I ended up using save states pretty liberally after reaching the screen with the ghost, immediately getting hit, and then getting sent back to the first screen in the game. Dealing with the bee, ghost, and bat all took multiple tries to figure out, and if I didn't get it right on my first try then I basically just died, so getting sent back multiple screens just felt really punitive.
Pretty cute game though, aside from the wonky collision detection sometimes (which you already know about), congrats on making the first Atari 2600 game I've ever played!