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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 mans 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. Johns 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 |
LAKEWOOD, CA --- DOG ATTACKED BY SOME 20,000 BEES
KERMIT, TX
WINKLER COUNTY QUARANTINED FOR AFRICANIZED HONEY BEES