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A dog apparently will survive an attack by some 20,000 bees who angrily started attacking the animal when he put his nose in old car tires in a backyard in Lakewood today, authorities said. Firefighters and animal control officers were sent to 20318 S. Devlin Ave. in Lakewood at 2:13 p.m., a Los Angeles County fire dispatcher said. The dog, a 4-year-old cocker spaniel named Pinto, was taken to a veterinarian, but was expected to survive, the dispatcher said. Old tires which housed a bee colony estimated to contain four pounds of bees, or about 20,000 of the beasts was shown during broadcast reports. Bees become agitated in cold weather, animal control officials told the station. Evangelina De La Torre said Pinto was sniffing around the tires, which had been in the backyard for at least a year, when suddenly thousands of bees filled the air. MO< Authorities located additional bees in three other backyards in the area, according to broadcast reports. (KABC-TV 7, Los Angeles, 11/29/04.)
Winkler County was added today to the state quarantine restricting the movement of commercial bee operations following the detection of Africanized honey bees. The addition makes 158 counties in Texas now quarantined for Africanized honey bees, according to Paul Jackson, chief of the Texas Apiary Inspection Service, a unit of the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station. A sample of wild bees was collected from a colony on Kermit Independent School District property and sent to the Texas Honey Bee Identification Lab in College Station. They were confirmed as Africanized by a lab test and after inspectors visited the site to assure that all bees had been killed, according to Jackson. He said no one was stung by bees from the colony, which was discovered while employees were mowing. The quarantine allows beekeepers to move beehives within, but not out of, the zone in an effort to prevent assisting the spread, Jackson said. Africanized honey bees look just like regular domestic honey bees but are more defensive in protecting their hives, according to Jackson. The Africanized bee was first detected in the United States near Brownsville in October 1990. Africanized honey bees also have been found in Arizona, California, Nevada and New Mexico. (Kathleen Phillips, Texas A&M Agriculture News, 11/9/04.)
An elderly man was injured when he was attacked by bees at his home near Poteet. A doctor treating the man, whose name has not been released, said the man was stung more than 500 times. He was listed in guarded condition Wednesday morning. An exterminator went out Tuesday night to destroy the beehive at the man's home. (KSAT-TV 12 ABC, 10/27/04.)
Several people were attacked by a swarm of bees Tuesday morning in southwest Houston. Four were transported to a Houston hospital Tuesday after being stung by the swarm. Houston firefighters said the bees came from a tree above a tractor mower that was working in the area. Houston Fire Department Chief Tommy Dowdy told Local 2 a city worker on a tractor mowing grass near West Airport and Tantor was attacked by the bees at about 10:30 a.m. Dowdy said a female driver, a METRO bus driver and a passenger were also assaulted by the swarm after they tried to help stop the bees from attacking. Witnesses said the bees swarmed the tractor driver, who ran across the street. A passing motorist got out of her truck to help and she was stung. Metro bus driver Hiram Clarke stopped his bus up on a curb near West Airport and also tried to help. One witness said the bees seemed to appear from nowhere. "They covered him like he had an armor suit on," said witness Marvette Mathis, who lives are a nearby apartment complex. "The bus driver got off to try and help her and next thing you know it's on the three people everybody's covered." A bee keeper has been called in to remove the bees from the tree. In all, three women and one man were transported to a hospital with bee stings. Officials said some of the injuries might be serious. Dowdy said he is not sure what agitated the bees. (KPRC-NBC TV 2, 10/26/04.)
After living peacefully for 10 years in Tina Young's back yard in Safford, a colony of Africanized bees attacked, stinging Young, killing one of her dogs and injuring four other dogs. "Over the years, I have found dead bees in my dogs' water every once in a while," Young said, "but nothing to prepare me for what happened." Young was at work at Ruth Powell School midmorning on Sept. 15 when she received a frantic call from her daughter, who lives in a trailer home next door to Young.(Alysa Phillips, Eastern Arizona Courier, 10/6/04.) "She called and said, 'Mom, there are bees swarming all around the house, and they're attacking the dogs,' " Young said. Young ran to her home, which is across the street from the school. Three of Young's five dogs had jumped the fence; one was too small to get away, and the fifth was chained up. "I tried to unhook the dog," Young said, "but I couldn't get to him. The bees had just covered him." Young ran into the house, followed by the aggressive bees and called 911 while swatting at the swarming insects. The Safford Fire Department and Animal Control responded, but not before Young received several stings to her face and arms while trying to rescue her dogs. "I called and told them it was like something out of a horror show," Young said. "I couldn't believe it was happening. (The bees) were killing my animals and there was nothing I could do about it." When help arrived, the fire department sprayed foam on the bees and assisted in getting the animals out of the area. A week later, the city of Safford got involved and chopped the top one-third from the tree, which stands on the edge of Young's property next to Union Canal. "The hive was five feet long," Young said. "The exterminator said the bees could swarm for two blocks." Young said her main concern was for the children at Ruth Powell. The bees could easily kill a child or an elderly person, she said. Although Africanized bees don't usually attack without being aggravated, Young said she's lived in the same house for 19 years and never saw a warning sign. "Something just set them off," she said. "There was no warning whatsoever." The smallest dog, a little pug named Brutus, was stung more than 1,000 times and died that night. The dog that was chained up survived but was sick for two days. All five dogs were treated by Ken Dougan at the Companion Animal Hospital. Dougan said the dogs were at the hospital for several hours, and the smallest one died at about 6 p.m. The others were sent home with medication for shock. "The smallest one was stung hundreds and hundreds of times," he said. "The others weren't injured as seriously." Dougan said there is no way to determine how many stings it takes for an attack to be fatal. It depends on the body weight of the victim and whether it has allergic reactions to the bees. "If you get enough stings, it's almost impossible to treat," he said. Prior to this attack, Dougan said the last time he treated an animal for Africanized bee stings was after an incident that occurred six or seven years ago. A pamphlet published by the Arizona Africanized Honey Bee Advisory Committee offers the following precautions: • Look for bee colonies regularly by watching for bees or listening for a buzzing sound. • Do not pet, tie or tether animals near known hives or nests. • Do not disturb or tease bees, and do not try to remove them. • Keep pets and children indoors when using weed eaters, tractors or power mowers. • Keep dogs under control when hiking. • Stay alert when walking through brush or low-hanging branches. (Alysa Phillips, The Eastern Arizona Courier, 10/4/04.)
Kent, Stonewall and Swisher counties were added today to the state quarantine restricting the movement of commercial bee operations following the detection of Africanized honey bees. The addition makes 157 counties in Texas now quarantined for Africanized honey bees, according to the Texas Apiary Inspection Service, a unit of the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station. Samples of wild bees collected from Kent and Swisher counties were sent to the Texas Honey Bee Identification Lab in College Station and confirmed as Africanized, according to Paul Jackson, chief apiary inspector. In Kent County, the bees were found in an abandoned air tank by a residence west of Jayton. In Swisher County, the bees were found at a home near Kress. Bees were not found in Stonewall County, but it was added to the quarantine because bees had been found in every county surrounding it. Jackson said the quarantine allows beekeepers to move beehives within, but not out of, the zone in an effort to prevent assisting the spread. Africanized honey bees look just like regular domestic honey bees but are more defensive in protecting their hives, according to Jackson. The Africanized bee was first detected in the United States near Brownsville in October 1990. Africanized honey bees also have been found in Arizona, California, Nevada and New Mexico. (Dave Mayes, Texas A&M Agriculture News, 9/24/04.)
A swarm of "killer" bees stung one man to death and injured six other people, including a 5-year-old, in a rampage in a park in northern Mexico, emergency services said on Friday. Emergency services in the town of Santa Catarina, about two hours south of the frontier with Texas, said the swarm attacked late on Thursday after being disturbed by barking dogs. "The bees were swarmed on steps leading to a municipal park, and were unfortunately disturbed by the dogs, which caused them to attack," Civil Protection spokesman Josue Vargas Diaz told Reuters. Vargas said the unidentified man was stung "hundreds of times," slipped into a coma and died. The five-year-old boy remained "gravely ill" in a local hospital on Friday. "Killer bees" are a hybrid of African and European breeds created in Brazil in the 1950s in the hope they would produce more honey. Media-led fears in recent decades that the bees would swarm across the United States have proven unfounded, although stinging deaths are not uncommon in South and Central America. (Reuters, 9/24/04.)
A 23-year-old Tomball man was taken to the hospital Tuesday morning after a swarm of bees stung him and his boss as they tried to change a roadside sign off FM 270. Emergency crews called to the scene found the man, who had been up in a ladder working on the sign, huddled in a pickup truck wearing only his boxer shorts, said League City police officer Tom Blasky. The man had been working 30 to 40 feet up on the ladder when a swarm of bees came out from the sign and started stinging him, Blasky said. “The worker started screaming, ‘I am getting stung,’” Blasky said. “He went down the ladder, and they followed him to the ground.” The bees then began stinging the man’s boss, who was standing on the ground. The two men ran south two blocks on FM 270 toward FM 518, darted across two lanes of traffic and dove into a white pickup truck parked in front of a construction site, Blasky said. When emergency crews arrived, a few bees still lingered around the top of the truck, he said. The victim, who complained of dizziness, was taken to St. John’s Hospital. His condition was not available Tuesday evening. (Sarah Viren, Galveston County The Daily News, 9/22/04.)
The USDA confirmed that the ten workers were stung by Africanized honey bees. The workers were attacked while clearing trees after a wind storm last month. One man had been stung more than 100 times, mostly in the head, on his face and once in his ear. Seven of the ten workers were treated at the hospital for bee stings. Africanized bees were identified in Texas in 1990. Since then, 17 people have been killed by Africanized bees in that state. Scientists have also confirmed the existence of that species in Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, and New Mexico. (AP, 9/21/04.)
According to sheriff's Lt. Rick Figueroa, a woman in the 600 block of Banjo Court reported at approximately 2:30 p.m. that she, her husband and her daughter had been stung and that she could hear neighbors screaming. No information was available on the type of bee involved in the attack, or how many there were. Firefighters took one person to a hospital, a Heartland fire dispatcher said. Department of Agriculture experts were summoned to the scene, Figueroa said. (North County Times, 9/19/04.)
Members of a Dallas-area family are wondering how soon they'll be able to go home after a swarm of bees attacked them in their backyard. KTVT-TV in Dallas-Fort Worth reported the Queen family managed to reach safety in their house Monday in Irving. But their pet boxer was tied to a tree in the backyard and was stung at least 600 times. Irving firefighters arrived and used foam to repel the hundreds of bees enough for the family to escape their captivity. The dog was taken to a veterinarian, where it was put down. The family is still trying to find a way to rid themselves of the swarm. (AP, 9/7/04.)
Experts say without testing there's no way to tell A North Texas man was doing yard work this week just before bees attacked. Pursued by the stinging insects, Joe Ben Whitaker ran and fell down Wednesday evening at his rural home in Clay County. His daughter and her husband pulled the 74-year-old man to safety. "If they hadn't been there, I guess I'd died," said the retired rancher who spent a night in the hospital. "They pulled over 200 of the stingers out of my head and neck." This area has racked up more than 1,000 bee stings in less than a month, but no one's certain if Africanized honeybees - sometimes called killer bees - have arrived, officials said. Only laboratory tests can tell for sure, and while tests in Oklahoma identified bees from Tillman County as Africanized, officials sent samples on to the USDA for more testing. No local samples, however, are in the Texas Honeybee Identification Laboratory in College Station, Texas. At least one expert wants to keep it that way. But others plan to send in the required 50 or more bees for testing. "We don't have any real confirmed cases this far north," Clay County Extension Agent Kyle Miller said. "That's one of the reasons we're going to send some in." About 90 percent of the bees Bennie Watson has received calls about this year seem to be Africanized. Watson is president of the Red River Valley Beekeepers Association. The bees he killed in late August at a Bowie man's home and Thursday at Lake Wichita Park were, too. Their aggressive behavior gave them away. "If they come out like smoke, I'd say they're Africanized," Watson said. "If they're in and they stay quiet, they're normal bees." The bees at the park stung Watson about 10 times as he was putting on his beekeeper's suit. He sprayed the hive with insecticide and pulled five honeycombs full of eggs out of a water meter. "This thing here would have been packed full, and they probably would have made a queen about every two weeks," Watson said. "And they would have desecrated the whole area." If two queens are in a hive, one takes part of the bees with her and forms a new colony. But Watson hasn't sent in any samples to the College Station lab, he said. He doesn't want Wichita County to be under quarantine. "I didn't because if they shut us down, I'm quitting," he said. "The so-called officials can come get them ... They don't help us out one bit." Two more counties - Dickens, southwest of Wichita Falls near Lubbock, and Garza - were added to the list of quarantined counties Thursday, officials said. Now 154 Texas counties are under quarantine, limiting the movement of hives from those counties. Violating the quarantine is a Class C misdemeanor. An apiary inspector encouraged the public to send in samples for testing, saying it can become a safety issue. "That way it does let you know when the Africanized bee is present ...," Bill Baxter of the honeybee I.D. lab said. "Educating the public ... is where you gain anything. And a beekeeper has to realize that the good graces of them being able to keep bees anywhere comes from good relations with the public." Montague County Extension Agent Justin Hand said it probably benefits residents to know whether Africanized bees are present. But sometimes people become too alarmed. Wichita County Extension Agent Joe Raff said the only way to know for sure if bees are Africanized is if someone sends in a sample. Since the 1950s, Africanized honeybees have been moving north from South America, according to Texas A&M experts. But they don't buzz around in swarms looking for a victim. The quarantine aims to keep them from spreading, Baxter said. Only after the lab tests can beekeepers move hives from a quarantined county to one that's not. Testing fees begin at $200 for one to 1,000 hives, he said. "And I caution people that the only sure test is our lab here," Baxter said. The test involves examining bees under a microscope, he said. Africanized bees are smaller than their European counterparts. The lab has been receiving calls from all over the state. That's normal, considering a good spring and summer that have allowed the bees to flourish, Baxter said. Their colonies are brimming. "Any little thing can set them off," he said. "Your European bees can be mean, also. Weed-eaters, lawnmowers can make any bees mad." But bees are very valuable to the world, he said, adding that he cautioned against indiscriminately killing honeybees. "Any bees unless they're disturbed ... are not going to go out of the way to bother you," Baxter said. "You can quietly walk by an Africanized colony, and they won't bother you unless they've been disturbed." On Thursday, an exterminator visited the bees at Whitaker's home, he said. The exterminator planned to pay another visit today to finish off the colony. "Boy, they got me," Whitaker said. (Trish Choate, Times Record News, 9/3/04.)
