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Bees stormed two teens and a dog in Fort Lauderdale, but it's unclear whether they are the feared, aggressive Africanized variety. FT LAUDERDALE, FL --- A swarm of bees attacked two teenagers and a dog Tuesday afternoon, shutting down part of Dixie Highway in Fort Lauderdale and prompting fears that aggressive Africanized bees might have arrived in Broward. The bees attacked Tuesday afternoon while the dog's owners were bathing their red husky, Sasha. Someone had accidentally spilled some tiki torch fuel on the dog and they were bathing her in the backyard of the home, located on N. Dixie Hwy. The owners had tethered Sasha and started hosing the dog down, when dozens of bees swarmed around their heads. ''I'm really scared of bees,'' one teenager said. ``I started swatting my hand around and all of a sudden, like 20 came at me.'' She ran into the house and jumped in the shower, fully clothed, to get the bees out of her hair and off her clothes. But she could still hear Sasha tied outside, whining in terror as hundreds of bees attacked. ''I was really scared, but I heard my dog, and I saw her through the window, and I had to let her loose,'' the teenager said. So she grabbed a knife from the kitchen, threw a robe over her head to protect herself from stings, and ran outside to hack Sasha free from the rope. Once free, the frightened dog ran inside the house and jumped on a bed, hyperventilating. They put Sasha in the garage and called 911. FOAMY SOLUTION A few minutes later, firefighters showed up -- and were immediately attacked by the bees. About 15 firefighters zipped up in protective gear and went on the counterattack with the same foam they use to douse chemical fires, said Fort Lauderdale Fire-Rescue spokesman Stephen McInerny. Firefighters sprayed a thick blanket of foam on both Sasha and the hive, killing the bees within 60 seconds. ''This is our first incident with bees,'' McInerny said. ``It's nothing to fool with.'' Sasha -- who has one blue eye and one brown eye -- has dozens of stings, but appears to be fine, Sinder said. The dog was treated with oxygen by the firefighters and treated at a local animal hospital. No one else was seriously injured. The bees had produced about 50 pounds of honeycombs in a large tree stump the family had turned into a bench, McInerny said. A sample of the dead bees will now go to the University of Florida's extension lab for analysis, McInerny said. Because the Africanized variety look identical to the European honeybees common in Florida, only an expert can tell the difference. But there are signs that the bees are not the Africanized variety. Typically, Africanized bees nest in the ground, said Rob Schindler, a technician with Critter Control. European honeybees avoid building hives in the ground, said Schindler, who had dropped by the Sinders' home to see if he and a co-worker could offer help. A dog was killed by bees in Miami Gardens in September 2005, and the aggressive strain killed a goat and a sheep in Palm Beach County in April. Local rescue crews are being trained in handling such attacks in preparation for the eventual migration of the more aggressive Africanized bees, McInerny said. Fort Lauderdale firefighters just completed a course in how to handle swarms of bees. FEW CALLS Firefighters rarely get calls about bee attacks, McInerny said. But it's a common call at Critter Control. In the summer, the firm gets 15 to 20 calls a week, Schindler said. In the winter, that number declines to two or three. Just down the street, Critter Control technicians recently removed a hive twice the size of the one in the Sasha' backyard, Schindler said. Sasha's owner, a student at the University of Central Florida, said they had recently noticed more bees in the backyard, but hadn't thought they were a serious problem. ''We really didn't know where they were coming from,'' she said. ``We didn't even notice.'' (Erika Bolstad, The Miami Herald, 12/27/06.)
FORT LAUDERDALE, FL. -- Three people and two dogs were injured by a swarm of bees in the back yard of their home Tuesday afternoon, police said. Nicole Sinder said the bees attacked her, her boyfriend and her dogs as she was bathing the animals in the back yard. "They just appeared in the back yard and when we looked out there were thousands of them all over the place," said Charles Graham. Sinder said the bees also got inside her home. "They were coming in under the door," she said. "It was terrifying. I jumped in the shower and I started washing my hair out. They stung me on the hand while I was washing." Lt. Rick Pardo with the Fort Lauderdale Fire Department was one of first firefighters to arrive. The bees stung him too. "We put on full gear and went back inside and found the dogs that were being stung," Pardo said. "The one big dog had at least 100 stings." Sasha, a Siberian husky, spent about two hours at veterinarian's office Tuesday night because of the bee stings. "We treated the dog on the scene and gave him a shot of Benadryl," fire rescue spokesman Stephen McInerny said. "We had the owner rush the dog to an animal hospital." Firefighters sprayed foam on the bees to kill the insects. Investigators found a huge beehive inside a hollowed out tree stump. Sinder said she thinks she may have agitated the hive while she bathed Sasha in the back yard. "I'm just lucky
that nothing really bad happened," Sinder said. (WTVJ-TV 6 News,
12/27/06.)
PHOENIX, AZ --- Kathi Hull was out of town when she got the most dreaded phone call. Bees attacked her two dogs, one was dead, the other fighting for her life. "(Our dogs) were like our children," Hull said. "We don't have children. They were like our kids." Hull's Phoenix home near Camelback Road and 34th Street is quite empty these days without her beloved schnauzers. "It's so quiet," Hull said. "It's really, really hard to be here." Two weeks ago while she and her husband were out of town, bees attacked 3-year-old Chelsea and 4-year-old Lucy in their back yard. Lucy died instantly while the dog sitter took Chelsea to the emergency room. "They told us that Chelsea had 150 bee stings," Hull said. "She fought very hard, but it was too much for her system." The Hulls wondered where the deadly bees came from. It turns out the bees are being kept in the yard behind them. "We had no idea someone was raising bees inches from our yard," Hull said. "We just didn't know." Because of the way they aggressively attacked her dogs, Hull worries they're Africanized bees, who are persistent and can pursue a perceived threat for up to a quarter of a mile. Now the Hulls don't even go out in the back yard anymore. They're worried for themselves and their community. I walk my grandson every day around here because I take care of him every day," said neighbor Kathy Heiple. "It is a concern having the bees, especially if they're raising them behind their home." We tried contacting the homeowners keeping the bees, but with no luck. Neighbors say they are out of town. "(The homeowners are) very nice, they're older," said neighbor Jacque Elmer. "In fact, they're in their 80s. I don't think they would do anything that would cause any problem with anybody." "I'm dealing with it one day at a time because I have a mission to get rid of those hives," Hull said. After checking with the city of Phoenix, we learned it is legal to keep bees on your property. The code allows for one hive or colony per 1,700 square feet. (Tess Rafols, KVKL-TV 3 News, 11/30/06.)
LITTLE ROCK, AR --- As has been the case for thousands of years, crop yields and honeybees are inextricably linked. So how healthy is the Arkansas bee population? "We do have some issues to deal with," says Mark Stoll, who oversees apiary concerns for the Arkansas Plant Board. "Bee pests currently in the state include tracheal mites, varroa mites, small hive beetles and the Africanized honeybee." Varroa mites can be found in most hives. Strong colonies are a good defense against them and certain types of bees - like Russians - handle varroa mites better. There are also treatments available to keep the mites in check. Tracheal mites are also in most hives. Those can be treated and kept at bay by maintaining healthy colonies. As for small hive beetle, "we've got it in 33 to 35 counties in the state. We've dropped the regulations on it. When they were only in a few counties, we had some quarantines on movement. But when they spread across so much of the state, the quarantine wasn't feasible." Now, Stoll and colleagues try to ensure beekeepers have proper treatments and education on the beetle. "The ground around hives needs to be treated because this beetle can destroy hives very quickly if left untreated." As for the most common diseases, Arkansas beekeepers face American foulbrood, European foulbrood, and chalkbrood. "Chalkbrood isn't a big issue, though. We don't see many cases and a strong colony can clear it up with some effort." European foulbrood is treatable. However, "if you've got American foulbrood, it is recommended hives be destroyed because it isn't treatable." Africanized honeybees Stoll says, thus far, five southwest Arkansas counties have positively identified the Africanized honeybee. This is a problem because Africanized bees - "killer bees" to some - can take over hives populated by their less-aggressive cousins, the European honeybee. "In 2005, Miller and Lafayette counties were found to have established populations of the bee. There was also a positive find in Union County (around El Dorado) and another in Clark County (near Gurdon)." The only positive find in 2006 is in Columbia County around Lamartine. "We also have quite a few samples being studied. Some of those came back inconclusive on preliminary tests so the (lab) is doing full morphometrics to determine if they're Africanized. "The reason we don't consider the Clark, Union or Columbia County bee finds Africanized is we have just one positive from each. We like to have at least two positives from two distinct areas within a county before considering them established." The Africanized honeybee pollinates as well as its European cousin. That's a good thing, says Stoll, because the Africanized bees can't be eradicated. "Once they're here we'll just have to educate the public and make everyone aware of how to handle situations, how to interact with them. We've been doing presentations for utility workers, for pest control operators, forestry employees - anyone with a greater chance of coming in contact with them. "Mostly we speak with beekeepers on these issues. They need to help us keep chances for man-aided migration to a minimum. None of us want to help the Africanized honeybee (widen its range)." Can the bee's spread be slowed? "Hopefully, we'll take out the man-aided migration (threat), which is probably the chance for them to make the biggest jumps. We don't need someone accidentally moving the (Africanized bees) from Texarkana to Fayetteville or Jonesboro." Stoll believes the slow movement they've made in Arkansas so far is due to poor environmental conditions. In 2005, the state had a severe drought, especially in the southwest. In 2006, the drought was repeated. "Eventually, though, they'll spread out. But keeping swarm traps up to monitor where they are will help keep the public in those areas informed and on the look-out. When we say, 'They're in your county,' people pay a lot more attention to what's happening in their backyard." Stoll suspects the Gurdon find was a man-aided migration. The Africanized bee was found in a trap in a train yard. "The bees can hitchhike on train cars and semis. For that reason, many of our traps are placed strategically in train yards or truck stops." New rules There are just over 1,300 beekeepers in the state. Few of them - perhaps 25 - are commercial/migratory beekeepers. "Most of those are based in the northeast part of the state - in the thick of (row-crop) country. There's one in the southwest who's actually based in Louisiana - but he has yards in Arkansas. We also have beekeepers from Oklahoma, Nebraska and South Dakota who like to overwinter their bees in south Arkansas. They bring the bees down to take advantage of the warmer temperatures." The big thing affecting Arkansas beekeepers "is we're in the process of updating apiary laws. Our current laws basically deal only with bee diseases. They're being updated to deal with bee pests - mites, the hive beetle and the Africanized honeybee. The new laws will protect beekeepers, the general public and industry." If the Arkansas
Plant Board approves the updated laws, a sponsor for the 2007 Arkansas
legislation session will be needed. (David Bennett, Farm Press, 11/29/06.)
