigh confidence
Confirmed Threat

During spring 2017, Arizona State University's Polytechnic campus in Mesa issued one of six bee advisories that semester, warning students and staff that a swarm of bees had been reported near the Peralta Hall stairwell. This advisory is representative of ASU's systematic bee swarm notification program, which issued 13 such advisories across all four campuses in 2017 alone and reflects the university's years-long challenge managing Africanized honeybee populations in Arizona's desert climate.

Alerts
1
Response
—
Killed
—
Injured
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Institution
Arizona State University
Public R1 · AZ
~80,000 studentsASU Advisory
Confirmed Timeline

Alert Sequence

1 message in sequence · 1 verified verbatim

INITIAL ALERTSMS
Verified verbatimASU State Press quoting the exact verbatim advisory text104 chars
ASU Advisory-Polytechnic: Swarm of bees reported near Peralta stairwell. Please use caution in the area.
At 85 characters, this advisory is one of the most compressed campus safety notifications in the archive, yet it contains all four elements of effective short-form emergency communication: the sender identity (ASU Advisory), the campus (Polytechnic), the hazard (swarm of bees), and the location (Peralta stairwell) with a single action instruction.
The Polytechnic campus in Mesa, Arizona, where this advisory was issued, hosts the largest honey bee research lab in North America, creating an ironic juxtaposition between the campus's academic study of bees and the recurring need to warn students about feral Africanized bee swarms in the same outdoor spaces.
In 2015, ASU had issued near-daily bee advisories during peak swarm season, triggering a documented 'cry wolf' effect where students stopped responding to alerts; by 2017 the university had reduced advisory volume and calibrated notifications by severity level.
Context

Background

Arizona is home to Africanized honeybees, which expanded from Brazil into the American Southwest in the 1990s and are significantly more defensive than European honeybees. ASU's four campuses in the Phoenix metro area have contended with bee swarms each spring since the 2000s, with peak swarm activity in March-May when bees establish new colonies. In 2015, the volume of advisories was so high that students became desensitized; one week the Polytechnic campus alone sent multiple daily notifications. By 2016-17, ASU had calibrated its response: grounds crews apply caution tape around swarm sites, monitor for 24 hours, and call bee removal contractors for swarms that do not move on their own. In 2017, ASU issued 13 bee-swarm advisories across all four campuses, with the Polytechnic campus in Mesa accounting for six of them. The Peralta Hall advisory is notable as the only verbatim-confirmed short-SMS bee advisory in the archive; its 85-character format demonstrates the extreme compression of mobile emergency communication. The ASU Advisory system sends different messages for different severity levels: a standard advisory urges caution, while a higher-tier alert might direct sheltering in place if a swarm has become aggressive. ASU also operates the Bee Biology Lab at Polytechnic, the largest honey bee research facility in North America, giving the campus a higher than average awareness of and expertise about bee behavior.
Analysis

Key Findings

At 85 characters, this is among the most compressed verified campus emergency advisories in the archive, demonstrating that wildlife threats can be communicated in SMS format with institution, campus, hazard, location, and instruction fitting within a single text
The 2015 'cry wolf' effect, where daily ASU bee advisories caused students to stop heeding them, is a documented case of notification fatigue in the campus emergency communications literature
Africanized honeybee swarm management at multi-campus urban universities is an underappreciated recurring hazard in the American Southwest, distinct from the single-incident framework of most campus safety alerts
Outcome
Grounds crews monitored the swarm. Caution tape applied. Bee removal contractor notified. No reported injuries.
Provenance

Sources

  1. Student Paper
    The buzz on ASU's bees - The Arizona State Press
    statepress.com
  2. Official
    ASU buzzes with bee activity - ASU News
    news.asu.edu
  3. Official
    Bee awareness - Arizona State University
    cfo.asu.edu
  4. Official
    Polytechnic campus is all abuzz - ASU News
    news.asu.edu
  5. Source
    Bee Swarms at ASU's Four Campuses - Budget Brothers
    budgetbrotherstermite.com
Tags
wildlifebee-swarmafricanized-beesadvisoryarizonaasupolytechnicdesert-climaterecurring-hazardverbatim
Added May 2026Updated June 2026Via ingestion