Insects leave man's 130-pound Rottweiler dead A 76-year-old Bowie man was attacked and his dog killed by what might have been a swarm of Africanized honey bees. Floyd Benton was on his roof Aug. 18 cutting a limb from a tree when the bees attacked. Hospital staffers said Benton was stung nearly 100 times. "I had been stung once or twice before by bees, but this was so painful. I felt like my whole head, my face and my arms were one fire," Benton said. The bees killed his 130 pound Rottweiler, Heidi. Bennie Watson of the Wichita Falls Bee Association said he believed the insects were the Africanized variety because of the nature of the attack and the fact they followed Benton as he retreated into his house. Following advice from the bee man, Benton watched his house from the safety of his pickup truck. "I finally saw them coming in and out of a hole behind a rain gutter, where they had nested in a soffit. Watson sprayed them and they are gone," Benton said. The Montague County Agriculture Extension Service said Africanized bees do not roam in giant swarms looking for victims to attack, but like most animals, react defensively when they feel threatened. Africanized and
European honey bees are the same species and cannot be distinguished
in the field. (Barbara Green, Times Record News, 9/2/04.)
Dickens and Garza counties were added today to the state quarantine, restricting the movement of commercial bee operations following the detection of Africanized honey bees. The addition makes 154 counties in Texas now quarantined for Africanized honey bees, according to the Texas Apiary Inspection Service, a unit of the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station. Samples of wild bees collected from both locations were sent to the Texas Honey Bee Identification Lab in College Station and confirmed Thursday, according to Paul Jackson, chief apiary inspector. All of the bees were destroyed in both cases. In Dickens County, the bees were found in a water meter near where a tractor and shredder had been used to mow. Jackson said one person was stung more than 100 times, but received medical treatment and recovered. In Garza County, the bees were a swarm – a group of bees traveling in search of a place to build a new home – that landed west of Post. No one was reported stung in that incident. Jackson said the quarantine allows beekeepers to move beehives within, but not out of, the zone in an effort to prevent assisting the spread. Africanized honey bees look just like regular domestic honey bees but are more defensive in protecting their hives, according to Jackson. The Africanized bee was first detected in the United States near Brownsville in October 1990. Africanized honey bees also have been found in Arizona, California, Nevada and New Mexico. (Kathleen Phillips, Texas A&M Agriculture News, 9/2/04.)
While still not confirmed by entomology experts at Texas A&M, one local bee expert says he`s seen enough to know "Killer" bees are very much alive in our North Texas Counties. Two weeks ago today, 77-year-old Floyd Benton, who lives just outside Bowie, was attacked by a swarm he says would not let up. In fact, doctors told Benton if he had waited much longer to seek medical help, he may have died, just like his dog of many years, Heidi. Not even a week after reporting on the first Africanized bees to be confirmed in Oklahoma, there sure seems to be a lot of bees causing problems lately. The mild weather is making it perfect for them to swarm. On Sunday, European honey bees took over a shopping cart at Sams. And today, beekeeper Bennie Watson had to take care of a swarm at the North Texas Rehab Center. Watson says he`s getting 20 to 30 calls a day and running into the Africanized variety far too often. 77-year-old Floyd Benton says a simple job of cutting a tree branch over his roof, in an instant, turned into one of the most painful events of his life. Beekeeper, Bennie Watson was called out to Benton`s home after the attack. He says he`s also certain Africanized bees are in every North Texas County in our area, whether his opinion is confirmed by A&M or not. But now, with his brand new puppy Rex at his side, Benton is putting the attack behind him and hoping to never again come in contact with Texoma`s "Killer Bees." Here`s some advice by experts we all hope we`ll never need. If you`re ever attacked by Africanized bees, cover your face and head, and run for shelter. Since their arrival in Texas in the early 1990s, Africanized bees have now spread to at least 152 counties. They are also in 4 other Southwestern states. Texas agricultural crops pollinated by the domestic honey bees are valued at $480 million and Texas beekeepers face potential losses of 2 to 4 million in honey production from the competition from Africanized bees. Since they became widespread in South America, honey production is estimated to have declined by 60 to 70 percent. (KFDX TV 3, Wichita Falls, Texas, 9/1/04.)
An Oklahoma laboratory has identified the swarm of bees that stung 10 Tillman County workers Aug. 9 as Africanized honeybees or killer bees. Aaron Henson said samples of the bees were sent to the Oklahoma State University Diagnostic Laboratory in Stillwater where their African origins were confirmed by DNA tests. Henson works with the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service's as an agriculture and 4-H educator. After the samples were confirmed, they were sent to the United States Department of Agriculture lab in Arizona for further testing. This is the first known swarm of killer bees found in Oklahoma. Tillman County Commissioner Leon Wright, District 1, said the swarm attacked the workers while they were cutting off a tree branch. "The bees came out by the millions," he said. "It was a pretty serious situation." Of the 10 workers attacked, seven were rushed to the hospital because of complications. The crew's foreman was kept overnight. Wright called an area beekeeper and the fire department to contain the bees. Henson said two defining characteristic of killer bees is their smaller size and overly aggressive nature. The bees only attack if they are bothered, Henson said, and for that reason they need to be treated with caution. Despite the bees' presence in Tillman County, there has not been any substantial evidence to support their presence in nearby Wichita County. Joe Raff, county extension agent, said the county has not had any official cases of Africanized bees. "We've had reports from bee keepers that some bees have been more aggressive than others," Raff said. "But it has not been confirmed." (By Robert Morgan, The Times Record News, 8/27/04.)
A swarm of bees that attacked a work crew earlier this month may be of the Africanized variety, which would mark the furthest north the so-called "killer" bees have traveled in the United States, scientists said. DNA tests show the bees have Africanized traits, said Russell Wright, head of the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology at Oklahoma State University. "They certainly are more Africanized than European," he said. Wright said the bees have been sent to a U.S. Department of Agriculture (news - web sites) Laboratory in Arizona for final confirmation. Those results are expected to take three to four weeks. Wright said it will be the furthest north the so-called "killer bees" have traveled in the United States. The bees were discovered when a work crew cut through the limb of a storm-damaged tree last month in the southwest Oklahoma community of Tipton. "We all ran different directions to the vehicles, and they followed us. There were just so many of them," said Jeff Marshall, a city worker who was stung between 35 and 40 times. Seven members of the work crew were treated at a hospital. Similar to common honey bees but dangerously aggressive, Africanized honey bees have been detected in New Mexico, Texas, California, Nevada and Arizona. They were first found in Texas in 1990. The bees' venom is no more toxic than the European honeybee, but they are more dangerous because they attack in larger numbers. "When they sting, they give off an odor or a pheromone that attracts other bees," he said, "and they will follow you a long way." (AP, Sean Murphy, 8/26/04.)
State agriculture officials have trapped Africanized bees in Mobile County as the so-called "killer bees" continue spreading from Texas into other states. Alabama Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks said people should not be alarmed that the bees have been found in the state but they should remain cautious. The Africanized bees are more territorial and more aggressive, though they actually have less potent venom than other bees. Human deaths after Africanized bee stings have been recorded in Texas and Arizona. On Aug. 12, about 120,000 Africanized bees provoked by rock-throwing boys swarmed through a Santa Ana, Calif. neighborhood, stinging 13 people. Two dogs, stung more than 100 times each, were killed. The Mobile County bees were caught in a trapping program conducted by the Department of Agriculture and Industries. In the last two weeks, four of the six bee swarms trapped there have tested positive as Africanized bees, Sparks said Tuesday. Mobile County beekeeper Margie Smith said Wednesday the bees have been in the area for several years. Jimmy Carmack, vice president of the Alabama Beekeepers Association, said fears of the bees have always been overblown. "It's not like it might be portrayed in the horror movie," said Carmack of Jefferson County. "Its sting is no more deadly than any other honey bee, but more of them will come after you and stay after you for a longer period of time." The bees are the offspring of 27 African queen bees that were accidentally released in Brazil in 1957. Bees are not native to the Americas, but honey bees were imported from Europe in the 1600s. The Brazilians were hoping to breed a honeybee with the African queens to produce a bee more suited to the tropics. The escapees spread out and mated with local bees and gradually spread north. They reached Texas in 1990 and have since spread to New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, California, and southern Colorado. (AP, 8/25/04.)
Seven workers who were recently hospitalized in Tillman County were stung by Africanized "killer bees," Oklahoma State University researchers said Tuesday. County officials said the workers were trimming trees in the town of Tipton when the bees attacked them. Researchers told Eyewitness News 5 on Tuesday that DNA tests confirmed that the feared insects have finally crossed state lines into Oklahoma. OSU entomologist Rick Grantham said the discovery of the bees was not surprising to scientists. "It was just a matter of how long it would be before they get here, so they're here," he said. Now, Grantham and other experts are cautioning state residents -- especially those in southern Oklahoma -- to remain on the lookout for the potentially dangerous bees. OSU entomology Professor Russell Wright said European honeybees and Africanized bees look almost identical but said there are some telling differences. According to Wright, killer bees are slightly smaller and produce less honey. He also said that although killer bees don't search for people to attack, they are far more sensitive to the threat of humans than their European counterparts. "They will literally chase you down to sting you, and instead of one European honeybee stinging you, you may have hundreds of Africanized honeybees stinging you," Wright said. Wright said the bees can be particularly dangerous if provoked because they are relentless in their pursuit. "They will chase you farther," he said. "Instead of chasing you 50 feet, they may chase you 200 feet as you are running, and there will be more of them -- they'll be more persistent trying to sting you." Grantham and Wright said killer bees can take over a European honeybee hive, meaning that it will be harder to tell if a wild hive is dangerous. Both entomologists recommended that Oklahomans avoid approaching wild hives. OSU Extension officials said they plan to alert all counties in the state about the impending killer bee problem. (KOCO TV 5, 8/25/04.)
Africanized bees, nicknamed "killer bees," have been trapped for the first time in Alabama, state Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks said Tuesday. The more aggressive bees were caught in Mobile County in a routine trapping program conducted by the Department of Agriculture and Industries. In the last two weeks, four of the six bee swarms trapped there have tested positive as Africanized bees. Jimmy Carmack, a Jefferson County beekeeper and vice president of the Alabama Beekeepers Association, said fears of the bees have always been overblown. "It's not like it might be portrayed in the horror movie," Carmack said. "Its sting is no more deadly than any other honeybee, but more of them will come after you and stay after you for a longer period of time. "It's kind of a bee with an attitude." The temperamental bees are the offspring of 27 African queen bees that were accidentally released in Brazil in 1957. Bees are not native to the Americas but honeybees were imported from Europe in the 1600s. The Brazilians were hoping to breed a honeybee with the African queens to produce a bee more suited to the tropics. The escapees spread out and mated with local bees and gradually spread north. They reached Texas in 1990 and have since spread to New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, California, and southern Colorado. The Africanized bees are more territorial and more aggressive, though they actually have less potent venom than other bees. Carmack said beekeepers in the area have adapted to the presence of the Africanized bees. In Brazil, the Africanized bees are now used by beekeepers. They survive better and produce more honey in the warmer latitudes than the Europeans bees do. Carmack said researchers have tried breeding the Africanized bees for gentleness, but their ornery disposition seems to persist. For areas where the Africanized bees have become established, the advice is simple: You can't tell Africanized bees and normal bees apart, so leave bee hives alone. Anyone inadvertently provoking an attack should run. As James Tew advised in an article for the Alabama Cooperative Extension Service: "Never stand in one place or swat at the bees. The bees want you away from their nest, and it is best to oblige them." Sparks said he is working with Mobile Mayor Michael Dow and local and state officials to make information available. "The general public should not be alarmed but cautious," Sparks said. (The Birmingham News, Thomas Spencer, 8/25/04.)
Africanized honeybees are blamed for a Saturday morning attack that left a Grant County woman with several stings on her arm, and resulted in the deaths of two pet emus and a 4-month-old potbelly pig. Darlene Reyes of Mangas Springs says she was preparing breakfast, around 8 a.m. Saturday, when a swarm of bees approached her kitchen window. "Before I saw the bees, I saw the emus acting funny. They were running back and forth, running into the fence and falling down. I knew something was wrong," Reyes told the Daily Press. "Then the swarm of bees tried to come in through the window." She said she attempted to save her pet emus, Rob Roy and Gar, from the attacking bees by spraying water on them - a move that turned the bees' attention from the birds to Reyes and her three dogs. "I saturated (the bees) with the water hose and I smashed some," Reyes said. "Then they started to sting me. I couldn't do much." Reyes received several stings to the arm before fleeing to the safety of her nearby truck with her dogs, and driving to her daughter's house. She told the Daily
Press she isn't sure how long the attack lasted, but when she returned
to her home Sunday morning, Gar, an 8-year-old bird, and Rob Roy, a
3-year-old emu that Reyes had raised since he was a hatchling, were
dead. She said her young grandchildren often played with the birds, who were gentle and interesting pets. "I believe the emus saved my life," Reyes said. "If the bees didn't attack the emus, they may have attacked me." Africanized honeybees, also referred to as killer bees, have a tendency to aggressively attack people and animals who unwittingly disturb them, according to Desert U.S.A., an educational Web site that offers information about wildlife in the Southwest. "It is not necessary to disturb the hive itself to initiate a (killer bee) attack." Desert U.S.A.'s Web site warns. "Africanized bees have been known to respond viciously to mundane occurrences, including noises, or even vibrations from vehicles, equipment and pedestrians. "Africanized bees attack in far greater numbers and pursue perceived enemies for greater distances. Once disturbed, colonies may remain agitated for 24 hours, attacking people and animals within a range of a quarter mile from the hive." Reyes said she had co-existed peacefully with a colony of bees that had taken up residence in an outer crevice of her home about five years ago. "I never had a problem with the bees. They never bothered me, and I never bothered them," she said. When Reyes returned to her home Sunday morning with family members, she exterminated the bee colony, using a potent insecticide and tearing down the wall where the insects nested. "This spray kills anything; ticks, fleas, bees," she said. She collected several of the dead bees and delivered them to Ron Lamb at the Grant County Extension Office. "He told me they were killer bees," she said. "The killer bees had taken over the honeybee nest." Lamb told the Daily Press that based on information provided by Reyes, the bees were Africanized honeybees. "I told her that in all probability, based on how the bees attacked, these were Africanized honeybees," Lamb said. "We've had these bees in Grant County since 1996. Since then, we've had six dogs killed and three people hospitalized. We've sent samples to the lab, and many have tested positive as Africanized honeybees. We had so many bees test positive, I got tired and stopped sending samples to the lab." He said that Africanized
honeybees can be found in all parts of Grant County. According to southernewmexico.com, a Web site approved by the Grant County Extension Office, the best defense against killer bees is caution. "To the untrained eye, the Africanized honeybee looks no different from the European honeybee," the Web site says. The organization says the best defense against killer bees is caution.