LAKE FOREST, CA --- A woman was hospitalized Thursday after being stung on the face and neck while trying to get a swarm of aggressive bees away from her dogs outside a Lake Forest apartment complex, a fire official said. The Orange County Fire Authority was called to the Arboretum apartment complex at 22700 Lake Forest Drive at 2:29 p.m. on a report of aggressive bees swarming in a parking lot, OCFA Capt. Stephen Miller said. When crews arrived, they could hear a woman screaming, Miller said. The 38-year-old dog owner was taken to Saddleback Hospital, Miller said. Her injuries were not serious. The extent of injuries to the dogs in the bee attack was not known, but county animal control employees responded to take them for treatment, Miller said. All of the dogs survived, Miller said. Pest control workers found a bee hive inside a wall. The hive, which apparently had been there about a year, was destroyed, Miller said. (KCAL-TV 9 News, 11/9/06.)
INDIAN RIVER COUNTY, FL — Killer bees, known to experts as Africanized honey bees, have arrived in Indian River County, and residents must be aware of them to avoid potentially being swarmed by the aggressive insects, according to a University of Florida entomologist. Dr. William H. Kern Jr., assistant professor of entomology and nematology, said Africanized honey bees have completed a trek to Florida that began when they escaped in 1957 from a Brazilian research center, where scientists were breeding honey bees that would adapt to tropical climates. Since they left Brazil, Africanized honey bees reached Mexico in 1984, Texas in 1990, and California in 1992, said Kern, who is with the University of Florida's Fort Lauderdale Research and Education Center. "Martin County has them, St. Lucie County definitely has them, and they are increasing abundant in Dade and Broward counties," Kern said. Kern said swarms have been recently reported in Indian River County, which led him to begin a three-day seminar Tuesday at the Indian River County Sheriff's Office to educate firefighters, emergency rescue personnel, utility workers, landscapers, farmers, exterminators and the general public on how to cope with the bees. "We don't use the 'K' word," Kern said, adding scientists prefer the term Africanized honey bees to describe the bees, which are a hybrid created by Brazilian scientists from European honey bees and African honey bees. Kern said 16 deaths have been attributed to the Africanized bees in the United States since 1990, but none in Florida. In Florida, he said, "they have killed eight dogs, one horse, one goat and one sheep." Kern estimated that within five years, when the bees are fully established, they will create one colony per 2.1 acres, with up to 60,000 bees per colony. "We're not going to be able to stop them, they are established in Florida," Kern said. The Africanized bees thrive in the wild, but also set up nests in homes' rain gutters, roof vents, wall crevices, chimneys, mailboxes, old tires and boats, Kern said. The Africanized honey bees are identical in size to the more common European honey bees, but are much more aggressive, he said. In random encounters with people, single Africanized bees usually fly away, Kern said. But when people unwittingly approach their nests, especially with lawnmowers or grass trimmers, the bees can attack viciously, enveloping a victim. He said, although some people have died, most stings are not fatal. "You're not going to feel good for a week, but it's usually not life-threatening," Kern said. Sheriff's spokesman Deputy Jeff Luther said Indian River County law enforcement officers and rescue personnel are considering equipping themselves with nylon and mesh suits for situations in which they must aid victims of a Africanized bee colony. "With the normal European bee, you can sometimes go by their colony and they're docile," Luther said. "But with African honey bees, they will go 10 times further to pursue you, and they will smother you." Kern said Africanized bees often pursue their victims as far as 300 yards. Christine Kelly-Begazo,
Indian River County agricultural agent, said a County Commission budget
committee next month will discuss allocating funds to purchase bee-proof
suits that would go in fire trucks, ambulances and patrol cars. (Dan
Garcia, Treasure Coast Newpapers, 11/1/06.)
ALTUS, OK --- An Altus man is recovering after getting stung by hundreds and hundreds of bees. Experts believe the bees were part killer bee, also known as the Africanized bee. Clem Farley was stung close to 800 times Thursday afternoon while doing some yard work at an empty home in west Altus. And he was not the first. In fact, 3 other men working outside on the other side of town were stung a number of times, too, but, Farley was stung the worst. In fact, the State Agriculture Department says his case is the third worst case they've seen. http://jimmydeyoung.gospelcom.net/weekly90.xml Farley was doing some yard work--something he always does in his down time. But when he started the lawn mower, the bees went right for him and didn't show any mercy. Farley says he saw the bees moving toward him so he quickly tried to get away. It didn't work. These bees are known for their aggressive attacks. They followed him in no time flat. After that, it was too late. He was literally covered in bees. So many, you couldn't even see his skin. While Farley was stumbling, just trying to survive, in the front yard, Carl Spencer was in the neighborhood--driving by shopping for a new home. That's when he saw Farley. He knew right away he was in trouble. Spencer wanted Farley to get in his truck, but Farley said no. He said the bees would attack him, too. So, Spencer drove up a little way, and dropped the tailgate so Farley could climb on and ride away from source of the bees. Spencer happens to know Farley. In fact, they work together at Sheppard Air Force Base. But the bees had blanketed him so completely, he didn't recognize Farley. He only recognized his jeep. "He was turning purple," Spencer said. "The bees looked like a sweater on him, there were so many bees." Since the attack, Farley has spent his time in a hospital bed, recovering. He says the pain was unbearable. "After 25 years in the Air Force, I never felt any thing like it," Farley said. Farley says he couldn't remember most of the attack. He could only thank his co-worker for being at the right place at the right time. Farley should be released from the hospital on Saturday. Bee expert Gary Grose of Tipton came out to get rid of the nest. He says he removed over 200,000 bees on the nest. He says thankfully, the bees were only part Africanized bees, or else the results could have been far worse. So far, there have been no deaths reported in Oklahoma from these types of bees. Grose says it's important to know your bees and not try to get rid of the wrong kind. He says regular honeybees are important to agriculture, so it's best to let the professionals handle it. (KSWO-TV News, 10/28/06.)
ALTUS, OK ---
Altus authorities are looking into a bee attack that sent a maintenance
man to the hospital for treatment. Patterson says the bees swarmed the man about noon while he was inside a home. The man ran several blocks while the bees continued to chase him. Patterson says it's likely the bees were in the vacant home for some time. The state Agriculture, Food and Forestry Division reports 30 counties in Oklahoma with confirmed Africanized bee cases since 2004. Jackson County had its first confirmed case in 2004. (AP, 10/27/06)
PRESCOTT, AZ --- He fell 50 feet down a mountain, was stung by bees dozens of times and had a leg amputated. Now, the Papago Park hiker rescued last week wants to make sure the same thing doesn't happen to anyone else. Santiago Corrales was climbing down a mountain at Papago Park last week when he was stung more than 100 times, eventually falling and breaking his leg. "What is more important -- the life of the bees or the life of the people?" he asked. "What are they waiting to happen?" Corrales contacted a lawyer and hopes to make changes so bees don't attack anyone else, but he said not much progress has been made. (KTVK-TV 3 NEWS, 10/11/06.)
ATHENS, GA --- Students take note: an invader is coming to campus and it's not the orange-clad Tennessee fans. Packed together in swarms, "killer bees" - also known as Africanized honey bees - are on their way to the University. The bees are expected to be in South Georgia by next year, said Bill Owens, past president of Georgia Beekeepers Association and certified master craftsman beekeeper. Killer bee stings are typically not deadly unless the person stung is allergic to bees. University experts said they can inflict intense pain and swelling even on non-allergic people. What will happen once the bees arrive in Georgia is anyone's guess, Owens said. Students have about three years to enjoy life without the threat of killer bees, Owens said. They are in parts of Florida and southern Mississippi, and are heading for Georgia, said Keith Delaplane, professor of entomology. While the Africanized honey bees look similar to the common European honey bee, they are much more aggressive. The killer bees sting more intensely and can move in massive swarms, Delaplane said. "The reality of it is we are dealing with a new species to a new environment, and it is hard to predict what they will do," he said. One thing is for sure, their nesting habits distinguish them from the common bee. While common bees nest only in specific areas, killer bees can nest in any hole, crevice or piece of trash, Delaplane said. "Killer bees nest in usual places - holes in the ground," Delaplane said. "Even as small as a Coca-Cola bottle." People in the south
have to learn to be aware: "Be prepared before you walk into the
abandoned shed," Delaplane said. Experts said the best thing to do when encountering a swarm of bees is to run away, and that killer bees have been known to chase people for up to 100 yards - the length of one football field. Honey bees were imported from Africa in an attempt to improve beekeeping in Brazil in 1956. After a technician accidentally released the bees into the wild, the bees mated with local bees, and the killer hybrid was born. Africanized bees started moving north in 1956 at an average of 200-300 miles per year, Wilbanks said. Spotted in Texas in 1990, the killer bees have spread to the Southwest states, including California, Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada, he said. Delaplane said state officials are planning now for their arrival. This November, the Georgia Farm Bureau and University experts will host a training session for health officials across the state to safely handle future attacks, Delaplane said. "Emergency responders are who will be at the frontline. It is very important that these people are properly trained and prepared," said Wilbanks. Bee suits, hats and gloves are the tools for first responders to handle emergencies - as well as a strong fire hose to subdue the bees during an attack, Delaplane said. Wilbanks said it is recommended for the general population to be aware of the potential problem. Owens agreed, noting, "Like all wild animals, people should keep away from any honey bee hive or nest." "If you have an unwelcome hive or nest that is too close for comfort, call a professional bee remover or pest control company," Owens said. For more information, contact the UGA Cooperative Extension Office or call 1-800-ASK-UGA1. (Pearman Parker, The Red and Black Newspaper, University of Georgia, 10/5/06.)
