Naples Zoo at Caribbean Gardens

We have been here many times over the years. As a born and raised Naples girl, I went here as a kid even back when it was “Jungle Larry’s” and always loved it. We went here at 11:23am for boo at the zoo. We were done within 30 minutes. Why? The bees were horrific. We have been there before and noticed there were quite a few bees on the garbage cans; honestly, I would have thought this would have been rectified by now since it has been while since we have been. However, today we walked 20 feet in to the entrance where the “dinosaurs were” and bees greeted us. The gentleman said they were “all in the zoo”, but I was just assuming at the garbage cans. The further we walked down the path the worse the bees got. My 2 year old had 6 bees swarming him at once plus my daughter and myself had them too. We couldn’t even stand in line for many of the animals because the bees were so bad. They really were constantly everywhere and not knowing if my kid was going to get stung from swatting the bee away from his face was unnerving. We went up to the front desk to ask about the issue because it really was BAD. The customer service agent looked at me and just smiled and said “well, that’s just nature I don’t know what you want me to say.” She smirked and shook her head. That response was disappointing, to say the least. I am writing this review because I REALLY hope that this issue can be addressed. This is a problem that can be dangerous for many kiddos and adults who may be allergic or some kiddos might not even know that they are allergic. One kid in the parking lot was actually crying because they had gotten stung twice by them. The fact that we saw more bees than animals today at the zoo was alarming. I know FGCU put cherry pits in burlap bags near garbage cans to naturally repel bees. Something needs to be done to address the issue and we personally won’t risk going here again as it wasn’t worth the time and money, until it is resolved.