Desert U.S.A. offers the following suggestions to those, who, like Reyes, find themselves under attack by killer bees: • Find shelter as
soon as possible in a house, tent, or car with the windows and doors
closed. Researchers say that killer bees are most common in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and parts of Southern California, and are cold-tolerant enough to spread throughout the country. "In New Mexico, Africanized bees will probably live most places European honey bees can live," says southwestnewmexico.com "I guess that I'm lucky," Reyes told the Daily Press. "This bee attack could have been worse; they could have done a lot more damage." (Silver City Daily Press, Melissa St. Aude, 8/24/04.)
Hive, believed to be of 'killer' bees, was in a La Habra yard. It is O.C.'s second major incident in 11 days. A La Habra woman was stung multiple times Monday by a swarm of bees, officials said, the second such attack in Orange County in less than two weeks. The unidentified woman was in the yard of her home in the 500 block of East Florence Avenue about 12:30 p.m. when an estimated 12,000 bees attacked, fire officials said. The 42-year-old woman was stung on the face, neck and arms. She was treated at the scene and was expected to recover, fire officials said. La Habra Battalion Chief Andy Grzywa said it was unclear what had provoked the bees. "They appear to be easily [irritated]." The bees, believed to be Africanized honeybees, had nested inside an empty 18-inch clay planter for at least two months, Grzywa said. Exterminator Carl Moore was called to kill the insects and remove about 50 pounds of honey. Joielynn Aguirre, 18, said she was doing laundry and looked out the window to see the woman trying to fight off the bees with a water hose. "We were going to help but there were too many bees," said Aguirre, whose family rents the rear house to the injured woman. "I just told her we'd call the ambulance. I was scared." Aguirre stayed inside and closed all the windows. She said the planter was cleaned out about six months ago. "We had a barbecue [Sunday night] and we saw bees coming out, but today, they just all came out," she said. "It's been there for a while, and we didn't even know about it." About 120,000 Africanized bees swept through a Santa Ana neighborhood on Aug. 12 after boys threw rocks at them. The bees stung 13 people. Two dogs, stung more than 100 times each, were killed. (By Mai Tran, Los Angeles Times, 8/24/04.)
A chair lay on its side and hundreds of tiny stingers still littered the floor at a building where John Horton had huddled over a 4-year-old girl and her father, who were attacked by an enraged swarm of what may have been Africanized bees on Saturday. "It was terrible," Horton, co-owner of the Horton Lakes Ski School in Newberry Springs, said. A swarm of Africanized honey bees living inside a lakeside playhouse attacked 11 people, including six children, on Saturday afternoon, Newberry Springs Fire Department officials said. The attack, the 10th reported since the Africanized bees first appeared in San Bernardino County in 1998, serves as a reminder of how potentially dangerous yet preventable these attacks can be. Katie Coley, 4, and her father, Butch Coley, were taken by helicopter to Loma Linda University Medical Center on Saturday after suffering well over 100 stings apiece. Six other unidentified victims were taken to Barstow Community Hospital where they were treated and released by 6 p.m. on Saturday. The 4-year-old girl is still recovering and listed in fair condition. Her father was released Monday, according to Loma Linda University Medical Center Spokeswoman Joy Jameson. The attack began when Coley and some of her friends were playing in Lake Horton, a man-made lake, on Saturday morning, 20 to 30 feet away from a colony of more than 100,000 bees, Newberry Springs Fire Department Assistant Fire Chief Steve Miller said. Miller said he theorizes that the bees were Africanized, also known as "killer bees," and probably attacked after they were disturbed by noise caused by the children. Miller, who answers two or three bee calls a month, said he'd never seen an attack of this magnitude before and that it took upwards of 20 people, including three paramedics unit, to get the situation under control. The bees were so aggressive that responding paramedics had to set up a medical triage area a safe distance from the playhouse, he said. After the attack, a member of the San Bernardino County Vector Control Program showed up and set up three remnant traps, doused with pheromones and designed to attract any bees that may have been out foraging at the time of the attack. Joan Mulcare, manager of the San Bernardino County Vector Control Program, said she could not say for sure whether or not the bees were Africanized until they'd undergone DNA testing by the state, which could take up to two weeks. "But the majority of our hives in the county are probably Africanized," she said. Africanized bees are a hybrid of traditional European honey bees and African bees, bred to be more efficient in honey production. They've been blamed for over 1,000 human deaths since a colony of the hybrids escaped from a Brazilian laboratory, where they were first created, in 1956. They entered the United States in 1990 in Texas and were first sighted in California in 1994. Mulcare estimated that there have been around 10 killer bee attacks in San Bernardino County since Africanized bees first appeared in the area in 1998. "This is the first one this year," she said. "We've either been really lucky or really careful." The first "killer bee" attack recorded in the county occurred in July 1998, when a Newberry Springs man was stung well over 100 times. On Monday, Horton, who still had welts from being stung 20 times during the attack, was still waiting for someone from San Bernardino County Vector Control Program to come and pick up the traps. Horton said four or five other Newberry Springs residents had called him to ask how to deal with killer bees since the attack on Saturday. "I think we've got a local disaster going on here," he said. Mulcare said she had little advice to give local residents on how to protect themselves other than to take logical preventative measures against bees. Hives the size of the ones found on Horton's property take a long time to develop, she said. "It wasn't something that happened in the last month or so," Mulcare said. Miller said the main difference between European bees and Africanized bees is a matter of behavior. A person could almost touch a hive housing European bees before the insects took interest and twelve or so bees would attack. An Africanized, or killer bee, will pick up on activity from 50 to 100 feet away and send hundreds of bees to attack. "There's a significant difference in behavior," he said. "It's like the difference between a dog and a wolf." To prevent Africanized bee hives and possible attacks, Miller recommended that residents periodically check their property from top to bottom for small holes, or areas with enough space to house a hive. "If you don't give the bees a place to live, they'll have to go somewhere else to find it," he said. The fire department only responds to bee calls when somebody has been stung multiple times or is immediately threatened, Miller said. "We're geared up to go in and deal only with an immediate public threat," he said. Otherwise, call an exterminator, he said. Mulcare said Africanized bees are here to stay. "We're just going to have to learn to live with them," she said. In case of an attack, victims should just run as far as they can because the bees will usually give up after a quarter mile, Miller said. Hurton, who still would not go within 20 feet of the desiccated hive and traps, shook his head when he recalled the incident. Some victims dove under water to escape the bees, who then shot straight in after them. "It was like a nightmare," he said. (Desert Dispatch, Ian Morrison/Staff Writer, 8/24/04.)
A swarm of Africanized honey bees living inside a lakeside playhouse attacked 11 people -- six of them children -- on Saturday afternoon, Newberry Springs Fire Department officials said. Six people were taken to hospitals with multiple bee stings. One 4-year-old girl and her uncle were taken by helicopter to Loma Linda University Medical Center where they remained Saturday night after getting stung more than 100 times apiece. Both were recovering and listed in good condition, according to hospital officials. "This little girl had them in her nose, her tongue, she had them in her eyelids," said Dr. John Horton, co-owner of the Horton Lake Water Ski School where the attack occurred. "They estimated they had over 150 stinger bites." The attack started when the 4-year-old girl and several of her friends were playing along the shores of Horton Lake, a man-made lake in Newberry Springs, on Saturday morning. Gretchen Horton, who runs the ski school with her husband, John, watched as two of the girls entered the playhouse in front of her office window. That's when the screaming started. "The children went into the playhouse to play and there was a nest of killer bees in the playhouse," Horton said. "One of the parents heard the children scream, grabbed them and threw them in the lake to get away." Two employees of the ski school, Tony Wahl and Travis Hall, motored their boat from the opposite side of the lake to rescue the two girls. A man identified by John Horton as Butch Coley and two other unidentified adults held the girls under the water as the bees swarmed overhead and stung them repeatedly, said Steve Miller, assistant fire chief of Newberry Springs Fire Department. "They'd go in the water and the bees just hung on. They got in their nose, their ears, their mouths and they just wouldn't let go. The bees were everywhere," Gretchen Horton said Eventually Wahl and Hall dragged the children and three adults out of the lake and took them. Dr. Horton pulled the pulsing stingers out of the screaming children and the little girl's uncle, who began to have trouble breathing, so he was flown with his niece to Loma Linda. The other victims were taken to Barstow Community Hospital where they were treated and released as of 6 p.m. Saturday, according to hospital spokesman John Rader. None of the other victims were identified. Miller has trained with the Newberry Springs Fire Department on how to deal with bee infestations. He said he has handled numerous Africanized bee colonies in the last three years because they have made their presence known in the High Desert. He said he was certain the bees that attacked the people at Horton Lake yesterday morning were Africanized, popularly called "killer" bees. "I'm certain from their behavior," he said. Officials with the San Bernardino County Vector Control Program said it takes two-weeks and DNA testing to make positive identification. Joan Mulcare, of the San Bernardino County Vector Control Program, sent a member of her team to destroy the three hives infesting the play house. Miller described one hive as 2 feet by 10 feet and a foot thick. He estimated that there were more than 100,000 bees in the hive. Before anyone from the county's Vector control arrived, Miller said he and his crew of firefighters broke into one of the hives and doused it with flame retardant foam, killing the bees inside. Miller said the Africanized honey bees have been in the High Desert for at least three years. Miller said residents should periodically check their back yards and homes for small holes. A hole the diameter of a pencil can allow bees in to set up hives in attics or other undisturbed places, he said. "If they see bees congregating, dozens on one building, then they need to call an exterminator," he said. Mulcare said when bees attack, people should run, not jump into water. She said getting into water is the worst thing the victim of a bee attack can do. "You should run in a straight line as fast as you can and they may chase you for a quarter-mile," Mulcare said. "You should never jump in the water, because you have to come up for air, which is unfortunately what they did. If you can get in a place where you can close it up, that is the best." (Desert Dispatch, Leroy Standish/Staff Writer, 8/22/04.)
The attack last week was the first major incident in the county since 1999, when the dangerous variety arrived. Thirteen people were stung. Tens of thousands of bees that swept through a Santa Ana neighborhood last week, stinging 13 people and two dogs, both of them fatally, have been identified as Africanized honeybees, Orange County officials said Tuesday. It was the first major attack by the so-called killer bees in Orange County since their arrival in 1999. "The bees have been here for so long that I'm surprised this hasn't happened before," Michael Hearst, a spokesman for the Orange County Vector Control District, said of Thursday's attack by more than 120,000 bees in the 900 block of South Cypress Avenue. Officials said the bees, which had set up three colonies in the wall of an apartment, became angered after boys threw rocks at their hives about 2 p.m. Thursday. They first attacked the dogs, which were tied to a tree at a neighboring house. The animals, each stung more than 100 times, died Friday. The bees then swept through the neighborhood as firefighters, having cordoned off a four-block area, used streams of water to keep them at bay. "It was pandemonium," Santa Ana Fire Capt. Steve Horner later said of the scene. "Everywhere you looked, bees were attacking." Eventually the bees were sprayed with insecticide and sucked up with vacuums. The bees stung 13 people, including seven firefighters, two reporters, and a woman and daughter who were treated for allergic reactions. The only previously recorded attack by Africanized honeybees against a person in Orange County occurred in September 2001, when a Fountain Valley city worker received 15 stings while on a routine maintenance call, said Rick Le Feuvre, the county's agricultural commissioner. "The bees have been here for five years, and their temperament is a little more excitable" than the European variety's, he said. The Africanized bees — products of interbreeding between the common European bee and a group of more aggressive African bees inadvertently released in Brazil during the 1950s — attack 20 times faster than their more mild-mannered cousins, pursue victims farther and stay angry longer, experts say. A swarm is capable of delivering up to 200 stings a minute. About 30 people are stung to death each year in Mexico, authorities say, and eight deaths have been reported in the U.S. since 1990, when the bees first appeared north of the border. Anyone seeing a hive in Orange County, Le Feuvre said, should assume it's an Africanized colony and contact a private pest-control company to remove it if it is on private property. Contact the city or county if the hive is on public land. (David Haldane, Los Angeles Times, 8/18/04.)
Kids throwing rocks stirred up more trouble than they bargained for when they dislodged a swarm of bees from an enormous hive built in the wall of a Southern California apartment building, authorities said on Friday. An estimated 120,000 bees held residents of the apartment building and nearby homes hostage in Santa Ana, California after the children pelted their 500 pound (227 kg) hive with rocks on Thursday, Santa Ana Fire Captain Steve Horner said. Several people, including firefighters, news reporters and a TV cameraman, reported being stung and at least two people were taken to a hospital with multiple stings, Horner said. Firefighters cordoned off a four-block area to allow the bees to calm down and return to their hive. An exterminator later fogged the hive and vacuumed out 40,000 dead bees, then set a trap for returning worker bees, of which about 80,000 were captured, Horner said. The quarter-ton honeycomb, which may have accumulated inside the apartment wall for years, was so big it was threatening the structural integrity of the two-story building, Horner said. (Reuters, 8/13/04.)
* Crews are trained to deal with 10,000 of the insects, not the 120,000 that swarmed a Santa Ana neighborhood this week and stung 13. Santa Ana firefighters — well-versed in how to tackle blazes, vehicle accidents, floods and even earthquakes — said Friday that they were unprepared when they encountered a new adversary this week: an enormous swarm of angry bees. More than 120,000 bees dislodged from an apartment wall Thursday attacked a Santa Ana neighborhood, sending residents, firefighters and journalists scrambling. "It was the first time I've dealt with bees of this magnitude," said Santa Ana fire Capt. Stephen Horner. "Usually, we deal with a small colony with about 5,000 to 10,000 bees." Officials said firefighters weren't prepared because they get minimal training on bees. Firefighters get basic training in a class on general topics such as how to deal with bees, identifying types of bees and what protective gear to wear but not how to catch and dispose of bees. Firefighters can spray small groups of bees with foam but usually call bee professionals for larger swarms. Firetrucks carry only bee bonnets and nets. "We don't really run into bee problems," said firefighter Fred Castro, who was stung four times on the face and neck during Thursday's attack. "It was the first for a lot of people." The bees, hidden in a wall at an apartment complex in the 900 block of South Cypress Avenue, grew angry after boys threw rocks at the hives, Horner said. That sparked the bees to buzz around the neighborhood, stinging 13 people and two dogs. The dogs died Friday from more than 100 stings each, officials said. "We were overwhelmed when we arrived," Horner said. "[The bees] were pretty hostile everywhere we went." The bees first attacked the dogs tied to a tree at a neighboring house, where a mother and her three children moved in two weeks ago. The dogs' barking prompted the woman to run outside, then she frantically called 911. The bees attacked her 11-year-old daughter as her two other children ran for cover. Horner said it will be determined next week whether the bees were European or African "killer" bees. The bees were sprayed with an insecticide, said Bee Busters owner David Marder, then vacuumed up. There were so many bees, he said, that the walls of the apartment will have to be torn apart to kill them all. About 500 pounds of honey found in the walls will be dumped at the county landfill, Marder said. Steve Sudduth, the apartment manager, said the residents whose wall the bees were living in never told him about the bees. "I was there fixing their leaking sink on Tuesday and they didn't say a word," he said. The residents, a husband and wife who have lived in the unit for more than a year, could not be reached for comment. Bees appear during spring and summer and it is the homeowner's responsibility to have the hives removed, officials said. "The only time we respond to bee calls is when it's on our city property," said Sondra Harvey, animal service officer for Santa Ana Animal Control. "We don't have the equipment and we're not trained, so when we get bee calls, we tell them to open up the Yellow Pages." Castro said it was challenging to fight the bees while also trying to protect people being attacked up to a block away. "We don't run into a lot of bee calls like that. It's my first bee call in 25 years. You always hear stories that they attack you, but now I'm a believer." (By Mai Tran, Staff Writer, The Los Angeles Times, 8/13/04.)