MIAMI, FL --- Two Miami roommates needed help to get rid of some unwanted visitors in their apartment. They discovered more than 10,000 bees in their kitchen ceiling. Javier Tovar didn't know the hive was there until he tried to change a bulb in a ceiling light and the bees attacked him. The roommates quickly called in an exterminator. "We thought maybe there may be a fist-size hive, but he just pulled out a basketball-sized hive. It's amazing," Tovar said. The exterminator discovered that the hive belongs to a colony of Africanized bees, which are even more aggressive than normal bees. (WFTV-NEWS 9 Orlando, 10/4/06.)
TEMPE, AZ --- Tempe Fire Department officials warned residents Tuesday not to wander into "uncharted territory" after bees stung a rescue worker more than 100 times in Papago Park on Monday. Mike Mackay, a Tempe Fire Department engineer and rescuer, rappelled down to save a 21-year-old hiker who climbed down a rock face toward a ravine and got stuck. But when bees attacked, Mackay had to retreat quickly back up the rock wall and was unable to retrieve the hiker. Phoenix Fire Department rescuers who took an alternate route ascending the wall eventually recovered the hiker. Both the hiker and the rescuer are doing OK. Firefighter Mike Reichling said this ravine by Papago Buttes is a known hive area where bees have been a problem for years. Reichling said bee-related injuries have not worsened this year. "Bees are a problem throughout the Valley and have been since I've been in the service, especially in the last 10 to 15 years," Reichling said, adding he first noticed increased reports of Africanized bees in the late 1980s. John Beebe, owner of Atomic Bee Control, said bees in Arizona are now 100 percent Africanized. But bee populations are not on the rise. His company received 50 to 60 calls per day last year to remove hives, but has only received an average of 20 to 30 calls per day this year. "Last year was very damp all year long," Beebe said, which led to blooming flowers and, thus, healthy hives. Nonetheless, firefighters
push residents to "be aware" in the parks. "There are
also snakes and scorpions to watch for," Reichling said. (Jill
Redhage, East Valley Tribune, 10/4/06.)
PAPAGO BUTTES, AZ ---- Bees attacked a man at Papago Buttes Monday afternoon and then went after rescuers. A fire official said one firefighter was stung at least 100 times and was transported to the hospital. Golfers reportedly heard the 21-year-old man screaming as he was being attacked by a swarm of bees. He was stuck in a crevice on the side of the mountain. Rescuers attempted to climb down the mountain to rescue the hiker, but were stung by bees. They then dressed themselves in bee suits and attempted a rescue from the bottom of the cliff. They were able to pull the hiker down. The hiker was stung multiple times. This isn't the first time emergency crews have been called out to Papago Buttes to rescue a hiker attacked by bees. Bee experts say June, not October, is notorious for attacks and this past June, as many as five swarms were spotted at the Papago Buttes. On June 1, a hiker fell 50 feet trying to escape aggressive Africanized bees. The treacherous fall broke both his ankles. Paramedics eventually got the man safely down the mountain. When hiking, there are two key items you should have with you to help ward off a bee attack. First, make sure you use an insect repellent that contains the chemical DEET. It will help mask perfume and cologne that can attract bees. And, wearing an elastic mosquito net will protect your face and neck. (KTVK-TV, 10/2/06.)
Lake Forest man and his two grandkids are recovering after attack. Officer says he found swarms everywhere on street. LAKE FOREST, CA – Frank Furgiuele felt helpless. The 64-year-old salesman had taken his two grandchildren – Kyle Roach, 9, and Sydney, 7 – on a favorite weekend hike along Serrano Creek when they were blanketed in what seemed like thousands of bees. Furgiuele heard buzzing in his hair and felt bees in his shirt and pants. Sydney screamed – they were ensnarled in her thick blond hair. Kyle, a black belt in tae kwon do, tried to fight them off. "The children were panicked and screaming," Furgiuele said. "All I could think about was that I couldn't help my grandchildren. I didn't care about myself. I was just thinking of them." Authorities turned their attention Monday to the source of the bees and whether any enforcement will be taken. Furgiuele and his grandchildren were attacked at 9 a.m. Sunday about a quarter-mile from home along a trail next to the Serrano Creek. The trio ran across a grassy area to a nearby tract of homes, where residents came to their rescue after hearing their screams. All three were recovering Monday from a total of more than 150 stings. Sydney, who vomited after the attack, had more than 80 stings to her head, back and arms. Kyle had 20 stings and went to school Monday. Furgiuele was covered with more than 50 stings on his head, back and arms. Residents in the quiet neighborhood wondered Monday what could have caused the bee attack. Police have linked the bees to some kept outside the home of Charles Rowden, who lives on the street where the rescues took place. Rowden said he had kept his Italian bees, known for their gentle nature, for five years without any problems. The bees were exterminated Sunday after the attack. "I wanted to see what the activity level was in the hives to see if it was consistent with what was happening on the street," said Sgt. Mike McHenry, who donned protective gear and followed the swarm Sunday. "The swarms were everywhere on the street, in front of his house, down the street and all over his back yard. They were not happy bees." Police officials said Rowden did not have a permit for beekeeping and are leaving the matter up to the city to pursue through code enforcement. Nick Nisson, an entomologist with the county, said bee swarms can develop in Orange County at any time. He added that Italian bees are often selected as honey bees. "Swarms happen when a bunch of bees follow the queen bee looking for a new home," he said. "But if you've got them stinging people in that number, they have to be upset bees." City officials said Monday that no enforcement action will be taken now that the bees have been eradicated. "If this had been reported to us before, we would definitely have followed up," said Debra Rose, assistant to the city manager in Lake Forest. "At this point, there are no bees on the property, so there is no open case. We will definitely monitor the situation to make sure the bees do not return." Kristen Smith, 40, is happy the bees are gone but doesn't want to blame her neighbor just yet. Her husband, Matt, was stung Sunday as he got bees off Furgiuele by dousing him with water and guiding him to jump into his pool. "I'm not 100 percent sure there wasn't a rogue bee," Smith said. "I'm concerned because I have children, and children play here who have allergies. But I also know if you walk along the creek, there are hives everywhere." (Erika I. Ritchie, The Orange County Register, 9/26/06.)
ALICE, TX --- Jim Wells County Sheriff's officials released Monday the name of the man killed by a swarm of bees Saturday near Alice. Reymundo Ramirez died while cutting the grass at a house on the 100 block of Farm to Market Road 1554, sheriff's officials said. Manuel Gonzalez, an animal control officer for the sheriff's department, said it is likely the nest contained Africanized bees, also known as killer bees. Ramirez died at the scene, shortly after bumping into a storage shed with his lawn mower. Ramirez, who didn't live at the property and was hired to cut the grass, ran to the side of the house but collapsed covered in bees, sheriff's deputies said. The homeowner also was stung numerous times but was able to seek shelter in a sheriff deputy's car. His injuries were not life-threatening. (David Kassabian, Corpus Christi Caller-Times, 9/25/06.)
ALICE, TX --- A Jim Wells County resident died Saturday after being attacked by a swarm of bees that stung him while he helped clean property at 119 Farm to Market Road 1554 near Alice, sheriff's department officials said. The man, whose name was not released late Saturday evening, was cutting grass and disturbed a nearby beehive, according to Lt. Javier Montalvo. The property owner also was stung and was taken to Christus Spohn Hospital in Alice. His condition was unknown late Saturday. Montalvo said the man was pronounced dead at the scene. (Barbara Ramirez, Corpus Christi Caller-Times, 9/24/06.)
VICTORIA, TX --- A man was in critical condition at a hospital Wednesday afternoon after being stung about 500 times by a swarm of bees while working in the area of Fox and Fordyce roads. He and two other men with him on the construction site in southern Victoria County were taken to DeTar Hospital Navarro. John Kaspar, chief deputy at the Victoria County Sheriff's Office, said the men, one of whom was on a backhoe, were working on a pipeline project near a brushy area east of Saxet Lake Parks about 10:50 a.m. Wednesday. "A swarm of bees must have been stirred up and attacked them," Kaspar said. The two men not on the backhoe were treated and released from the hospital. Wednesday's incident marked the fourth major incident in the past month with bees, officials said. On Monday, 90-year-old Alfred Buentello died after being attacked by a swarm of bees. Buentello was mowing in his backyard next to an old wooden vacant barn when the swarm of bees attacked, Kaspar said Monday. Buentello's wife
was in the house on Buentello Road near Wharburton Road, just west of
McFaddin, when she heard him yelling. Buentello was taken to DeTar Hospital Navarro, where he was pronounced dead. The other two incidents occurred in Bloomington at a home and in the press box at the Bloomington High School football field. (Victoria Advocate, 9/21/06.)