It happened Thursday afternoon in a field on Oscar Williams road and Line 18. San Benito police say the victim was riding a tractor at the time of the attack. After he was stung he managed to get into a truck, but collapsed along side the road before he could call for help. Police say he died in en route to the hospital. The victim's name has not been released. (KGBT-TV 4, 8/12/04.)
Thousands of bees apparently agitated by children who threw rocks at their hives swarmed a neighborhood Thursday, stinging bystanders, firefighters and news reporters. A woman and little girl were hospitalized after being stung. Experts estimated there were more than 120,000 bees in the disturbed colonies. Firefighters arriving at the scene were swarmed by "unusually aggressive" bees and discovered three massive colonies and 500 pounds of honey in the walls of a wooden apartment complex, said Fire Department spokesman Steve Horner. Four blocks were cordoned off. Seven firefighters, several reporters and two bystanders were also stung, but did not require medical attention, Horner said. The woman and girl who were hospitalized were stung multiple times but were expected to recover, he said. Their names were not released. A beekeeper was able to remove almost all of the bees using a chemical spray and a vacuum, Horner said. Tests to determine whether the bees were Africanized honey bees would be finished in a week, he said. Horner estimated the colonies had been in the wall for about two years. He said residents of the two-story complex had tried to use foam to plug up three large holes the bees used to enter the wall, but had never called authorities. Four city blocks were cordoned off for more than three hours as bees buzzed through the air. Television footage showed reporters and firefighters fleeing bees. A KCBS-TV freelance photographer was stung six times, the station said. (AP, 8/12/04.)
Killer bees are now blamed for the death of a West Texas man. 48-year-old Johnny Darden was working to remove a hive about two weeks ago in Big Spring. That's about a 100 miles South of Lubbock. Darden, an exterminator, was wearing a bee suit, but not his protective head gear. He was stung more than 200 times and died. Lab tests identified the bees as Africanized. On Tuesday lab tests confirmed killer bees here in Lubbock whiCh are also blamed in the deaths of four dogs last week. (KCBD NewsChannel TV-11 NBC Lubbock, 8/11/04.)
Last week in a Southwest Lubbock neighborhood firefighters were spraying down the side a house and fighting to save the lives of four dogs. The dogs all died. NewsChannel 11 has learned this was the work of killer bees. "It's kinda scary to the fact that they have been on the end of my house all this time," said home owner, Danny Henderson. Henderson says not all of the bees were killed during this rescue. "Somebody around here has some bees in their backyard. I'd be paying attention," he said. The Texas A&M Honey Bee ID lab in College Station sent confirmation of the killer bees to Gafford Pest Control Owner Tim Gafford. Now that the killer bees are in Lubbock, Gafford suggests that all residents be aware and don't take matter into your own hands if you come across an agitated bee hive. "When people get them, they need to let the pros handle it who have the equipment and know how to deal with them," Gafford said. Gafford says bees like to colonize in high places and places that are in tight nit areas. "Bees are going to get into certain spots. The only way you're going to keep them out is if your house is very well sealed outside of your roof. They can get down into two fences that are close together. Not to say that they are all Africanized bees," said Gafford. Gafford says if you are under attack, use water to get them off of you, your children, or your pets. But his best advice is to stay away. Henderson has learned first hand that's important. "They were very aggressive. They wouldn't back off. They would come after you," he said. Gafford also says repellents are not going to keep you safe from an attack, but it may help a little to keep them away from you. (KCBD TV NewsChannel 11 Lubbock, 8/11/04.)
"Evidently they hit part of the hive and knocked it off and the whole nest of them emptied out and chased the painters down the street," explains Danny Henderson. The culprit: bees on the attack after their hive was accidentally destroyed while painters were painting his home. Four dogs were stung multiple times and treated by firefighters but the bee stings were too much for the dogs to handle, and ultimately killed two of them. "I don't know what to tell you other than the fact that they were in the backyard," says Henderson through tears, they were his dogs. The aggressive nature of these bees makes Tim Gafford, of Gafford Pest Control, suspect that these aren't regular honey bees. "The fact that these bees chased people for quite a distance, you don't really see that out of a normal honey bee," he explains. Some of the bees will be sent to a lab to be tested. But if you notice that your home has been invaded by a swarm, Gafford says there a few things you should remember: * Get inside of
your home away from the bees as soon as possible. And Gafford says that today's bee attack could have been much worse. "An unattended small child could have been a dangerous situation, fortunately nothing like that happened," he adds. Experts should know by early next week if the bees are Africanized. ((KCBD - TV NewsChannel 11 Lubbock, 8/5/04.)
A 48-year-old Luther man died Tuesday night after being attacked by a swarm of bees at a Howard County home. The condition of a second victim was unknown by press time. According to Gary Pritchett, chief deputy with the Howard County Sheriff's Office, Johnny Darden died at the Scenic Mountain Medical Center intensive care unit after he was stung hundreds of times by bees earlier in the day at a residence in the 5600 block of Midway Road. A hospital spokesperson, citing hospital policy, refused to release the condition of the second victim, Shirley Day, who was also stung multiple times. Darden was hired by the owner of the residence, an elderly woman, to remove a hive of bees located in the eaves of her outside roof, Pritchett said. "Apparently the male victim climbed up on a ladder and I'm not sure how he was planning to get the bees out from underneath the eaves, but while he was on the ladder the bees apparently swarmed him," Pritchett said. The ferocity of the insects, which according to witness were swarming Darden's body, prevented emergency personnel from immediately treating the victim, Pritchett said. "We were probably about 40 yards from the victim," said Big Spring firefighter Daniel Castillo, one of the first EMTs on the scene. "The bees came from the victim to us. They were very aggressive." Bees stung two of the EMTs before they reached safety and began to don their firefighter suits for protection. Firefighters began spraying the area and the male victim with soapy water to knock the bees to the ground. Once the EMTs were able to get Darden to safety, they immediately began administering drugs and intravenous fluids to counteract the anaphylactic shock, Castillo said. "His condition was serious," Castillo said. "He was conscious but drifting in and out. He did know what happened to him." Darden's face and head were red and swollen from multiple stings, Castillo said. He was wearing a thick jumpsuit and gloves but apparently didn't have protective head gear on when emergency personnel found him, Pritchett said, but he did notice protective head gear at the scene. "His head was covered with stingers," Pritchett said. "It was unreal. I've never seen anything like that." Both Pritchett and Big Spring Fire Chief Brian Jensen said they've never seen such a severe bee attack. The condition of Day was unknown this morning, Pritchett said. "She was not in near the distress that he was, and I didn't see near the injuries (to her) that I did on the male victim," he said. Although the majority of the bees stayed within the backyard area, Pritchett said sheriff's deputies closed part of Midway Road for about 30 to 45 minutes as a protective measure. The resident was allowed to stay in the house last night, Pritchett said, because the bees began to settle down and didn't show additional signs of aggression. A professional beekeeper is expected to remove the hive within a few days. Pritchett said the department doesn't know at this time if the bees are Africanized, more commony known as killer bees. (Lyndel Moody, Big Spring Herald, 7/29/04.)
A West Texas man died after being stung hundreds of times by a swarm of bees. Johnny Darden, 48, of Luther died Wednesday after he was attacked by the bees as he tried to remove their hive from a home. Darden had been hired to remove the hive. The Big Spring Herald reported he was on a ladder under the home's eaves when the swarm attacked. The chief deputy with the Howard County Sheriff's office said the bees' ferocity prevented emergency personnel from immediately treating him. The chief deputy said Darden was wearing a thick jumpsuit and gloves but didn't have protective headgear on when emergency personnel found him. Protective headgear was found at the scene. (AP, 7/29/04.)
An estimated 60,000 bees died Thursday and at least one woman suffered multiple bee stings during a commotion surrounding removal of a bee hive. Local beekeeper Charlie Kroeger said the manager of an apartment complex at 3008 S.W. 28th Ave. called Amarillo Animal Control, which contacted Kroeger about removing the hive. What Kroeger said turned out to be a large hive was hidden from view between enclosed ceiling joists on an overhanging roof above a second-floor balcony. Kroeger, who has worked with bees for 30 years, said he removed a panel and saw the size of the hive and the aggressiveness of the bees. About 3 p.m., a resident at the complex drove up during the bee removal operation and started walking to her second-floor apartment. The bees began to buzz around her, Kroeger said. He advised her to go the other direction at a run, which typically would leave the bees behind. Instead, she made a beeline for her apartment, right next to the hive, he said. She reached her apartment with numerous stings and called 911, which dispatched paramedics, Kroeger said. The paramedics initially could not approach the apartment because thousands of agitated bees were in the area and bent on defending their hive, Kroeger said. Amarillo firefighters came to the scene and blocked off the street. Some firefighters donned protective suits and prepared to use chemicals to wipe out the bees. Kroeger said he stepped in with a simpler and safer method to kill an estimated three-quarters of the hive: spraying water. The woman who was stung went to a hospital for observation, Kroeger said. As to whether the bees might be an "Africanized" strain, Kroeger said there's no way to know unless the city chooses to send a sample to the state beekeeper in College Station for examination. "I will just say that they were more aggressive than average honeybees. There's no way to tell by looking except by looking under a microscope," he said. "They act like they may have some Africanized genetic material." Later, the apartments were quiet. One man who lives there spoke behind his door, which he opened a crack. "Better watch out. You'll get stung by bees," the man advised. Marcus Bell, a resident of nearby Covington Pointe Apartments, said he didn't know anything about the bees as he let his pug, Tone, out on to the lawn. "I'm glad I didn't take my dog for a walk today," he said. (Kris Abbey, Joe Chapman, The Amarillo Globe-News, 7/23/04.)
Thursday afternoon, a honey bee swarm brought business to a stand still at the Industrial Fuel Services located off Highway 44 and Recycle Road, near the Corpus Christi International Airport. Rick Lowrance showed up to work and noticed about 50 bees flying around his business, so Lowrance went for the bug spray. And that's when he saw something shocking, "While I was doing that I noticed a shadow go over my head and I looked up, it is probably 100,000 bees and all went right there to the office. Like a smoke is what it looked like. When I looked up, I went holy cow." Nearly 100,000 bees kept Lowrance's employees inside for several hours. Victor Hinojosa with Vector Control says the hive was somewhere inside the building and could have rested there for quite sometime until construction began this morning across the street, "Some man were doing or cutting some kind of rail track and they got them very agitated and angry. They are very aggressive bees." No one was hurt, but Lowrance says this bee invasion is something that will keep buzzing around his head, "We're in the waste oil business. We don't mess with bees. We've had raccoons and rats kinds of stuff. This is a first." (By Staff, KRIS-TV Corpus Christi, 7/16/04.)
A man steps on a hive. A section of Margarita Road was closed for 2 hours. Temecula, CA - Thousands of bees, agitated when their hive was disturbed, stung three people and forced the closure of a heavily traveled road Thursday morning. A man searching for a Frisbee on the city-kept slopes along Margarita Road stirred up the beehive and was stung more than 40 times He was taken to an area hospital and was doing fine, authorities said. He was not allergic to bee stings. Firefighters spent more than an hour taking apart the watermelon-sized hive and removing it. The hive had been hidden in a bush, officials said. "Typically, bees are docile," said Capt. Carl Calderon of Temecula Fire Station No. 84. "This was different. It was pretty apparent from the get-go that these guys were pretty aggressive." Firefighters from Station 84 were called at 10:26 a.m. to Humber Drive, which runs parallel to Margarita Road. The man first stung by the bees told them he had stepped on the hive, sending the bees into a frenzy, Calderon said. A cable company employee working at a nearby house heard the commotion and came to help. He also was stung and was the person who called 911, Calderon said. A bicyclist traveling by the hive was the third person stung. Fire officials then called Temecula police and had Margarita Road closed from Avenida Barca to Moraga Road for two hours. Firefighters, wearing full protective gear, squirted fire-retardant foam on the hive. "Once the bees sensed someone was close, they just got nuts," Calderon said. With the help of a private pest-control company, the beehive was removed, officials said. Afterward, white foam, leaves and dead bees littered the sidewalk along Margarita Road. As a safety precaution, Temecula Code Enforcement set up barricades around the area. "The bees are still hopping mad," code-enforcement officer Marianne Parker said as hundreds of the creatures buzzed and whirled in the air around her truck parked near the destroyed hive. Ida Leon, who said she has lived in her Humber Drive home for 16 years, said her neighbors recently had an exterminator remove bees that were settling inside their walls. She said she planned to get an exterminator to check out her house. "I don't know what I would do if that happened to me," she said. "I'm deathly allergic." (Rocky Salmon, The Press-Enterprise, 7/16/04.)
Word that a hive of bees, found last week on Cleveland Street and initially believed to be of the Africanized variety, has been found to be a false alarm after examination by experts at Texas A&M University determined they were not. The possibility of the more aggressive Africanized, often called "killer" bees, had gossips buzzing and authorities concerned. The bees were discovered Monday, July 5, when a swarm attacked a man in the 1200 block of Cleveland St. After professional bee keeper G.W. Burlin located and removed a hive from a nearby doghouse, the Navasota Police Department issued a statement warning citizens of the potential threat. "Citizens are being advised to be careful while outdoors and to report to the Police Department if a large number of bees are observed in the neighborhood," the statement said. Africanized bees are more dangerous not only because of their more aggressive nature but because they tend to attack their victims in swarms. Bees native to the area do not tend to attack in numbers. One day later, a second press release said, after analysis by experts at Texas A&M's Department of Veterinary Medicine, the bees were found to be of the high breed European variety but had Africanized tendencies. "They're still aggressive and dangerous, that's my understanding," NPD Chief Joe Hester said. "They're a lot more aggressive than regular honeybees." NPD reiterated that, while the bees were not as dangerous as they could be, they were still a potential hazard. "If you see them swarming, definitely stay away from them," Hester said. "Leave them alone. Let us know so we can tell other people to stay out of a particular area." (The Navasota Examiner, 7/14/04.)