PORTALES, NM --- The chances of eastern New Mexico residents encountering Africanized honey bees is increasing exponentially with each new colony, according to pest control experts. Those experts are concerned encounters with the aggressive bees could lead to serious injuries or deaths. Lewis Hightower of Southwestern Pest Control and New Mexico state entomologist Carol Sutherland presented a program to Roosevelt County Commissioners Tuesday in their regular meeting. Hightower said 69 percent of the bees in Roosevelt County his company sent to the lab were Africanized. Hightower said the four-county area his company serves is testing out at 70 percent. Curry County alone is showing up with a 90 percent rate. Africanized bees can only be differentiated definitively from the docile European honey bees by lab testing using DNA or wing measurements, according to Sutherland. She said DNA is the test of choice these days. “We like to have fainted when we saw that number,” Hightower said. “We knew it was bad, but we had no idea.” Hightower said because Africanized bees are apt to swarm (divide and leave the hive) as often as every two months, the numbers of new colonies could be expected to increase 16-fold in the next year. The figures he presented show there could be 2,056 Africanized colonies in just three years. “Any bee you run into you’ve got to treat as Africanized,” Hightower said. “I’m worried about somebody running into one of these things and getting killed.” Lucy Anders of Portales was attacked by a swarm of suspected Africanized honey bees last week in her yard. She was hospitalized briefly for the stings she received, but said at Tuesday’s meeting she was doing well. Because she gets around with a walker, she was unable to run away from the bees. She yelled for help and neighbors helped her get away. Sutherland and Hightower say the best way to react to a bee attack is to run away and seek the shelter of a house or vehicle. Hightower said U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines indicate eight to 10 stings can be fatal. Those guidelines say that 30 stings should be considered life-threatening by first-responders. Besides their rapid increase in numbers, Hightower told the group he was also amazed at how aggressive the Africanized bees he’s encountered have been. He related how he had been on a bee call west of Kenna, and in the process of moving some old tires to get to the hive, he agitated the whole colony. He said he soon had 5,000 bees swarming around his protective bee hood. He said he was stung four times by bees that got under his hood, including once on the sinus passage by a bee that flew up his nose. “I walked over a half mile from the hive, but still had 300 to 400 bees around me,” Hightower said, relating that he decided to sit down and wait them out. “It was over half an hour before they lost interest.” (Karl Terry, Portales News-Tribune, 9/20/06.)
MC FADDIN, TX --- Alfred Buentello, 90, died Monday afternoon after he was attacked by bees while mowing his lawn on Buentello Road near Wharburton Road, just west of McFaddin. "The man was mowing in his backyard next to an old wooden building, a vacant barn, when the bees attacked," said Victoria County Sheriff's Department Chief Deputy John Kasper. He said the bees came from the barn. Buentello's wife was in the house when she heard him yelling. She attempted to help him, but was unable to and then called 911, Kasper said. Buentello and his wife were taken to DeTar Hospital Navarro, where he was pronounced dead. Monday's incident marked the third major incident in the past month with bees, said Victoria County Fire Marshal Kyle Young. "This is the first time it's been this severe." The others, he said, were in Bloomington at a home and in the press box at the Bloomington High School football field just before the first game. The severity of each incident, Young said, depends on the victim's health and the number of times stung. A younger person in good health is less likely to have as bad a reaction as an elderly person in poor health, he said. Kasper did not know how many times Buentello was stung. If a person is stung and cannot get immediate medical help, Young advised, the best thing to do is get away from the swarm. "That's not always possible," he added. "Once they get going, there's not much you can do." (Rebecca Holm, Victoria Advocate, 9/19/06.)
PALM BEACH, FL --- The state-of-the-art rescue equipment for battling so-called killer bees: firefighting chemical foam and a beekeeper's suit -- with its goofy pith helmet and mesh veil. Best advice if you're caught in bee attack without your suit? Run and keep running. Enraged killer bees will give chase for about three football fields. Run farther. "If you disturb a colony of bees, make sure you're not the slowest person around," said bee expert Bill Kern, a University of Florida professor of entomology and nematology based in Fort Lauderdale. Firefighters from at least 15 Palm Beach County cities took Kern's 3-hour course Thursday in dealing with the latest apocalyptic scourge to threaten Florida -- Africanized honeybees. Africanized bees, though indistinguishable from the more docile European variety, are more aggressive, anger more quickly and attack with dozens instead of a handful of bees. They breed more often, though their colonies are smaller, spread faster in the wild and aren't particular about where they set up camp: in a water meter box, in the rafters of a park pavilion, under a bench. "They're about the only ones who like school portables," said Kern of the bees that nest beneath them. The aggressive bees arrived a few years ago at Florida ports, despite inspections and bee traps designed to stop them. "They're going to become a big problem. They're going to cover the state in the next five to 10 years," Kern told the firefighter/paramedics. Pahokee Fire-Rescue Chief Ken Burroughs said his community is already seeing more bee calls. A homeowner recently set his window air-conditioner on fire while trying to eradicate a bee colony that had settled there. Kern's advice to paramedics: Don't rush in to rescue a victim. Send in someone in a vehicle with the windows rolled up. No sirens or flashing lights which anger the bees. Keep the fire engine at least 150 feet away and the rescue vehicle and paramedics 300 yards away. Everyone on the truck should be outfitted in bee suits or normal bunker gear with bee helmets and veils with all the sleeves and collars taped closed. "Think of it as a chemical spill. Every inch of your skin needs to be covered," Kern said. Spray the chemical foam around the attacking bees and the victim. The bees will die within a minute. Then the victim can be taken to the paramedics. "Africanized bees are not the horror show the movie industry has tried to make them out to be," Kern said. Only 14 deaths in the U.S. have been attributed to the bees, none in Florida. "For most people, an encounter with an Africanized bee is five or six stings because (the victims) will run away," he said. Their sting is no more venomous than a normal honey bee's. Humans can withstand about from five to 10 stings per pound of body weight. "An adult can survive 1,000 stings but he's not going to be very happy," Kern said. He advises homeowners to call a pest control firm that deals with Africanized bees rather than try to handle a colony on their own. He also gives seminars for that industry. "Within five to 10 years they'll dominate south Florida," Kern told the firefighters. "We'll get lots and lots of calls." (TIM O'MEILIA, Cox News Service, 9/17/06.)
PORTALES, N.M. -- New tests have confirmed that nearly half of 48 bees tested this year in Roosevelt County were Africanized bees. A Portales woman was hospitalized Tuesday when she was stung by bees although it is not clear if those bees were of the Africanized type. The woman has recovered. New Mexico's first swarm of Africanized honey bees was found in 1993 in Hidalgo County. They are referred to as killer bees for their aggressive swarming and stinging which can kill humans and animals. (KRQE-TV 13 News, 9/14/06.)