An Edinburg man is rushed to the hospital after being stung by dozens of bees. Firefighters say the victim was mowing his lawn on the 1200 block of North 14th Place. Somehow he disturbed a large bee hive that was inside a pile of tires. Fire officials say the bees raced out and attacked the man. They also say this is "prime season" for bee attacks - they're urging the public to be cautious. (KGBT-TV 4, 7/15/04.)
Marie Larson was hoping the worst was over. For the past two months, it seems Larson has been living with more than a thousand bees that have taken up residence in the chimney of her home on Second Street in Pacific Grove. The stinging marauders have been sneaky, getting between window screens and attacking at random. Larson has sting marks all over her hands and arms to prove it. She has spent sleepless nights worrying about the winged invaders in her house. She has learned the bee colony's habits and is fed up with the noise. "They sound like a cyclone hitting. It's just been awful," she said Monday shortly after an attempt to eliminate the bees fell short of success. Larson learned of the trouble in mid-May when a neighbor called her attention to the intruders. Mark Russ alerted her to a loud noise coming from the east side of the house, facing Pine Avenue. "He told me it sounded like a helicopter flying by overhead," she said. Larson attempted to smoke the bees out of the chimney. Didn't work. Pacific Grove officials advised her to be careful with the house, built in 1912. In the 34 years Larson and her husband, Harold, have lived in the house, there had never been problems with bees or other insects. "The city didn't want me to touch the house," she said. "They told me it was historical. I told them it was hysterical." For the past eight weeks, Larson has been making numerous daily inspections, taking a pair of binoculars and crossing the street to look for the buzzing bandits clustered around the chimney. Larson has heard from residents 10 blocks away who have been attacked by the bees. Larson called five pest control companies before, finally, she found one willing to take on the assignment. Early Monday morning, Russell Auria, an exterminator with Russell Auria Pest Control, used a crane to get to the top of the 35-foot chimney so he could wrestle with the yellow-and-black attack. He said the beehive was at least a foot thick and was lodged a foot from the chimney opening. The job took an hour and Auria was kept safe by wearing a custom-made beekeeper suit. "I feel like Superman in this suit," he said. "I can work comfortably without feeling any anxiety over being stung." Auria says the safety of those in the house and his own safety come first and then he tries to save the hive. The plan was to zero in on the queen bee and remove her so the other bees would follow. That didn't work either. It appeared that the queen and some of her subjects managed to remain in the chimney when the hive went down, not up as Auria wanted. For now, the fireplace and chimney have been covered, but at least some of the bees are still around. Auria plans to re-inspect the chimney from the bottom up within the next two weeks. Frustrated, Larson is looking forward to the day she can sleep in peace. "If I ever get my hands on that queen bee," she said, "I'm gonna ring her neck, that's for sure." (Victor Calderon, Monterey County Herald, 7/13/04.)
For the first time, the Wichita County Extension Office agents say aggressive Africanized bees have made their way to Wichita County. Africanized bees have been confirmed in Throckmorton and Young Counties, where a bee keeper removed a swarm of very aggressive bees today. Wichita County agents say there`s no official lab test yet, but recent swarms have been particularly vicious, suggesting the bees are Africanized. Agents say the bee problem in Wichita County is one of the worst in years. Officials in most North Texas counties and cities field numerous calls a day from residents wondering how to stomp out nearby hives. Some residents say it`s a stinging pain. The government does not offer a bee removal service and it`s sometimes hard to find experts to help. One Olney resident was attacked by aggressive bees in his backyard last weekend. He says he had a hard time finding the right person to remove the dangerous swarm. Grover Parsons carefully creeps toward the bees that attacked him Saturday. He says, "Fourteen stings put me in the hospital. You get that many stings on a little kid around here, he`ll probably end up dead. Parsons finally gave Bennie Watson a buzz. Bennie is a Wichita County bee keeper who removed the bees today. Parsons says it took a while to find Watson. He wishes more local governments would swarm to help. Bennie Watson, bee keeper: "If I didnt do it, it probably wouldn`t get done." Watson, who is retired, does all this in his off time. He says most local governments don`t have the resources to tackle the job. "They just dont want to get involved, they know that they would have to buy protective suits and gear for people." Steve Chaney, Wichita County Extension Agent: "It takes a lot of time, and a lot of money and a lot of equipment." Wichita County Extension Agent Steve Chaney, as well as other authorities, refer all bee removal requests to Watson and other bee keepers. Other counties do the same, but Parsons wishes the process was easier. Watson and the other bee keepers do charge a small fee to cover the removal costs, but they say they`re not in this for a profit. If you do have dangerous swarms near your house, you can call Bennie Watson at 767-0207. (KFDX-TV News Center 3 Wichita Falls, 7/7/04.)
Andrew Blisard, the Bangs man who was stung hundreds of times by bees late Thursday afternoon, remained in Brownwood Regional Medical Center Tuesday in fair condition, a hospital spokesman said. Blisard, 36, was mowing his yard on a riding mower when bees that had gotten inside a wall of the family's home attacked him, according to authorities and the owner of a pest control company who sprayed the area after the attack. Blisard's wife, Stephanie, told authorities she returned home with the couple's two children to find her husband lying in the yard, being swarmed by bees. She sprayed the bees with a water hose and someone called 9-1-1. Jackie Lawson, the owner of Jackie's Pest Control in Brownwood, said earlier that the bees had gotten inside a wall on the Blisards' home through a gap along a window seam. He said bees were coming and going and may have been in an attic eaves. Friends of the family said Blisard, a former Brownwood police officer, was diagnosed with leukemia about two years ago and has had a stroke. (Steve Nash, Brownwood Bulletin, 7/7/04.)
A man crashed his car into a tree filled with bees Monday night, then he is swarmed by them. San Antonio Police said the man in his 20s was speeding down Elm Valley on the southwest side close to 7 p.m. Monday when he lost control. The Ford Mustang he was driving hopped a curb and smashed into the tree, police said. The tree was a home for hundreds of bees. The man was then attacked by the bees, police said. He was taken to the hospital. His condition is unknown. (WOAI TV4 San Antonio, Walker Robinson, 7/6/2004.)
A Bangs man remained hospitalized this morning after sustaining hundreds of bee stings in his yard late Thursday afternoon, sheriff's officials said. Andrew Blisard, 36, was admitted to the intensive care unit and was listed in fair condition this morning, according to a deputy's report and a hospital spokesman. The incident happened around 6:30 p.m. at 7051 Highway 67, sheriff's officials said. Stephanie Blisard told deputies and Bangs police that she came home with the couple's two children and found bees swarming over her husband, who was lying on the ground near their house. She sprayed the bees with water from a hose, and someone called 9-1-1, sheriff's officials said. Lawmen and members of the Bangs Volunteer Fire Department collected some of the bees to help determine, if necessary, whether any are Africanized honey bees, sheriff's officials said. (Steve Nash, Brownwood Bulletin, 7/2/04.)
Reid Booth, "the original killer bee guy," was called to a Sunsites home on Saturday to remove a beehive with an estimated 100,000 bees under a storage shed. The bees had stung a man several times and may have killed a family dog. The Cochise County Sheriff's Department received a call at about 9:56 a.m. on Saturday, in which a man reported being stung by bees "at least 30 times," said spokeswoman Carol Capas. When deputies responded to the home near Apache Way, they were not able to make contact with the victims. They did see signs posted on the truck and the trailer warning people about the bees, she said. Capas said the Sunsites Fire Department also responded. Booth, a Bisbee resident, arrived on the scene between noon and 1 p.m. Saturday after receiving the call for help. "We couldn't find the dog," he said, "It was covered in bees when he let it off the chain. Usually an animal dies when it's covered in bees like that. Bees can kill a horse." Booth said the family came under attack inside their trailer from a beehive near a storage shed. The couple wrapped their babies and took them safely to the next-door neighbor's home. Booth said the man tried unsuccessfully to remove the beehive from the area by dragging it on a chain behind his truck. The man had borrowed a bee suit, but the bees stung right through the suit, he said. "By the time I got there, the bees were pretty angry," Booth said, "It felt like hail bouncing off my (bee) suit. I could smell the venom. People don't believe you can smell the venom, but you can. The man told me he could smell the venom, too." He said residents should be on alert, especially "this time of year" as the weather is hot and Africanized (killer) bees are on the move. "If you have bees, remove them," Booth said, "They are time-bombs waiting to go off. About 40 people per year are killed by bees." The resident told Booth the beehive was in the yard for about four years, but he suspects it was more like six or eight by its size. "It's just like having a rattlesnake in your yard," he said, "If they're out in the desert, that's fine, but you don't want a rattlesnake on your porch or around your house." Booth said that about 300 beestings equal one rattlesnake bite. "There are 40 to 60,000 bees in an average hive," he said, "This one was about 100,000 bees. It was a huge hive." Booth, who has been in the business about 20 years, said he is not an exterminator. He removes the honeycomb from the beehive, and offers a two-year guarantee on his services. He collects the bees and takes them back home to Bisbee, where he makes killer bee jams. Bees like to build hives in places such as old tires, old barbecue grills, and under storage sheds. If residents do come across a beehive, Booth warns not to touch it or mess with it, but seek immediate assistance to have it removed. Booth has said on numerous occasions that all beehives are now Africanized and will attack at anytime without reason. (CAROL BROEDER/Arizona Range News, 6/30/04. (Editor's note: Reporter Thelma Grimes contributed to this report.)
A local man was hospitalized Tuesday after being attacked by bees in his yard. Fire investigator Robert Brader said the man, living in the 300 block of North Eighth Street, had been stung numerous times by an attacking swarm of bees. He was taken to Carlsbad Medical Center for treatment. He said the man had been working in his yard about 9:30 a.m. when a swarm of bees flew out of a hole in the siding on the house and attacked the man. “We don’t know the species of the bees,” Brader said. “We collected a sample of the bees to determine what species they were. We’ve done our best to kill or contain the rest of the bees.” Brader said the
location of the hive is typical for bees. “Most people think of the typical Winnie-the-Pooh beehive, but most hives around here are made in natural crevices,” Brader said. “Be careful around any piles of wood or dark places.” But knowing the bees are there sometimes doesn’t help. Some of the emergency personnel were also stung. Assistant Fire Chief Frank Navarrette said the bees were extremely aggressive. He said the property owner may have come too close, which the bees would take as a threat. The best thing to do if attacked by bees is to stay calm, Navarrette said. Do not try to swat or slap them away because the bees will release a pheromone signaling to other bees that they are being attacked. “The more aggressive you are, the more aggressive they are,” Navarrette said. “Just stay calm and slowly back away from the bees.” Anyone stung multiple times by bees, and especially those with allergies, should seek medical attention as quickly as possible, Navarrette said. Even those without an allergy to bee stings should not assume they will stay that way. Brader said the more stings a person has had, the more possibility of a bad reaction. “In general, you can develop an allergy after being stung,” he said. “The body will make anti-bodies and you can become allergic.” It is not known whether the man had an allergy to bee stings. People should be
careful around bees but not be afraid of them just because of their
stingers, officials said. “Just take the proper precautions and use common sense,” Brader said. (Erin Green/Current-Argus Staff Writer, Carlsbad Current-Argus, 6/29/04.)
There was hardly any skin on the boy that wasn't covered in bees. So Ken Platt turned his garden hose on the child, driving away the stinging insects with a gush of water. "He was hardly coherent," Platt said. Covered in stings and welts, the boy could manage only a few words: "I can't walk." Amir Panah and three others, 13-year-old seventh-graders walking home on the last day of school, were attacked by thousands of swarming bees yesterday when they stirred up a nest near the Los Peñasquitos Canyon Preserve just south of Ted Williams Freeway. Two were taken to a hospital and released last night. An exterminator killed the swarm and the hive. It was unknown whether the insects were Africanized honeybees, often called "killer bees," which can aggressively pursue animals and people. Determining the species will require DNA testing. Chris DeWitt suffered about 50 stings to the chest and face, and was released about 6 p.m., said Dr. Martin Oretsky, the emergency room physician who treated the boys at Pomerado Hospital. Amir was stung 100 or more times on his upper body. He also was treated and released. "I don't think there was one part of his face that wasn't covered in bee stings," said Susan Ott, a hospital volunteer who saw Amir when he arrived. Esteban Hannibal had about 15 bee stings; Connor Farrington escaped with none, his mother said. For the last day of class, Chris asked his father if he and a few friends could skip the bus and walk home from Mesa Verde Middle School instead. The route was a couple of miles by car; the boys would take a shortcut through the preserve. The friends walked south on Carmel Mountain Road to its end, then headed east on Via Panacea. Their homes were on the other side of the preserve, and they thought there might be a path. Chris DeWitt (left)
had about 50 stings, and Amir Panah at least 100. "We touched the wrong bush," Chris said. "All I saw was bees in my face." Esteban immediately felt the bees stinging him. He and Connor ran out to Via Panacea. Esteban ran to the home of a friend, and the bees followed him. He showered at his friend's house, and the family put ice on his stings. Back in the canyon, Chris took off his shirt to swat the bees swarming around his face. Disoriented, he couldn't find a way out of the bushes. "I thought I was going to die," he said. "I got so scared. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't feel anything. I had to get out." He made his way out, leaving Amir behind. Platt, who rescued the boys and was stung several times, was working in his home office on Via Panacea about 3 p.m. when he heard a frantic pounding on his front door. "Help me! Help me!" someone cried. He flung open the door and found a boy, with another close behind. Platt ran to the canyonside beyond his back yard. He hosed off Chris, then Amir. "His whole body was covered," Platt said of Amir. "The stingers were all there and the welts and everything else." A neighbor called 911, and medics put Chris and Amir into ambulances. A police helicopter swooped down to warn neighbors to keep their distance. It located the swarm and directed an exterminator to the hive. The bees nested inside an old spool used for cable or wiring. The hive was at the center in a 2-foot wide space. Gary Rosenberg, an exterminator with Nationwide Pest Control, which contracts with the city, sprayed the hive with Wasp/Bee Freeze and then blanketed it with Drione Dust, a powder that would kill any bees returning to the hive. "The queen is dead," Rosenberg said. "They're gone; they're dying. The ones that were out getting lunch and dinner, they're going to come back and get into my powder." Rosenberg will return after a few days to check the hive, and determine how long it had existed by the amount of honey inside. A typical hive, with 40,000 to 60,000 bees, will produce a surplus of 10 pounds of honey a month, Rosenberg said. If it's 60 pounds, he knows the hive was 6 months old. Distinguishing between Africanized honeybees and their European counterparts requires a lab analysis of the bees' form, structure and DNA. The two species essentially look the same; protect their nests and sting in defense; can sting only once; have the same venom; pollinate flowers; and produce honey and wax. But there are major behavioral differences. Africanized honeybees are more easily agitated, more defensive and prone to frequent swarming. They will pursue an enemy for a quarter mile or more. Peñasquitos Canyon would be an ideal place for bees to nest because the preserve is surrounded by landscaped homes that have flowering plants year round, said Vincent Lazaneo, county farm adviser. Brian Swanson, president of the Friends of Los Peñasquitos Canyon Preserve, said he had not heard of any bee problems. Africanized bees are a hybrid strain created in Brazil in the 1950s to produce honey and tolerate the tropical climate. The bees accidentally escaped in 1957 and migrated north. The bees were first detected in California in 1994, and they have now colonized throughout Southern California. Bee stings are not normally fatal to those who are not allergic, said David Kellum, senior economic entomologist for the county. "Young people can take 10 stings per pound of body weight," Kellum said. In May 2003, a 44-year-old motorcyclist from Bakersfield died after being stung as he rode through a swarm of bees in Santa Ysabel. He said he was having trouble breathing before he died. (Elizabeth Fitzsimons and Kristen Green, also Cheryl Clark, Blanca Gonzalez, Craig Gustafson and Bruce Lieberman and library researchers Michelle Gilchrist, Beth Wood and Dick Harrington, San Diego Union-Tribune, 6/18/04.)
Officials said two boys walking in a canyon on Thursday afternoon were attacked by a swarm of bees in San Diego, and one of them was stung at least 1,000 times. The boys were attacked in the Rancho Penasquitos area a little before 3 p.m. when they stumbled onto a giant hive. NBC 7/39 said at 4:30 p.m. that people walking nearby were warned by officials not to go down into the canyon because of the bees. Both boys were stung numerous times and hospitalized, according to NBC 7/39. The young boy who was more severely stung was in critical condition. Dave Cohen of the San Diego Police Department said at least one of the boys was LifeFlighted from the scene. Workers from a company called Nationwide Pest Control were called to the scene from El Cajon to attempt to get the swarm under control. Authorities briefly shut down the walking trail nearby, which runs parallel to state Route 56, but at around 4:30 p.m. a bee specialist arrived on the scene near Park Run Road, which parallels the Ted Williams Parkway, wearing beekeeper's equipment. Shortly afterward, paramedics and police officers left the site, apparently because any possibility of additional attacked had passed. (NBC TV-7/39 San Diego, 6/17/04.)
A swarm of bees attacked three boys, one seriously, in a Rancho Peñasquitos-area canyon Thursday, possibly stinging the children hundreds of times, authorities said. The insects went after the youngsters on a hiking trail in a canyon area behind homes in the 8300 block of Via Panacea about 3 p.m., according to San Diego police. The three boys, all about 13 years of age, were taken to a local hospital for treatment, said police spokesman Dave Cohen. Police closed the area and were searching the canyon for more victims. A pest control company was called to deal with the swarm, Cohen said. (San Diego Union-Tribune, 6/17/04.)
It happened near
Pima and Westland--that's just west of the Legend Trail golf club. A helicopter took the man to Scottsdale Osborn to be treated. There is no word on his condition. (KPHO-TV CBS News 5, 6/8/04.)
Jeffery Lee Patton, 41, of Ratcliff died the morning of May 25 after being attacked by a swarm of bees while logging on private property in Leon County, approximately 6 miles northeast of Centerville. Witnesses have said Patton was "topping out a tree" around 10 a.m. that day when he was attacked by numerous bees. Co-workers transported Patton to East Texas Medical Center in Crockett where he was pronounced dead on arrival. On Monday, Leon County Sheriff Mike Price said Dr. Paul Jackson, an entomologist with Texas A&M University, has notified his agency that "it was his opinion that it was a hybrid swarm" of bees that attacked and killed Patton. Texas A&M officials performed tests on five bees removed from Patton's clothing, according to the sheriff. "Three of the
bees were Africanized (honey bees) and two were European (domestic honey
bees)," Price told the Herald-Press. Price said that Patton suffered approximately "50 to 60" stings to the face and others to the neck, chest and arm areas. William Richards, also with Texas A&M, recently traveled to Leon County as officials continue to try to learn more about the bees which claimed the logger's life. "He (Richards) set traps out in that area and he's going to come back late next week and check the traps," Price said. Richards told Leon County sheriff's officials that he was summoned to the same area of the county approximately 18 months ago after receiving a report of a swarm of bees. "He said they were some of the most aggressive bees he's ever been around," Price said of Richards' previous experience in Leon County. Africanized honey bees began migrating northward from South America in the 1950s and have the same appearance as domestic honey bees although they are known for having a quick temper, according to information on a Web site maintained by Texas A&M. Their venom is generally no more potent than that of a domestic honey bee, according to some experts. "They (Africanized honey bees) are much more aggressive," Price, however, said. "They'll follow you. They're just bad little actors." Fifteen people have died from bee stings in Texas since 1991, according an official with the Texas Honey Bee Identification Laboratory at Texas A&M. (Paul Stone, Palestine Herald-Press, 6-8-04.)
Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office spokesperson Jeannie Gage said Harrison's body was discovered at about 10 a.m. Saturday with multiple bee stings. "Investigators believe the victim was attacked by bees before accidentally falling off the tractor/shredder," Gage said. She said deputies responded to the 22530 block of Canal Road in Richmond after a ranch foreman discovered the 54-year-old Harrison lying on the ground, deceased, next to the tractor. "The victim had apparent lacerations from the shredder and multiple bee stings," said Gage. "The preliminary autopsy report from the Galveston County Medical Examiner indicates the victim died from hemorrhaging, with secondary causes being heart disease and multiple bee stings." Gage said the incident remains under investigation. (B.J. Pollock, The Herald-Coaster, 6/1/04.)
The attack happened
at a ranch located near Canal Road in Richmond The attack happened at a ranch located near Canal Road in Richmond. At about 10am Saturday, a ranch foreman found the owner of the ranch, Bruce Harrison, 54, lying on the ground next to a tractor. Harrison was dead at the time of discovery. Investigators believe the victim was attacked by bees before accidentally falling off a tractor/shredder. He had apparent lacerations from the shredder and multiple bee stings. The preliminary autopsy report from the Galveston County Medical Examiner indicates Harrison died from hemorrhaging with secondary causes being heart disease and multiple bee stings. The incident remains
under investigation at this time. (KTRK-TV ABC13 Eyewitness News, 6/1/04.)
SAN ANTONIO -- A man was attacked by a swarm of bees Tuesday while he was mowing his yard behind his South Side home.
About 1,000 bees were nesting in a hole in the ground and were angered by the noise of the lawn mower, said Robert Martinez, a Vector Control employee. "It was a swarm, resting there, because of the heat," Martinez said. "When he was making the racket with the lawn mower, they just attacked him. They'll attack you when they hear a lot of noise." The bees were destroyed. Martinez said more bee attacks are expected as summer rolls along. ((KSAT-TV 12 San Antonio , 6/1/04.)
A man in Southwest San Antonio was attacked by bees Tuesday. The man was mowing his lawn, near E. Harding and S. Flores Street, when the bees attacked. Officials said the loud noise from the lawn mower stirred the bees. He was taken to a local hospital, but his condition is unknown. Firefighters and Vector Control were called to spray the hive. This was the second time in a week bees attacked, last week bees killed two dogs and stung a man. (Stephanie Mata, TV News 9 San Antonio, 6/1/04.)
Grimes County was added today to the state quarantine, restricting the movement of commercial bee operations following the detection of Africanized honey bees. The addition makes 152 counties in Texas now quarantined for Africanized honey bees, according to the Texas Apiary Inspection Service, a unit of the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station. A sample from a colony of wild bees was collected and sent to the Texas Honey Bee Identification Lab in College Station on May 24 and confirmed Friday, according to Paul Jackson, chief apiary inspector. All of the bees were destroyed. A man was operating a bulldozer and bees in a nearby tree stung him at least 200 times. He was taken to a local hospital where he was treated and released. Jackson said the quarantine allows beekeepers to move beehives within, but not out of, the zone in an effort to prevent assisting the spread. Africanized honey bees look just like regular domestic honey bees but are more defensive in protecting their hives, according to Jackson. The Africanized bee was first detected in the United States near Brownsville in October 1990. Africanized honey bees also have been found in Arizona, California, Nevada and New Mexico. (Kathleen Phillips, Texas A&M Agriculture News, 5/28/04.)
After two dogs were killed and a man was injured, the city's Vector Control offers the some advice on the dangers of bees. A family is recovering after a swarm of bees killed their dog and their next door neighbor's dog Wednesday. The bees attacked the owner as well, who sustained minor injuries to the face. The City of San Antonio's Vector Control workers continue to warn people about the dangers of bees. They say homeowners should periodically check their property for beehives, especially before mowing their lawn. Workers say loud noises such as lawnmowers and barking dogs can put bees on the defensive. "When they are upset, they're out to kill," vector control technician Leroy Valdez said. "That's their defense, protecting their home, just like anyone else would do if they were threatened." Officials advise homeowners not to destroy a beehive. They say residents should call a private exterminator if they find a hive. Homeowners should check their property on a regular basis, especially during summer months when bees are most common. Experts say it's OK for people to run to an enclosed space is chased by bees. (Jillian Palmieri, News 9 San Antonio, 5/28/04.)
Authorities have been delayed determining whether bees that killed a 41-year-old man on Tuesday were Africanized, also known as "killer" bees. They can't find a hive and have only been able to collect a handful of dead bees, which might not be enough for testing. A Texas A&M University bee expert told deputies that Jeff Patton of Ratcliff might have been attacked because he disturbed a swarm on the move, and not a nest, Leon Sheriff Mike Price said Wednesday. Officials were able to recover five dead bees from Patton's body at the hospital, which they turned over to the expert, Price said. "He can go back and analyze them so he can let us know what kind of bees we are dealing with," Price said. If the swarm was moving to a new location, they were likely protecting their queen, making them very aggressive, bee experts say. It might be weeks until the bees are identified, if they ever can be, said Lisa Bradley, a research assistant with the Texas Honey Bee Identification Laboratory at Texas A&M. Bradley's test takes at least 10 bees for comparative identification. Another possibility is to gather DNA from the bees, which is possible only if they were preserved quickly enough after they died, Bradley said. Patton was logging off Texas 7 near Centerville when he was attacked by a swarm, which a witness said seemed to number in the hundreds. He died later at a Crockett hospital. Nine deaths have been attributed to Africanized bees since they first turned up in Texas in 1990. (Ashley Cook, Longview News-Journal, 5/28/04.)
An entomologist at Texas A&M University said he is trying to determine what kind of bees stung a logger to death while he was working in eastern Leon County on Tuesday. Jeff Patton, 41, of Ratcliff died Tuesday from what was described by authorities as hundreds of bee stings. “ A nurse at the [East Texas Medical Center] said there were so many bee stingers in his face it looked like stubble,” said Bill Vest, spokesman for the Leon County Sheriff’s Department. Paul Jackson, the state entomologist at Texas A&M University, said he plans to release his findings Friday afternoon. It’s unclear if the bees were Africanized honey bees or regular bees, and he said he might release a “best guess” because the nest was not found and he only got a partial sample of the bees. “ When bees sting, their whole abdomen comes out, so we ended up with torn-up bees that are hard to identify,” Jackson said Thursday. When Palton ran out of the woods covered with bees, co-workers doused him with gasoline to repel the bees and drove him to the medical center in Crockett, where he was pronounced dead by a justice of the peace. About 15 Texas residents have died from bee stings since 1991, said Lisa Bradley, a research assistant with the Texas Honey Bee Identification Laboratory at A&M. (Eagle Staff Report, The Bryan-College Station Eagle, 5/28/04.)
An East Texas logger died Tuesday after he was stung hundreds of times by a swarm of bees. Jeff Patton, 41, of Ratcliff, was logging near Centerville in Leon County when he was stung by the bees, Sheriff Mike Price told The Lufkin Daily News for its Wednesday editions. Another logger took Patton to East Texas Medical Center in Crockett, where he later died. It's unclear if the bees were Africanized honey bees or regular bees. Price said an expert from Texas A&M University was scheduled to inspect and destroy the bee nest Wednesday. In Texas, 15 people have died from bee stings since 1991, said Lisa Bradley, a research assistant with the Texas Honey Bee Identification Laboratory at Texas A&M. Lufkin is about
160 miles southeast of Dallas. (AP, 5/26/04.)
Three people were attacked by hundreds of bees on May 18 in Crosby. James Blaha, Lauren Phelps and Capella Advincula were behind John Keating Chevrolet. "Blaha was mowing a ditch behind the dealership when a box blade hit a tree stump which caused the bee hive to fall," said Houston Hooper, Harris County ESD No. 5. As the bees were attacking Blaha, Phelps and Advincula jogged in their path. The bees started attacking the two joggers, Advincula told both Phelps and Blaha to jump in the ditch filled with water. According to Mary Phelps, "Blaha was too dazed to jump in the ditch, Phelps and Advincula grabbed him and threw him in the ditch." While in the ditch, Blaha passed out. As Advincula pulled him up, Blaha started convulsing and throwing up. While Advincula was helping Blaha, Phelps took off her shirt and starting swinging at the bees hoping to get rid of them. "Once I saw an opportunity, I jumped out of the ditch, and ran to a local store to call 911," Lauren said. "I was told not to go back by the store manager, but I could not leave my friend and Blaha, who was in and out of consciousness," she said. The ambulance finally arrived and Life-Flighted Blaha to Ben Taub Hospital. Once Blaha was on his way to the hospital, Harris County ESD No. 5 turned their attention to Phelps and Advincula. They removed 21 stingers from Phelps head. Phelps received more stingers on her hands and shoulders while Advincula received many abrasions on his head and neck. Both were treated in the ambulance and were taken home. "Blaha received around 50 to 60 stings to his head and face," said Hooper. Because of their
heroic acts, they saved Blaha's life. They were told by ESD No. 5, if
they had been five minutes later and had not helped him, Blaha would
have died. After this incident,
county workers went back to the site on Wednesday to destroy the hive
and kill the bees. The bees were not
killer bees, just regular honey bees. Blaha is a county worker and he was just re-elected to the board of Lake Shadows Water Control Improvement District (WCID) No. 70. Here are some suggestions for treating bee stings. 1. Take aspirin for pain and use ice to reduce swelling if there is no history of allergic reactions. 2. If there is a history of allergic reactions, then take an oral antihistamine that doesn't cause drowsiness. 3. If someone had a delayed reaction to a sting, he or she might consider immunotherapy to protect from future reactions to stings. Do your best to avoid stings by wearing long pants and long-sleeved shirts while participating in outdoor activities such as hiking or mowing the lawn. Wear gloves when gardening and choose shoes instead of sandals. (Roycelyn Bastian, Lake Houston Sun, 5/26/04.)