WILCOX, AZ --- A 52-year-old Willcox man is lucky to be alive after a nightmarish bee attack near Klondyke Road. Harold Bob Lackner estimates he was stung at least 300 times by bees on Sunday, Aug. 6. "I lived because I'm too mean to let a few killer bees kill me," he said. "It's finally rained and I want to see it green up." Lackner was driving a bulldozer that day, trying to repair damage to some levies near Walker Canyon. "After all these floods, I was putting a dike back in," he said. "All the washouts at the ranch were taking water away from our cattle." Lackner pushed some mesquite trees against the bank. "There was a little hollow mesquite tree, and the bees came out of that," he said. Lackner swatted at what he thought was a fly, and was attacked by a swarm. "There were thousands of them," he said. Lackner threw his hands over his face, which broke his glasses in half, each piece flying in a different direction. "I stayed about five seconds longer than I should have, because I wanted to get the bulldozer out of there." But the bulldozer was too slow, so Lackner ran a quarter of a mile to a water trough and jumped in. "It was a good thing," he said. "I left the bulldozer on and some of the bees stayed with the bulldozer." Nonetheless, other bees chased him, stinging him all the way to the trough, and hovering over the water. "Every time I came up for air, the bees would sting my ears and face," he said. Lackner took the straw hat he was wearing and put it over his face to breathe through. Each time he went back under the water, he drowned a few more bees. Lackner could feel his tongue swelling up, and feared he would drown. "I got myself calmed down," he said. "I thought, 'This is the first rain we've had in a long time, and I wanted to be around to see what it does - the green-up.'" Lackner also thought about how upset his parents and the rest of his family would be if he were to die this way. He finally climbed out of the trough, and some of the bees stayed there. "I did a high trot -- running down to my truck," he said. "Then I realized that would make the poison go fast through my body, so I slowed down." Lackner continued to be stung by bees. "There were still a lot of them in my shirt and hair," said Lackner, adding that at one point he took off his T-shirt and left it on the trail. He "walked real fast" to the truck, scraping the bees' stingers off his skin with a knife. Lackner got to his truck, but it wouldn't start for him. All this time, bees were still stinging him. "There were a few around me in the truck," he said. Lackner couldn't see very well because his glasses were gone, but managed to take two Tylenol tablets he had in the truck. He then got out of the truck and walked toward Klondyke Road, killing the last two bees, which he believes had been in his hair. "They finally quit stinging at Klondyke Road," Lackner said. "I killed those two about two miles from the bulldozer." His legs were locking up, and he knew he was starting to give out. He didn't think anyone would be home, but Chuck Hoisington saw Lackner and went over to him. The neighbor called 911, as well as Lackner's sister-in-law, Kim Lackner. "That country's tore up from the flood," he said, but Kim was able to get across the creek by driving a four-wheeler, bringing Benadryl and an epinephrine injection in case of an allergic reaction. Kim gave her brother-in-law the Benadryl, but not the shot, though he did receive one later in the ambulance. She and her sons, Michael and Kyle, put Lackner in a truck and met the two ambulances that came halfway from Safford. Emergency medical personnel gave him oxygen and more Benadryl. "They laid me down, but I couldn't breathe very well, so I had them sit me up and I breathed better," he said. He asked the paramedics what they would do if he could no longer breathe. "I would give you a tracheotomy and breath for you," one of the medics told him. "I felt better after he told me that," Lackner said. "When I got to the hospital doors, I knew I was going to pass out. But I didn't." Staff at Mt. Graham Regional Medical Center removed so many stingers that they had to change the bedding that was covered in them. "They stopped counting at 300 stingers," said his wife, Jeannie, adding that she and Lackner's sister Henrietta, pulled out another 60 stingers at home that night. "We're still taking out stingers," she said. Henrietta drove her brother back to Willcox from Safford. Lackner, who has diabetes, was nauseous the whole way home. "My fever didn't break until about 2:30 a.m.," he said. "I was laid up for 10 days. On Sunday, the week anniversary, I suffered what the doctor called a delayed reaction," Lackner said. "Dr. (Dawn) Walker has been great." Now that he is up and around, Lackner is catching up on chores around his Willcox home. He is battling the weeds in his yard and hoping to sell some pigs to help pay for his medical bills. He doesn't have medical insurance. Sister-in-law, Kim, and her sons went back to the ranch three hours after the bee attack. The tractor was still running and the bees were still attacking it, Lackner said. They had to wait until dark to finally shut it off, Jeannie added. Lackner wants his family and friends to know how grateful he is for their help. "Everybody together saved me," he said. "It took a lot of people to save me." "This is the most traumatic thing I ever had happen to me," said Lackner. Jeannie said that she believes in the power of prayer. "I had been praying when I got the news, but I hadn't known why," she said. She also believes that taking good care of himself helped Lackner survive this ordeal. "I think part of what saved him is that he is in good shape," she said. "He's been running and walking, and taking vitamin supplements." "I believe that what really saved me is that I took my knife out and scraped off the stingers everywhere I could reach," Lackner said. "There I was enjoying running the CAT, and the next thing I knew I was fighting for my life," he said. "If I had to do it over again," Lackner said. "I'd move that truck closer to the bulldozer." (Carol Broeder, San Pedro Valley News-Sun, 8/30/06.)
ROSCOE, TX --- After a bee attack to a Roscoe man recently, Nolan County residents are urged to be more aware of the presence of these insects, and of the precautions they should take around them. Jessie Gonzales was stung 60 to 80 times by a swarm of bees while trying to exterminate the bees at a home south of Roscoe. He was transported by a witness and house resident Felix Rodriguez to Rolling Plains Memorial Hospital for medical treatment. Told by Rodriguez, "He (Gonzales) came over to the house to make a hole in the roof so he could spray for bees. He was on the ladder and started taking off the base boards on the porch. He got about three of them off when a two and a half foot tall mound of bees just fell on his head. I was watching from the screen door (inside the house) and it was a scary thing to see." Rodriguez continued,
"He was wearing a homemade bee suit, and after messing with them
a little more, I guess some of them got into the covering on his head
because he got down from the ladder and began to pace in the yard. There
were about 2,000 to 3,000 bees swarming and attacking him. At this point, Rodriguez was able to communicate with Gonzales through the screen door, asking if he was okay. "Call the fire department!" Gonzales yelled to him. During this time, Rodriguez reported, "The bees were attacking anything moving. They were swarming the house, attacking dogs, cats, chickens ... there were a lot of butterflies out that day, and they were falling dead out of the sky. It was crazy." "Gonzales laid on the ground for about 10 minutes or so before he finally got up. The bees were still attacking him," Rodriguez said. "He began to walk down the road when the police department and fire department arrived and escorted me and two kids out of the house. The kids were taken home, but when the man refused an ambulance, I drove him to the hospital (Rolling Plains Memorial Hospital)." When talking about the trip to the emergency room, Rodriguez said, "When I was driving him to the hospital, his eyes were blood-shot red, his face was swollen, his hands looked like oven mits. You could see the stingers sticking out of him. He started to hyperventilate for a second, but calmed back down." Gonzales was in
the hospital for seven hours before being released, and was reported
to have received 60 to 80 stings all over his body, most of which were
to his hands and 20 to 30 to the head. He said the bees had been there about one and a half to two years, but in the past six to seven months had become more aggressive, and more abundant. "It got worse and worse. Lately, you couldn't get within 100 yards of them without being attacked," said Rodriguez. Exterminator Charlie Price of West Texas Pest Control in Albany was called in to rid the house of the bees. "There were 2,000 or more bees in that hive, which is the fairly standard size for a hive ... they seemed to be very aggressive. Given the behavior of these bees, these would be classified as Africanized Bees, otherwise known as Killer Bees," Price said. "We've received more calls, altogether, and from that area (Nolan County), than usual. "When I started five years ago, there were hardly any in the area. But beginning about two years ago, we started getting more and more calls. We got three calls that week within that same area, so they (the bees) are definitely on the move." According to www.stingshield.com, the first land-migrating swarm of Africanized bees was detected in the U.S. on Oct. 15, 1990. These bees were captured in a baited trap at the border town of Hidalgo. AHB colonies were first reported in Arizona and New Mexico in 1993 and Nevada in 1998. AHB nests were discovered in Oklahoma and Alabama in 2004, and in Arkansas, Florida, and Louisiana in 2005. To date, some 161 counties in Texas, 16 counties in New Mexico, all 15 counties in Arizona, three counties in Nevada, 17 counties in California, 30 counties in Oklahoma, one county in Alabama, two counties in Arkansas, 14 counties in Florida, and four parishes in Louisiana have reported Africanized honey bee finds. Many scientists believe Africanized bees will continue to spread and successfully over winter in the U.S.'s southern tier states. After extermination at the Roscoe home, Rodriguez said, "There were piles of bees everywhere that we had to pick up. It was eerie." According to the Big Spring Herald, after three city workers were attacked by a swarm of bees recently, the exterminator reported, "If you do get stung, get a tube of preparation H and rub it on the sting. Then take a credit card and gently remove the stinger." Do not squeeze it with tweezers, as this will release more venom. Wash the site with soap and water then apply ice to reduce swelling and discomfort. Seek medical treatment if you begin to experience difficulty breathing or have known allergies to insect stings. The best rule to follow if a swarm or hive is encountered is also the simplest - stay away from it. (Joe Max Tomlin/Reporter County-City Editor, 8/29/06.)
SIERRA VISTA, AZ --- Two men who were attacked by a bee swarm on the roof of their Huachuca City house Sunday were identified as Chuck Pasley and his son Charlie Pasley, according to the Cochise County Sheriff's Department. Chuck Pasley, 62, suffered from about 100 stings but was able to escape the bees by going inside the house. He was admitted to Sierra Vista Regional Health Center. Officials said Monday he was no longer at the hospital. Charlie Pasley, 39, tried to spray off the bees with a garden hose and died after being stung about 300 times, according to a department press release. Emergency officials at the scene were also stung while spraying foam on the house as they tried to kill the bees. (Arizona Daily Star, 8/22/06.)
SIERRA VISTA, AZ --- A 39-year-old man died after a swarm of bees attacked him and his father. The two men were working on a roof Sunday when they accidentally disturbed a bee hive. While the father sought refuge inside the home, the son stayed outside to try to ward off the bees, said Carol Capas, spokeswoman for the Cochise County Sheriff's Department. The father was stung about 100 times, but his son was fatally stung about 300 times. The father was stable in stable condition at Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center Sunday afternoon, Capas said. It was unclear whether the son died at the house or at the hospital. Sheriff's deputies and firefighters used foam to placate the angry bees. Two emergency workers were stung, but were OK, Capas said. She did not know what type of bees attacked the men. Reed Booth, a bee expert based in Bisbee, was shocked by the man's death. "My Lord," he said. "I'm very saddened to hear this." He said people need to understand the danger of bees. "All of the wild honey bees in Arizona are Africanized bees," he said. "If you have an existing hive, it is a bomb waiting to go off. It's not if, it's when. People don't take it seriously enough." Booth urged anyone who sees a hive around their home or neighborhood to immediately contact a bee-removal professional. The sheriff's department released a public service announcement warning those living in the area about the swarm. The best way for people to protect themselves against bees is to take cover, Capas said. "People need to be prepared if they're out and about," she said. She suggested people
wear light-colored clothing because bees are attracted to dark colors,
and warned people to not leave garbage outside and to make sure to fill
any crevices in their homes with steel wool or caulking. (AP, 8/21,06.)
SABINO CANYON, AZ - A maintenance worker was stung by bees more than 100 times Wednesday afternoon when he disturbed a hive at a hotel near Sabino Canyon. The man was working on an air conditioning unit on the roof of the Ramada Inn, 6944 E. Tanque Verde Road, about 2 p.m. when the swarm attacked him, said Capt. Paul McDonough, a Tucson Fire Department spokesman. The bees came from a hive within a wall and probably thought the man was threatening the hive, McDonough said. The man was stung more than 100 times as he tried to swat the bees away and wash them off using a nearby water fountain, McDonough said. He was taken to a hospital with serious injuries. Officials closed
off an area near the hive while waiting for an exterminator to arrive
to kill the bees. (Arizona Daily Star, 8/16/06.)