A 41-year-old Ratcliff logger was pronounced dead at a Crockett hospital late Tuesday morning after being attacked by hundreds of bees on private property, approximately 6 miles northeast of Centerville. Leon County sheriff's authorities have identified the deceased man as Jeffery Lee Patton, 41, a logger with Calhoun Logging Company. Patton was "topping out a tree" on private property near the Pleasant Springs community in Leon County around 10 a.m. Tuesday when he was attacked by hundreds of bees. This morning Peggy Ivey, administrative assistant with the Leon County Sheriff's Department, told the Herald-Press that officials there were still uncertain whether the bees involved in the attack were Africanized honey bees. Dr. Paul Jackson, an entomologist with Texas A&M University who has studied bees extensively, was expected to travel to Leon County today as officials continue their investigation into Patton's death. A small number of the bees were recovered from Patton's clothing. Approximately a half-dozen other loggers were in the vicinity when Patton was attacked Tuesday morning, according to Ivey. "They had cut down some pine trees," Ivey said. "He was topping out a tree. "My understanding is they heard him yelling and went to check on him...and attempted to help the victim, but could not get the bees away from him," she continued. "The bees kept attacking them." A witness contacted 9-1-1 at 10:13 a.m. Tuesday, according to Leon County sheriff's records. "The gentleman progressively got worse (during the course of the telephone conversation)," Ivey said. "They decided to transport him (approximately 30 miles to Crockett) by private vehicle." Officials say Patton was pronounced dead at East Texas Medical Center in Crockett shortly after his arrival. At least one other logger was stung by the bees, but did not sustain serious injuries. Representatives of the Leon County Sheriff's Department searched the area of the fatal bee attack Tuesday. "We have yet to find where they are located," Ivey said. "They are out there, but we haven't been able to find the hive." Fifteen people in Texas have died from bee stings since 1991, according to an official with the Texas Honey Bee Identification Laboratory at Texas A&M. A Web site maintained by Texas A&M providing information on Africanized and domestic honey bees offers several facts and recommendations, including: Africanized and domestic honey bees look the same, so stay away from all bees. If bees attack, do not try to escape by jumping into a swimming pool or pond. The bees likely will be waiting for you when you come up for air. If you get stung or hear bees buzzing, run away fast and get inside a house or car. If there is no shelter, run through bushes or high weeds. A honey bee will leave its stinger in your skin if it stings you. Get the stinger out by raking your fingernail across it. Do not pinch or pull the stinger out. Put ice on a sting to reduce the swelling. (Paul Stone, Palestine Herald-Press, 5/26/04.)
Bee season in Tucson has started this year with one of the worst Africanized bee attacks the city has seen. A Midtown man was stung several hundred times on Thursday. And bees are out in force this year thanks to a wet winter, keeping residents and bee removal experts busy trying to maintain safe properties. "We've had almost double our normal activity," said Steve Thoenes, president of BeeMaster Inc. BeeMaster expects to do 600 removals this month. It does 300 jobs in a normal month and up to 400 in a busy month. Thoenes was called in to clean up the colony of Africanized bees that attacked Christopher Gofs, 33, at an apartment complex in the 3900 block of East Blacklidge Drive at North Alvernon Way on Thursday. Gofs' condition is unknown, but yesterday he was not listed on the patient directory at University Medical Center, where he was taken after the attack. Federal law prohibits hospitals from releasing patient records. Although there are more bees around, Thoenes, who has a doctorate in entomology and used to do bee research for the federal government, said that does not necessarily mean the public is in more danger. "We've dispatched our technicians many times, and the problems have been solved without attack," he said. Tom Martin, president of AAA Africanized Bee Removal Specialists Inc., said this is "absolutely the worst incident" he knows of since a woman in Sunizona was killed in 2002. And Deputy Chief Randy Ogden, a Tucson Fire Department spokesman, said in 27 years with the department he has never seen another incident in Tucson with this many stings - though he has seen swarms and 60 people reported being stung last year, one with between 100 and 150 stings. The Fire Department kills bees only in life-and-death situations. It's too early to tell whether bee attacks are on the rise this year, Ogden said. "We're just going into the season. But it seems pretty consistent with what we did last year." The Arizona Poison and Drug Information Center at the University of Arizona has had 138 calls for bee, wasp and hornet exams, said managing director Jude McNally. Last year, the center was called for 418 bee, wasp and hornet exams for humans and five for animals. Forty-seven people called for information. In Thursday's incident, police were called to the scene to check on a man exhibiting erratic behavior. Gofs may have grabbed the hive, which was in an abandoned couch, said Sgt. Marco Borboa, a police spokesman. Several officers rushed in to save him and were also stung before firefighters arrived and sprayed a paralyzing foam on the swarm. Thoenes said he took apart the colony of about 20,000 bees, which was lodged in the back part of the couch between the seat and the lining. Martin said he is getting a record number of calls for bee removals. "What we're seeing is, these colonies are triple the size they normally would be," he said, theorizing that larger colonies were more likely to survive two years of drought in 2002 and 2003 and prospered after the recent wet winter. "These bees were much more difficult to eradicate with the protective equipment we're used to wearing - we're having to put on two pairs of coveralls and two veils." Thoenes said he hasn't noticed an increase in the size of colonies. He agreed with Martin that a wet winter has led to an increase in the number of bees. But he said Africanized bee colonies throw off swarms when they reach a certain size. Wild colonies, surviving with no human help, are limited to about 30,000 bees. "The colonies are not getting bigger," he said. "But they're throwing off a lot of swarms." The experts agree that bees are dangerous only when they have an established nest that is worth defending. "You need to avoid leaving the bee problem there for too long. If you see bees, get them taken care of right away," Thoenes said. Residents should never try to take care of a hive on their own, Martin stressed. Always call a specialist in bee removal, not pest control, he said. And if a person is caught in a swarm, "run to the nearest car or storefront or home to get inside, out of danger," he said. "If you're being stung, still run inside, take the stinging bees inside. Do not wait outside, roll on the ground or try to hose yourself off. "It will be a disaster." (Joyesha Chesnick, Arizona Daily Star, 5/22/04.)
Africanized bees -- dangerous and deadly. A Tucson man is recovering today from nearly 500 stings. What can you do to protect your home and yourself? Deanne Donnelly has the answer. Until this morning, Jack Plett had no idea thousands of Africanized bees were living in the back wall of his home. Jack Plett says, "I wasn't panicking or anything like that." Like many people, Plett thought he could get rid of the bees himself. Jack Plett says, "I figured I’d just clog it up, caulk it, and the next thing I know there are a few hundred bees coming in trying to get into the hole." Bee removal expert Tip Tisdale says sealing off the colony entry is the wrong thing to do. Tip Tisdale says, "I wouldn't recommend it. It's far too dangerous for the homeowner to attempt number one and number two and if you seal a colony in it has enough resources that it can be there for quite a while." The bees are so aggressive they'll look for anyway out which may end up being your living room. Deanne Donnelly says, "It only takes a hole the size of a pencil for Africanized bees to make their home in your house. So if you see even just a few bees coming and going, don't try to take care of it yourself call an expert." Those "few" bees may be part of 8,000 to 12,000 in a colony. Tisdale says in order for you to protect your family, check for Africanized bees around your home. The colonies tend to live in irrigation valve boxes, in cracks around the corner joints of the house, and in ventilation boards. You may only see one or two bees leaving at a time. They may seem harmless but experts say for your safety don't take any chances. Jack Plett says, "I had my reservations on whether they were the killer bees but I made the call and they said sometimes they are aggressive and sometimes they are not. So they came out and took care of business." On average, AAA Africanized Bee Removal Specialists charge $200 to $300 to remove bees from a home. ( Deanne Donnelly, KGUN TV-9 Tucson, 5/21/04.)
A Tucson man was recovering after being stung hundreds of times by what appeared to be Africanized bees. Several police officers rushing to help the man were also attacked. The man apparently disturbed a hive containing an estimated 100,000 bees Thursday, said Deputy Chief Randy Ogden, a Tucson Fire Department spokesman. The hive was in an abandoned couch under a tree at an apartment complex, Ogden said. The victim was stung all over his body and was taken to University Medical Center for treatment. Officials believed the bees were the Africanized variety because they were extremely aggressive, Ogden said. Several officers rushed in to save the man. Six officers were also stung, but none needed to be taken to a hospital, Ogden said. Firefighters treated the hive and bees with a special foam, killing most of them. (AP, 5/21/04.)
A Houston woman has nowhere to hide in her own home. Bees are swarming all around the back of the house. From behind the breaker box to up near the roof.
Bees were not only around Ms. Cooke's home, but also inside her bathroom. They’re a nuisance, but getting rid of them is not cheap. Most companies are charging $400 plus for the job, which is way too much for Beatrice Cooke who is on a fixed income and has lived in her home for 55 years. The 81-year-old has plenty of spunk, but not enough physical energy to tackle what’s going on around her home. A bee problem she didn’t even know she had until she called Southwestern Bell to come fix her phone. He said ‘Ms. Cooke, I won’t be able to fix your phone because I just got stung five times by the bees’, said Cooke. I said, ‘lord have mercy, get in this house boy’. In a wheelchair because of a stroke that nearly killed her, she hasn’t been in the back yard in years. But now the bees are coming inside too and into her bathroom. I hear them, but I can’t see where they’re at, said Cooke. She’s nearly blind too and on a fixed income of $512 a month. So paying to get rid of her new roommates is not an option. It would be kinda tuff. Yes, you’re right. Because I like to eat, said Cooke. 11 News found a company that’s willing to help, but on Wednesday they were too busy exterminating bees all over town. But the exterminators might be needed at Ms. Cooke’s house the most. (Jeff McShan, KVUE-TV 11 News, Houston, 5/20/04.)
It could be renamed the Manhattan Bee-ch Pier. Clouds of bees swarmed the Manhattan Beach Pier, forcing police to shut down the landmark for a second day as tens of thousands of bees settled on railings and the underside of the pier. Swarms, often as big as a basketball, moved in on Sunday and a beekeeper removed most of them. But there were still enough lingering Monday to keep the pier closed. Experts said bees set out this time of year in search of new homes, and the heat wave with 100-degree temperatures likely drew them to the cool pier environs. When bees swarm, they aren't as aggressive as they would be if their hive was disturbed. "Bees in a swarm aren't generally protective. They've got their queen, they're with their mama, they're having a party," said Don Sorensen, owner of Bee & Wasp Nest Removal Service in Torrance. Bees swarm in the spring as more eggs hatch and their hives get too crowded. The queen bee takes half the hive and sets out to establish a new nest, while bees at the old hive raise another queen from the eggs she leaves behind. About 70 percent of the bees captured in Los Angeles County have been Africanized, the so-called killer bees, said Robert Saviskas, executive director of the vector-control district. They look like other honeybees, but attack viciously as a group. (AP, 5/4/04.)
Firefighters in Brazil today recovered the bodies of two men killed in a bee attack. They were among a group of nine people who were hiking Sunday in the Serra Do Caraca state park about 600km west of Rio de Janeiro when they were attacked by a swarm of bees, said Sergeant Wellington Horta of the Minas Gerais fire department. Initially, firefighters believed the men were lost in the woods but today they found the bodies of the two, 26 and 31 years old, at the bottom of a waterfall. "Their bodies were full of bee stings which suggests they died from the bee attack and didn't drown, but we'll only know after an autopsy can be conducted," said Horta from Belo Horizonte, the state capital. The bees also attacked rescue workers, slowing down the recovery of the bodies. Bee keepers eventually had to be called in to complete the operation. According to Horta, the area is known to have a lot of bees but such attacks are rare. Firefighters do not know what set off the attack. (AP, 5/4/04.)
Senior citizens at a Corpus Christi retirement community are worried about a huge swarm of bees that has taken up residence there. The problem at the
Casa de Oro Apartments on Alameda was first discovered Tuesday when
a couple residents were stung. We're talking about thousands of bees here. They apparently gained entry through a small crack in the brick near the roof of the building. The bees are confined between the brick and the interior walls though. They have worked their way from the eighth floor all the way down to the second. The worst of them is concentrated somewhere around the fourth floor. It's the season when bees become busy, but when the colony is swarming behind the walls on several floors of a retirement community, they're not welcome one bit. Johnny Riojas, a Casa de Oro resident, said, "Pretty scary. That's the first time I've ever seen anything like that." Just go inside Johnny and Nellie Riojas' apartment. "I got scared because I hear that people die when they sting them," said Nellie Riojas. Riojas was lucky she was not stung. Two other seniors were stung, but their injuries were not serious. The bees are exploring at least seven floors of the building. They're also coming in through cracks on the window. They're also flying out of wall outlets. Casa de Oro's maintenance man has been sealing off apartments before professional exterminators come in and move the bees out. "It's been a busy two days. I've been at it since yesterday," he said. The retirement home, first and foremost, wants to keep the residents out of harm's way. Dennis Miller, Casa de Oro board member, said, "This is the season they seem to be real active. Honeybees make honey. That's what they're doing." The bees are believed to be just honeybees, but they will be tested just to make sure they're not killer bees. The professional bee removers started Wednesday afternoon. At that time, many residents at Casa de Oro were moved to other rooms while the exterminators get rid of the bees. (Aaron Drawhorn, KRIS-TV News 6, 4/29/04.)
A swarm of bees attacked a man and a teenage boy in a residential East County neighborhood Thursday, 10News reported. The cloud of insects descended on one of the victims shortly before 10:30 a.m. in a front yard on Castle Court Drive, near Los Coches Road in the Lakeside, according to 10News. According to 10News, J.C. Enrique was finishing a landscaping job when he hit a hive causing the bees to swarm. A contractor and his 16-year-old son, who were working down the street, heard Enrique screaming and ran to help him. The teenager grabbed a hose and started spraying the gardener with water. The bees then swarmed around the young man, stinging him. "I couldn't see any sky. Squirting them with the hose was all we could do," said Enrique. "The guy who was trying to help me, he got attacked by the bees, so I started squirting his head. Then the bees starting going after me, again. He just took off running and gashed his leg on a fence and jumped into a dirty pond." A homeowner heard the screaming and called 911. "I was woken up by the two gentleman in my front yard spraying themselves with a hose trying hysterically to get the bees off of them," said Matt (Pereira,) who witnessed the bee attack. Fire officials warned residents to stay indoors and keep pets inside. County Department of Agriculture workers sprayed the bees with pesticides late Thursday afternoon. They said the bees are not Africanized honey bees, also known as "killer bees." Medics treated Enrique at the scene. Welts from bee stings covered his back, neck, shoulders and head. Paramedics took the teenager to Sharp Grossmont Hospital in La Mesa for an evaluation. Dr. David Kellum, a San Diego County entomologist, said, "The best thing is to get out of there as quickly as possible. Don't stop to try to spray them or cover yourself, just get out of there as quickly as possible. The further you get away from the nest, the less bees will follow you. They can follow you for quite a distance, so its best to get out of there as quickly as possible." Residents concerned
about bee hives can call the San Diego County bee hotline at (800) 200-2337.