MANATEE, FL ---- Peter Burkard has been keeping bees and selling honey in Manatee County for nearly 27 years, but a few years ago he noticed something different. "Up until a few years ago, I could go to the hive, take the honey off and not get stung," said Burkard, who lives just north of Tallevast Avenue and sells his "I Love You Honey" every Saturday at Sarasota's Farmer's Market. "Now," Burkard said. "Even if I do everything the same, use smoke properly and not make quick movements, I seem to get a couple of stings whenever I go in." Burkard doesn't know for sure if his five strong hives have been invaded by the more aggressive African honeybees, also called Killer Bees, but he has his suspicions. With more than 7,000 honeybee colonies, Manatee County beekeepers are concerned about the invasion of Africanized bees that started showing up in Tampa Bay a year ago. But they just aren't sure it's really happening. "Someone told me that our Manatee County bees are 70 to 80 percent Africanized, but I haven't noticed it," Palmetto's Gary Ranker, a commercial beekeeper, said. "I haven't seen any more aggressive behavior." Manatee County's single state-managed bait hive - at Port Manatee - has collected 13 samples since 2002, revealing only one positive DNA match for the Africanized bee, Denise Feiber, a Florida Department of Agriculture spokesman, said Monday. In comparison, the state has 81 bait hives in Hillsborough County and has collected 325 samples since 2002. Of those samples, DNA testing has revealed that 140 were the more aggressive Africanized bee that arrived in the United States about 20 years ago and is responsible for 14 deaths nationally. None of those deaths occurred in Florida, Feiber said. "The bees are established," Feiber said. "They are in Manatee County, but not in huge numbers. If there is one, there are likely to be more." The Florida Department of Agriculture is trying to stay ahead of the threat, notifying first responder groups about what to do if someone or an animal is attacked by a swarm. So far, the only reported attacks on humans and animals has come in South Florida, particularly Miami and Fort Pierce, Feiber said. "We want fire departments and rescue groups to acquire the bee suits and do the training," Feiber said. "This is a new initiative." Feiber will meet with 911 operators across the state soon, to make sure they know what to do when the get a call. "We will try to notify each county about what pest control companies will do nest removals," Feiber said. What many beekeepers are doing to combat the African bee is called "requeening," Feiber said. This process involves removing the queen from the hive and replacing her with one that is a certified European, or more gentle, bee, Feiber said. "There will be other things that may change," Feiber said. "They may have to locate their hives in different places, further from public areas." Right now, however, managed hives like Burkard's and Ranker's are the best protection against the Killer Bees, Feiber said. "The Africanized
bee will move to somewhere else if there are already bees competing
for food," Feiber said. "That's why the best defense against
the African bee are those figures in the white suits with those white
hive boxes." (Richard Dymond, The Bradenton Herald, 8/1/06.)
RANCHO CUCAMONGA, CA ---- An attack from bees whose hive had been disturbed left three people hospitalized, seven others stung, and two dogs injured Saturday evening. Rancho Cucamonga firefighters and a San Bernardino County Sheriff's deputy responded to Victoria Park in the area near Carleton P. Lightfoot Elementary School at 6989 Kenyon Way in Alta Loma, said Battalion Chief Mike Costello. When they arrived, the firefighters were immediately attacked by the swarm of bees, Costello said. The firefighters escaped injury because they wore protective clothing. A husky who was walking with two children and their mother was not so lucky. ''The dog was covered in bees when they got there,'' Costello said. There were ''10 to 20 stings (each) on the mom and children,'' he said. That same family had a black Labrador retriever who was stung as well. The three victims were taken to a local hospital for treatment. Once firefighters arrived, there were other people who reported being stung by the bees, said Janet Dorsett, dispatch supervisor for the Ontario Fire Department. The bees attacked a total of 10 people, Costello said. Firefighters took the husky to a nearby emergency hospital for treatment. It was not known if the dog would survive, Costello said. A deputy who arrived to direct people out of the park was also stung on his neck, Costello said. He was checked out but did not require treatment, Costello said. The second dog also was stung several times but will likely survive, he said. Firefighters dispersed the bee swarm by dousing the insects with foam, Costello said. The hive, located
in an irrigation box, was also doused with foam, Costello said.
PRUNEDALE, CA --- Aggressive Africanized honey bees - also known as killer bees - were documented for the first time in Pajaro Valley this summer. Bob Roach, Monterey County assistant agriculture commissioner, says they have contained the bees but plan to conduct surveys over the next two years to make sure none escaped. J.R. Githens, a beekeeper in Prunedale, removed the bees from a building near Hollister in June and took them back to colonize one of his hives. "I didn't even think about them being Africanized, I just figured they were nasty bees," Githens said. Githens soon realized the bees were too nasty to be normal European honey bees so he brought a few bees to the agriculture commission for genetic testing. The results came back positive for African genes. This was the first report of Africanized bees in Monterey County. The aggressive bees were first sighted in California in 1994, but have remained concentrated in southern counties. Githens, who owns about 60 hives, says he often responds to complaints about infestations. "I try to save as many bees as I can," Githens said. "But now that I realize there's a possibility they're Africanized, I'll look at them a little closer before I bring them home." Africanized honey bees hail from Brazil, where gentler European honey bees cross bred with African honey bees. The resulting Africanized bees were more tolerant to the tropical climate in Brazil, but they were also much more aggressive. Africanized bees look identical to our gentle European honey bees - genetic testing is needed to tell the difference - but when their nests are disturbed they turn out en masse drive out the intruder. "As far as pollinating flowers you can't tell the difference," said Watsonville beekeeper Bob Miller. "But if you threaten their home, they basically empty out the hive. Hundreds and hundreds of them come out to sting you." Africanized bees have the same venom as normal bees, but the number of stings can make them dangerous by causing allergic reactions, kidney problems or even death. To contain the aggressive bees, Githens killed the colony's queen and all her Africanized brood, replacing her with a European queen. The sterile worker bees were left to care for the new queen. "I went back to the hive last week and it was a nice gentle hive," Githens said. Roach said he's unaware of any other Africanized bee colonies in the area, but if some of the male bees escaped, they could breed with local queens and make new aggressive colonies. That's why he'll be checking the area for Africanized bees for the next two years. "People need to be careful around any kind of bee," Roach said. "If you see bees flying in and out, don't molest them." Miller, who keeps about 1,500 hives in Watsonville, said he worries Africanized bees will give all bees a bad name. Bees produce honey and pollinate a variety of crops including almonds, apples, squash, and raspberries. When the almond trees begin to bloom, beekeepers from 38 states bring nearly half the country's hives to California to pollinate the delicate flowers. Miller said beekeepers may help stem the spread of Africanized bees by providing competition for nectar and killing Africanized colonies when they find them. "If you outlaw beekeeping, you open the whole area up to Africanized bees," Miller said. (Emily Saarman, Santa Cruz Sentinel, 7/28/06.) HOW TO AVOID AFRICANIZED HONEY BEE STINGS * Eliminate nesting
sites in and around your home - cracks in walls, empty flower pots,
or tires.
PRUNEDALE, CA --- Monterey County officials say the potential danger from a hive of aggressive Africanized honey bees discovered in Prunedale was neutralized by removing the queen and her eggs. Identical to other honey bees, Africanized honey bees swarm faster and in larger numbers to protect their hives and areas around hives. An alert beekeeper brought bees from a wild colony near Hollister to Prunedale for analysis. Experts from the state Department of Food and Agriculture confirmed the bees were Africanized honey bees. Officials said they are checking to see if more aggressive bees are in the area, but they said there is no reason for the public to panic. "This just serves as a reminder to all of us to be aware of honey bees and take precautions not to get stung," said Bob Roach, assistant county agricultural commissioner. For information, check the state agricultural department's Web site at www.cdfa.ca.gov or call the agricultural commissioner's office at 759-7325. (The Monterey County Herald, 7/27/06.)
PRUNEDALE, CA
--- Authorities
have neutralized a hive of so-called killer bees found in Monterey County. A Monterey County agricultural official says removing the queen bee makes the bees less dangerous. Authorities say the killer bees pose a threat to humans because they are more protective of their hives, guard a larger area and will swarm faster and in larger numbers than other types of honey bees. (AP, 7/27/06.)
HOLLISTER, CA --- Test results released this week confirmed that a swarm of bees found last month in north San Benito County were Africanized honeybees - a dangerous but rarely deadly pest. A north county property owner found the bees living in an old pump house near Foothill Road. After being stung several times, the property owner called a Prunedale beekeeper to destroy the swarm, San Benito County Agriculture Commissioner Paul Matulich said. Some of the bees were sent to the Monterey County Agriculture Commissioner's Office, where they tested positive as Africanized Honeybees, Matulich said. Africanized bees, also known as killer bees, defend their colonies more aggressively than other bees. They are easily disturbed and tend to sting as a group, which can make them dangerous, especially for people allergic to bee stings. Matulich said the bees have also been known to chase humans and animals up to a quarter mile, which is much farther than their gentle European counterparts. Although Africanized Honeybees have been responsible for dozens of deaths in the United States, Matulich said county residents have no reason to panic. Matulich said officials from the California Department of Food and Agriculture are planning to survey the area to look for, track and destroy any other Africanized bee swarms found in the county. If more of the bees are found, they will be destroyed immediately, Matulich said. "There is no need to be worried," Matulich said Wednesday. "But people should be more alert." Matulich said this is the first time Africanized bees have been found in San Benito County. In appearance, Africanized bees are nearly indistinguishable from the common European honeybee. They also carry the same venom as the European variety. Matulich said the complex testing process on the north county bees took nearly a month to complete. Africanized bees, the result of interbreeding between European and African honeybees in the 1950s, first entered the United States via Texas in 1990. In 1995, Africanized bees made their first appearance in California, according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture. Such bees are known to nest in abandoned vehicles, sheds, old tires, garages and other places, according to the CDFA. Since entering California, the bees have moved north and been sighted in nearly all of the state's southern counties and even in Fresno and Madera counties, according to the CDFA. Africanized honeybees have developed a deadly reputation, but experts have said it is at least partially undeserved. In Mexico, 60 deaths have been linked to the bees. In the United States fewer than 15 deaths in the last 23 years have been attributed to Africanized bees, according to the most recent statistics available from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Brett Rowland covers
public safety for the Free Lance. He can be reached at 831-637-5566
ext. 330 or browland@freelancenews.com. (Brett Rowland , Hollister Free
Lance, 7/26/06.)