(TheSanDiegoChannel.com,
4/29/04.)
A hive that was home to about 100,000 bees was removed from a Bisbee residence after numerous residents were stung. The Bisbee Fire Department was concerned about the hive because the area has a lot of children and pets that like to play outdoors, officials said. Bee removal specialist Reed Booth said he could actually smell the venom of the Africanized bees when he arrived at the home Monday. "I said this would be a bad bee season, and now it is happening," Booth said. "They are a bomb waiting to go off, period." (AP, 4/28/04.)
At least three animals have been attacked and two were killed recently by the so-called "killer bees," officials said Monday. The animal services department in Abilene, Tex., has received about a dozen calls recently about swarms of Africanized honey bees. Animal services do not remove aggressive bees from private property, but they will respond if the swarm attacks another animal. One Abilene family said the bees had a nest in their dogs' house and that honeycomb is embedded in the walls of their own home. Last week, the bees attacked the family's two boxers and they later died. Two rescue workers were also stung while attempting to contain the bees. "The fire department came and when they got here the dogs were in the doghouse rolling around trying to get the bees off of them," said dog owner Jacob Flores. "They were completely covered with the bees. The fire department started spraying some stuff on them. I don't know exactly what it was, to try and kill the bees." And the trouble
may not be over yet because bees produce swarms four or five times a
year from March through November to build new nests. They were first
detected in the United States near Brownsville in October 1990 and have
since spread through much of the state. (AP, 4/27/04.)
Experts with Texas A&M say residents shouldn`t have to worry about Africanized honey bees reaching Wichita county for at least a year. Entomologist Paul Jackson with A&M says confirmed Africanized bee colonies are still far south of Wichita County. But several local bee keepers say they`ve captured swarms of the aggresive insects around Archer City and near Lake Arrowhead. While the bees were never tested to confirm they were the Africanized variety, entomoligists say experienced bee keepers can identify a dangerous breed of bee by the number that attack, and how far they pursue a victim. Ben Coker spoke with local fruit growers today. They depend on bees to pollinate their crops. They are concerned the Africanized bees could affect their produjction and their profits, along with the bee keepers. When a county is quarantined due to Africanized bees, beekeepers are prohibited from moving their bees outside the county. Many say they would lose income from farmers who pay to use the bees to pollinate their crops, and farmers could see their fruit yeilds drop. Jimmy Morath with Morath Orchards in Charlie says, while he hasn`t used a bee keeper`s bees for several years to pollinate his squash crops, it`s a service he`d hate to lose if Africanized bees move in. "If we didn`t have the bees to pollinate, fruit would just fall off." Farmer Steve Young of Young`s Orchards in Charlie says the bees he raises fly flower to flower pollinating his black berry plants as well as plum trees and other crops. He says he feels Africanized bees pose little threat to his crops. "There`s ways to control it, and I don`t believe the Africanized bees are gonna give us that much trouble." But he does say the risk of attacks will certainly be there. That`s why Heather Coulter and her kids aren`t looking forward to the killer bees inevitable arrival. Farmers say they`ll take advantage of their civilized bees while they can. Africanized bees have been confirmed in 151 Texas counties, including Young, Throckmorton, Foard and Hardeman right here in Texoma. (KFDX-TV 3, 4/23/04.)
Agriculture officials in Louisiana and Mississippi have set traps as a precaution to catch Africanized honeybees, commonly known as "killer bees." In Mississippi, officials set five brown paper box traps containing lures to attract the bee near the Port of Natchez close to the Mississippi River. If the bees are found in routine checks, they will be exterminated and work will begin to determine where they came from, said state entomologist Harry Fulton. Craig Roussel, director of horticulture and quarantine programs for the Louisiana agriculture department said the agency is monitoring the bees closely. The state has traps only in deep-water ports such as Lake Charles and New Iberia and as far up the Mississippi River as Baton Rouge. "The purpose of trap line is basically to let us know so we can let people know they have arrived," Roussel said. "There's no way to prevent them from entering," he said. Louisiana is concentrating its efforts on the Louisiana-Texas border, particularly in north Louisiana, where the bees may begin to encroach into the state, he said. The bees have been spotted west of Houston, Texas, but Fulton said boats and barges have been found to carry the insect. "We are being proactive," he said. "We don't want them to sneak up on us." Fulton said he did not expect the bees to make their way into Mississippi any time soon. The bees were first introduced into the United States in southern Texas in 1990 from South America and have now expanded farther into the state and through New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and into California. "In the last five years they don't seem to have moved," Fulton said. "The indications are that they may stay where they are." Fulton said a 1990 scientists' prediction said the bees may eventually move eastward. Fulton said while he did not like to use the word "killer," the bees are more dangerous than regular bees. "They tend to get more agitated as a group and will sting you more in a short period of time," he said. The Africanized bee's sting is no stronger than that of a normal honeybee, but it is the repeated stinging by a large group that most humans and animals cannot survive. Human deaths after Africanized honeybee stings have been recorded in Texas and Arizona. (AP, 4/22/04.)
A homeowner accidentally sets his home on fire Tuesday night trying to get rid of some bees. Fire crews got to the scene in the 9000 block of Spanish Cove on the southside close to 8 p.m. Tuesday. Firefighters say the man threw gasoline on a beehive near a window sill. When he lit the gas, the home caught fire. Firefighters put out the flames, and city crews are removing the bees. ( Walker Robinson, WOAI-TV 4 NBC San Antonio, 4/20/04.)
The presence of two swarms of Africanized bees shut down parts of North Tyndall Avenue and closed off a walkway behind Park Student Union yesterday afternoon. Both swarms were isolated and removed. Kent Griffith, of Catalina Bee Removal, said approximately 12,500 bees gathered on a wall above a rear walkway of PSU, shutting down a portion of North Tyndall Avenue for about an hour. Griffith said the bees that congregated on the wall were following the scent of their queen, who had chosen the spot to rest. Because of their behavior, Griffith classified those bees as a primary reproductive swarm. The bees were resting before beginning to look for a place to establish a hive, Griffith said. A majority of the bees were drone bees, which are responsible for mating with the queen and do not sting, Griffith said, adding that drone bees were the best tasting. Griffith said he "accidentally" learned that the bees tasted good when one flew into his mouth while he was performing a removal. Using a mixture of water and dish soap, Griffith sprayed the isolated bees in order to kill them. The solution coats the bees' abdomens, eventually suffocating them, Griffith said. Griffith responded to the swarm outside PSU shortly after dealing with another swarm in a mesquite tree at East University Boulevard and North Tyndall Avenue. The swarm in the tree was a nonprimary reproductive swarm, Griffith said. Griffith, who is contracted by the UA, said he responded to five bee removals on the UA Mall Thursday. While the bees are not native to the area, Griffith said they are not aggressive. Bees only act defensively when they are disturbed or threatened, and a person can stand in a swarm and not get stung, Griffith said. However, Griffith said bees should be respected and left alone. "Don't play
with bees. Just call UAPD or Facilities Management," he said. (Aaron
Mackey,
A huge bee colony is blamed for forcing members of a San Antonio family from their home. Louis Lunbreras was asleep yesterday afternoon when he noticed a loud humming and vibration. Moments later, Lunbreras was being stung by a swarm of bees that swooped out of the ceiling. Lunbreras ended up breaking a window to escape from the insects. Officials think the bees had created several rows of combs in the attic and the weight collapsed the ceiling. Lumbreras, who was treated for stings, first noticed some bees last November and twice summoned exterminators. Now Lunbreras and his family will have to stay with relatives until an exterminator tries again to clear away the bees. (AP and David Ibanez-KSAT staff, 3/25/04.)
Thousands of bees swarmed through Surprise Stadium on Thursday, just 30 minutes before the start of a Cactus League game. Nobody was stung, but firefighters rolled to the stadium and killed thousands of bees swarming in a tree near the third-base entry. It was a different story about an hour later and several miles away when a half-dozen people were stung near tennis courts in Sun City Grand. Three people were treated at Valley hospitals. "People were running in the parking lot, covering their heads with shirts and flailing away at the bees," said Emma Ritchey, a Wittmann resident who witnessed the attack east of Dillon's Grand Restaurant, 19900 N. Remington Drive. Richard Haynes, who lives in the retirement community, said he fought off 20 to 30 bees and got tired of running. The two incidents marked the city's first bee calls this year, said Kevin Pool, a battalion chief for the Surprise Fire Department. The bees were likely of the Africanized variety that first buzzed into Arizona in 1993, Pool said. An estimated 300 baseball fans were on hand in Surprise, as well as a similar number of stadium workers, when the bees swarmed through before the start of the 1:05 p.m. matchup between Oakland and Kansas City. Firefighters, worried that fans might panic, sprayed foam to kill the bees, Pool said. In Sun City Grand, firefighters killed thousands of bees that had swarmed under the eaves of a restroom facility near the tennis courts. (Brent Whiting, The Arizona Republic, 3/19/04.)
When it comes to bees, Tom Smigel is conflicted. He sees them as precious honeymakers; he sees them as hell raisers. "It's bittersweetness," Smigel, a regional manager for the state Department of Agriculture, said of the insects. "You get that wonderful honey as a child at breakfast. And then, when I was a child, they stung the heck out of me. It's a strange love all right." Smigel and other bee experts believe the Africanized Honey Bee, commonly called "killer bees," will be more active in Southern Nevada this spring and summer. However, it remains to be seen whether busier bees and more hives will spell more serious attacks this year. The Africanized bee, known to be more aggressive and more temperamental than its European counterpart, arrived in Southern Nevada about six years ago. Already, it has overtaken the European bee as the most abundant breed of bee in the Las Vegas Valley. "I would say all of the bees in the Las Vegas area are Africanized and have been for a couple of years," said Rodney Mehring, who manages research of bee colonies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Mehring is also called "The Bee Master," which happens to be the name of his beehive extermination company. He spent part of Tuesday in coveralls and a helmet, an outfit that looks a bit like a space suit. He dons the getup whenever he hunts down beehives, a mission he embarked on five times Tuesday. Mehring's appearance is tantamount to an eviction notice to a queen bee and the thousands of loyal workers she may lord over. He finds them building honeycombs at any number of places, including on rooftops, under old sheds, or inside meter boxes, hollow trees or concrete block walls. Because the valley has gotten so much rain recently, and because its population grows so fast and has more landscaping, bees will have more food and multiply, Mehring said. On Tuesday, a man called 911 to report that bees had besieged his truck, said Las Vegas Fire Department spokesman Tim Szymanski. "I said, 'Oh, well you probably had a lemon air freshener in it,' and he did," Szymanski said. "They smell it and they think it's a flower or something." The man was not injured. Potentially life-threatening bee attacks, in which hundreds or more prey on a person, are extremely rare in the United States. On Sunday, however, bees attacked two rock climbers in Arizona. One plunged to his death. Dozens of Southern Nevadans are victims of bee stinging frenzies each year, though no official statistics are kept, according to Mehring. Although there has been much public paranoia over Africanized bees, Smigel said he can't recall a bee stinging fatality in Nevada in the past two decades. When bees do attack, it usually is because someone threw a rock at them, or took a water hose to their hive, or in some way provoked them. Messing with a beehive or trying to get rid of it without a trained professional is a big mistake, according to experts. And pity the poor soul who is targeted by an Africanized bee. "You could get a European bee mad at you and they'll calm down in about 20 minutes," said George Botta, owner of American Pest Control. "But you antagonize an African hive and you could have problems for about eight hours after that. They will chase you for up to a half a mile. And if you think you're gonna jump in a swimming pool, forget it. Because as soon as you come up for breath they'll be waiting for you." In 1998, a rottweiler left on a leash in a backyard was killed by bees. In 2000, a 77-year-old Las Vegas woman was stung 500 times; she survived. And in Pahrump last fall, a horse succumbed to an angry mob of killer bees. Every ZIP code in Clark County has beehives, though Henderson and Summerlin seem to have the most, Szymanski said. Bees find those settings preferable, he theorizes, because there are a lot of trees that provide shade. Over the past week, the Fire Department has received several reports of bees swarming. Thousands of bees cruising together and looking for a home is not uncommon. "It looks like a black cloud coming down the road," Botta said. The spectacle can be intimidating, but bees are rarely dangerous at such times. "If they are flying toward you and you are outside, just move to the side and let them pass," Szymanski advises. (The Las Vegas Review-Journal, FRANK CURRERI, 3/10/04.)
A hiker who was attacked by a swarm of bees panicked and fell to his death on Camelback Mountain. Another man was stung more than 100 times Sunday but did not suffer life-threatening injuries. The two men, who weren't immediately identified, were hiking in Echo Canyon. Mountains are full of bee colonies, and the insects are drawn to the cliffs where they can fly in and out, said Virl Dowdy of the Central Arizona Beekeepers Association. Rain and warm weather have made bees active. "Rain brought out the flowers, so it's going to bring out the bees," Dowdy said. (AP, 3/8/04.)
Swarming bees or hornets caused a man to fall to his death Sunday at Echo Canyon on the north side of Camelback Mountain. The unidentified man in his 30s apparently fell at least 50 feet while rock climbing with another man. The other climber, about the same age, was treated for about 100 stings. Neither man had been identified late Sunday. Initial information indicated that the injured man's stings were not considered life-threatening. Assistant Fire Chief Bob Khan said it is unusual for bees or hornets to attack hikers. "Typically you don't see it. But we do know that there are hives on some of the trails." He added that last year a firefighter was stung at least a half-dozen times on a north Phoenix trail during a training exercise. The rescue call for the two men was received at 4 p.m., about the same time that another call came in for a woman who had injured her leg on the east side of Camelback Mountain, on the Cholla Trail. Her injuries are not considered life-threatening. About 65 firefighters from Phoenix, Scottsdale and Tempe took part in the two rescue efforts, with help from two Phoenix police helicopters. Additional information about the victims was not immediately available. Last year, Phoenix firefighters recorded 93 mountain rescues. So far this year, there have been 13 rescues, according to a Phoenix Fire Department spokesman. Typically, there are one or two fatalities a year. (Ryan Konig, The Arizona Republic, 3/8/04.)
Experts said Africanized bees may have killed two small dogs this week. But it was unclear whether the stingers will be sent to a lab for analysis. One of the dogs,
a Yorkshire terrier, was stung hundreds of times and "was covered
with bees, head to toe," said Claudia Horvath, a veterinarian at
Los Alamitos Animal Hospital.
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LAKEWOOD, CA --- DOG ATTACKED BY SOME 20,000 BEES
KERMIT, TX –
WINKLER COUNTY QUARANTINED FOR AFRICANIZED HONEY BEES