Even though the bees have been around for the past year, officials explained this was the first attack in Southwest Florida. "Within the fire district, this is the first attack that I'm aware of," said Lieutenant James Tanner of the Lee County EMS. The man was hospitalized after the attack. Now, paramedics are trying to make Southwest Floridians aware of the fact that the bees mean business. "Africanized bees, if they do decide to attack, they tend to pursue their victims longer and in more numbers," said Tanner. The first thing you should know about the bees is that they like to build their homes in the cracks and crevices of your home. So make sure that they are sealed tight. The bees are also aggravated by loud noises and vibrations. "Such as lawn
mowers, or any aggravated noises of kids running around," said
Tanner. "You can't tell the difference between a normal bees and an Africanized honey bee until it's too late," said Tanner. These bees do not
pack more venom than normal bees, they're just more aggressive. If you
are stung, you will want to get medical attention right away. (Danielle
Pepe, NBC-TV News 2 Fort Meyers, 7/21/06.)
Entomologists think the insects, present in the Southwest, will soon hit Kansas and Missouri. LABETTE COUNTY,
KS ---- Traps
are supposed to catch something, but entomologist Glenn Salsbury is
glad when he finds his empty. The bees entered southern Texas in 1990 from Mexico and then migrated to eight other states, most recently to Oklahoma locations just 60 miles from the Kansas border. Entomologists think they eventually will reach Kansas and Missouri. Killer bees are easily provoked by noise or human presence. While their sting is no more harmful than that of the common bee, they can attack by the hundreds, even thousands, and are known to chase their victims for up to a half mile. At least 15 people in the United States have died from their multiple stings, according to various reports. Salsbury, who works for the Kansas Department of Agriculture and checked traps in southeast Kansas this week, has not found any of the bees since he set traps in March. The state has had reports of particularly aggressive bees but found them to be the more common honeybee known as the European bee, he said. Salsbury's traps are fiber planter pots like those used for flowers, only they have lids on them. He baits them with a chemical that smells like lemon-scented soap and hangs the traps mostly on trees. While Salsbury said there is only a remote chance killer bees would find his traps when there are so many other places to make hives, he thinks the effort is worthwhile. "We want to show the public we are out front trying to do something," said Salsbury. If Salsbury found bees, he would insert ether through the hole in the bottom of the trap to kill the queen bee and then plug the hole. The bees, which look identical to more common honeybees, would be examined using DNA tests, if necessary, to establish their breed, he said. Salsbury said the state would issue a public notice of the discovery and alert county agents, beekeepers, emergency services groups and others of the bees' presence in the state. The state has produced a public information fact sheet, viewable online at www.ksda.gov under the heading "Bee Safe." Salsbury checks bee traps once every 10-30 days, depending on location, but will take them down when weather cools this fall. Reports of killer bees in Oklahoma in the last two years prompted Kansas to use bee traps. The U.S. Department of Agriculture also has traps in several counties in south-central Kansas. Missouri plans to
place bee traps in the southwest corner of the state next spring, said
Mike Brown, entomologist for the state's Department of Agriculture. Salsbury said the bees also could move north if an Africanized bee enters a colony that a beekeeper takes south for the winter or if a queen bee sent from the south for breeding turns out to be Africanized. Natural migration of killer bees to the north is the most likely way they would get into Kansas or Missouri, entomologists said. Killer bees can swarm 30 to 60 miles in search of nesting sites, said Jeff Whitworth, entomologist for the Kansas State University Research and Extension office. The trend toward shorter, warmer winters favors the killer bees, because they do not store a lot of honey and do not cluster together for warmth as much as European bees, experts said. "They are not designed to survive a long, cold winter," Brown said. Over time, however, they may adapt to Kansas and Missouri winters if the mild trend continues, Salsbury said. The bees also do not fare well in hot, dry summers, which curtail the food supply and sap their energy to migrate, entomologists said. That type of weather in Oklahoma this summer may be working in favor of Kansas. Killer bees were confirmed in 26 Oklahoma counties in 2004 and 2005 but only in four counties this year, according to state agriculture officials. The bees were first reported in southwest Oklahoma in August 2004 when a crew working on storm-damaged trees encountered a swarm. Seven workers were treated at a hospital, but no one has died from killer bee stings in Oklahoma. Last month, officials removed more than 3,000 killer bees from a hole in the wall of a house in Hughes County in east-central Oklahoma. Killer bees arrived in South America in 1956, when queen bees were brought to Brazil from Africa to see whether they could be bred into a bee that produced a lot of honey but was not as aggressive as the Africanized bee. But the queens escaped and multiplied, killing some livestock and crops. The bees expanded rapidly, reached Mexico by the 1980s and Texas in 1990. By 1993, they swarmed to Arizona, New Mexico and California. They are also in Nevada, Arkansas, Louisiana and Florida. Salsbury said that states with killer bees have adapted as the bees became more common. Kansas would have to do the same, he said. "Eventually,
we could end up with so many that it will just be another part of the
fauna of Kansas," Salsbury said. "People will have to be more
aware of their surroundings and environment." (Kevin Murphy, Kansas
City Start, 7/22/06.)
ZELLWOOD, FL ---- A massive hive with thousands of bees in a Zellwood, Fla., neighborhood was removed Wednesday after children playing near it were stung, according to a Local 6 News report. Neighbors have been concerned since they noticed the bee swarm at the base of a tree. "My grandkids and other kids play around in the area," a neighbor told Local 6 News reporter Louis Bolden. "It's quite a few kids in the area, and bees have attacked the kids." Recently, homeowners called the local fire department but were advised they would need to hire a private company to remove the hive. When price became an issue, the residents called the Problem Solvers. The Problem Solvers called bee experts Richard and Carol Fullerton. "Bees are valuable and necessary, but also dangerous," Fullerton said. Fullerton smoked the bees and then pulled out the hive. However, since Fullerton could not find the queen, he had to exterminate the bees. "Given there are children around, I'll go ahead and kill the bees, Fullerton said. "Although, I hate to kill bees. They'll stay there for a day or two then starve to death, and that'll be the end of it." Fullerton said the colony split off from another colony and lost its way. (WKMG-TV 6 News, 7/19/06.)
"Within five to 10 years they'll dominate south Florida," Kern told the firefighters. "We'll get lots and lots of calls." WEST PALM BEACH, FL. ---- The state-of-the-art rescue equipment for battling so-called killer bees: firefighting chemical foam and a beekeeper's suit - with its goofy pith helmet and mesh veil. Best advice if you're caught in bee attack without your suit? Run and keep running. Enraged killer bees will give chase for about three football fields. Run farther. "If you disturb a colony of bees, make sure you're not the slowest person around," said bee expert Bill Kern, a University of Florida professor of entomology and nematology based in Fort Lauderdale. Firefighters from at least 15 Palm Beach County cities took Kern's 3-hour course Thursday in dealing with the latest apocalyptic scourge to threaten Florida - Africanized honeybees. Africanized bees, also called killer bees, moved into the Las Vegas Valley in 2001 after working their way from South America to North America after escaping from a Brazilian laboratory in the late 1960s. They look like regular European honey bees, but are more defensive and easily startled, which sometimes results in attacks. A 77-year-old woman was stung more than 500 times near Maryland Parkway and U.S. 95 on March 27, 2001, but she survived. A Las Vegas man, 79, was also stung by more than 30 Africanized bees while trying to remove a nest on a wooden fence in the northwest part of the Las Vegas Valley in February 2000. Africanized bees, though indistinguishable from the more docile European variety, are more aggressive, anger more quickly and attack with dozens instead of a handful of bees. They breed more often, though their colonies are smaller, spread faster in the wild and aren't particular about where they set up camp: in a water meter box, in the rafters of a park pavilion, under a bench. "They're about the only ones who like school portables," said Kern of the bees that nest beneath them. The aggressive bees arrived a few years ago at Florida ports, despite inspections and bee traps designed to stop them. "They're going to become a big problem. They're going to cover the state in the next five to 10 years," Kern told the firefighter/paramedics. Pahokee Fire-Rescue Chief Ken Burroughs said his community is already seeing more bee calls. A homeowner recently set his window air-conditioner on fire while trying to eradicate a bee colony that had settled there. Kern's advice to paramedics: Don't rush in to rescue a victim. Send in someone in a vehicle with the windows rolled up. No sirens or flashing lights, which anger the bees. Keep the fire engine at least 150 feet away and the rescue vehicle and paramedics 300 yards away. Everyone on the truck should be outfitted in bee suits or normal bunker gear with bee helmets and veils with all the sleeves and collars taped closed. "Think of it as a chemical spill. Every inch of your skin needs to be covered," Kern said. Spray the chemical foam around the attacking bees and the victim. The bees will die within a minute. Then the victim can be taken to the paramedics. "Africanized bees are not the horror show the movie industry has tried to make them out to be," Kern said. Only 14 deaths in the U.S. have been attributed to the bees, none in Florida. "For most people, an encounter with an Africanized bee is five or six stings because (the victims) will run away," he said. Their sting is no more venomous than a normal honey bee's. Humans can withstand about five to 10 stings per pound of body weight. "An adult can
survive 1,000 stings, but he's not going to be very happy," Kern
said. He advises homeowners to call a pest control firm that deals with
Africanized bees rather than try to handle a colony on their own. He
also gives seminars for that industry. Sun reporter Mary Manning contributed
to this report. (Tim O'Meila, Las Vegas Sun, 7/15/06.)
TULSA, OK --- A Tulsa ambulance crew was attacked by a swarm of bees while trying to pull a man from the wreckage of his car during the night. Police say the driver of the car lost control and drove through several lawns then crashed into the porch of a house and the car rolled onto its side. Somewhere along the way he hit a bee hive. The bees began attacking and stinging the rescue workers when they arrived and a second ambulance had to be called because the first one was full of bees. Officials say several rescuers were stung, but none are seriously injured. The driver of the car was taken to an area hospital but his injuries are not considered life-threatening. His name hasn't been released. (AP, 7/14/96.)
FORT MYERS, FL --- Joining the monitor lizards, fire ants, gators and sting rays, Floridians have a new pest to guard against: killer bees. Africanized honeybees snuck into Hillsborough County on a cargo ship four years ago, and since then have literally been swarming the state. They've been spotted in some 18 counties, including Lee, and experts say their numbers are only going to grow — fast if the past few years are any indication. Africanized bees look almost exactly like their more docile European counterparts, so the only way to tell whether a colony is Africanized is through DNA testing. In 2002, 8 percent of DNA samples sent to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services were Africanized. Last year, 40 percent of the samples turned out to be from Africanized bees. Of the 38 Lee County samples sent to the state since 2003, 16 were Africanized. They have popped up in various locations, but are especially nesting in the area between Alico and Corkscrew roads. "This is just the beginning," promised B. Keith Councell, a licensed beekeeper who works in Lee. Don't panic, urged Councell and other experts, but do pay attention. There's a lot Floridians need to know about these nasty buggers, and a lot they can do to keep their families, pets and property safe. In 1957, Brazilian scientists brought over a collection of honeybees from Africa thinking they might be better suited to the tropical climate. They planned to mate them with the European bees and produce a sturdier, gentile, insect. The hybrid bees inherited the African temper. Then, 12 queens escaped their keepers and started to reproduce. Bees spread through South and Central America, into Mexico and, in 1990, appeared in Texas. The Africanized bees reproduce much more often than the European ones. There's not a lot that can be done. "You can't put a net up around the state. It's just one of those insects that are really hard to deal with," said Denise Feiber, a spokeswoman for the Department of Agriculture's plant industry division. Bee management appears to be the best method of control, she said. Africanized bees avoid territory already populated by European ones, so state agricultural experts are encouraging beekeepers to establish more European colonies. But the European bee population is shrinking. The varroa mite, a parasite, is infesting hives and killing baby bees. "It's reduced the population of the European honeybees by about 40 percent," Feiber said. Finally, new construction is wiping out bee habitat and open spaces where beekeepers can keep hives. Africanized bees are far less picky than European ones when it comes to finding a nesting site. The species will happily climb into a roof vent or air conditioning unit or an empty container and start a hive. How nasty are Africanized honeybees? In the course of a second, an army of angry bees will attack whomever or whatever stirred it up. Pheromones released during the sting sends an alarm signal, luring more bees to the attack. They'll chase their victims as far as a quarter mile and if they catch them, they'll prick them with hundreds of stings. Earlier this month, four dogs in Palm Beach County were killed by bees. Fourteen people in the U.S. have died from Africanized stings since the bee's arrival here. But there are things the public can do to minimize the risk of getting stung — plugging up any holes in their home's exterior, checking the perimeter for signs of bees, covering and sealing containers in the yard and, if the occasion comes, making sure plywood window coverings and hurricane shutters leave no room for bees to climb in. "Over time, we will find we can live with them, just as other people have," said Roy Beckford, the agriculture and natural resources agent for Lee County Extension Services. He urged people to remember that Africanized bees are still in the minority, and that a swarm of bees or an active bee hive does not necessarily mean Africanized honeybees are on the loose. The best advice? Keep your distance, and call a beekeeper. "I don't think we should create any kind of mass hysteria. People just need to be educated about bees in general," Beckford said. "They need to leave the work to control the Africanized bees to the experts." (Jennifer Booth Reed, The News-Press, 7/13/06.)
WEST PALM BEACH, FL — All Bernard Morrison wanted to do was move the backyard doghouse. But when he tipped it over, a swarm of bees came out, stinging Morrison about 20 times, by his own estimate. They got him on his neck, back and head. After an emergency room visit to Good Samaritan Medical Center, Morrison, 57, was back at godsister Juletha Bradley's house on Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard, revisiting the terrifying episode. "I couldn't take it. I had to run," Morrison said. "I took my shirt off and tried to wave them off me." He ran to neighbors' houses asking for help. "He was covered in bees," next-door neighbor Bobby Conyac said. West Palm Beach Fire-Rescue arrived to treat Morrison and take him to the hospital. By the afternoon Morrison felt better, even though the hospital IV made him queasy. Rescue officials also treated Bradley's six dogs, all a mix of Shar-Pei and chow. One of them, a 2-month old, died as a result of the bee stings on the way to the veterinarian office, Bradley said. "We were 30 feet away from the vet," Bradley said. "She took her last breath." Two older dogs, Princess and Blue, later died at the vet's office, as did one of the other puppies. The two remaining puppies were fighting for their lives Monday evening. The home is under repair, and Bradley said she kept the dogs there and visited daily to feed them. Morrison was in charge of that chore Monday. Bud Grant, an agriculture and consumer protection specialist for the state Department of Agriculture, placed a sample of about 50 to 60 bees in a baby food jar. The bees will be shipped to Gainesville to determine what kind they are, he said. "I didn't see any violent traits in them," Grant said. There was still honey on the comb stuck to the side of the doghouse, Grant said, estimating the bees must have been there for a few months. A "bee professional" from Miami-Dade County was set to arrive at the house Monday, Grant said. When Bradley returned home, she was shocked at the sight of thousands of bees buzzing in her back yard. "Oh my God," she said. "I have never seen anything like that in my life." (Hector Florin, Palm Beach Post, 7/11/06.)
PAPAGO BUTTES, AZ ---- Two men fell about 100 feet and received more than 200 bee stings each Saturday morning after stumbling across a hive while hiking in Papago Buttes. The venom from the stings may pose a greater risk to the hikers than the fall, Phoenix Fire Department Chief Bob Khan said. Phoenix firefighters had to use foam to suffocate the bees before rescuing the men, 18 and 29. "It looks like they would have weathered the fall OK, but there are concerns about systems failure for the amount of venom they took in," Khan said Saturday. The two men were in serious condition at Maricopa Medical Center, he said. (Laura Houston, The Arizonia Republic, 7/9/06.)
BOCA RATON, FL --- In July 1983, 82-year-old Lino Lopez became the first person to die in the U.S. from Africanized honeybee stings. He was stung more than 40 times while trying to remove a colony from a wall in an abandoned building on his ranch near Harlingen, Texas. And the "killer bee" legend has been flying around and growing ever since. Africanized honeybees have also established a foothold in Palm Beach County according to Arthur Kirstein, from the Palm Beach County Cooperative Extension Service. Kirstein says the bees are "here to stay, representing a very real safety threat in the workplace and urban settings." However, he also said "we don't want to create a panic." That would be in keeping with a national trend, with most experts agreeing the growing "killer bee" legend has more to do with fear than fact, i.e., the Africanized honey bees don't have a stronger venom than the native honey bee -- but do usually sting in greater numbers, swarm more often than native honey bees, and defend the hive more rapidly than the native honey bee. Thus, the reports of greater stings and hospitalizations -- and in extremely rare cases death -- come down to these bees being the Pete Rose of the insect kingdom - hustle and persistence. There are about 15 known or suspected deaths from Africanized honeybees over the last 23 years in the US, according to the US Department of Agriculture. In fact, the experts say that for a normal, healthy person to receive a deadly dose of bee venom, it would take about 10 stings for each pound of body weight, or 1,500 stings at once for a 150-pound person, according to Dr. John Jackman at Texas A&M University. Began in 1956 The African bees arrived in the Western Hemisphere in 1956 when some colonies of were imported into Brazil, with the idea of cross-breeding increase honey production. In 1957, twenty-six African queens, along with swarms of European worker bees, escaped from an experimental apiary about l00 miles south of Sao Paulo. Thus began hybrid populations with European Honey Bees and with those more aggressive resulting swarms gradually spreading northward through South America, Central America, and eastern Mexico at more than 100 miles per year. In 1990, these bees reached southern Texas, appeared in Arizona in 1993, and by 1995 were found in California. The bees are also now in Florida. Earlier this year, a swarm attacked several animals near Fort Lauderdale, and a large hive was found in Palm Beach County, near Wellington. An Extension Service workshop this week detailed an overview of the differences between gentle, domestic honey-producing bees and aggressive Africanized honeybees, both in biology and swarming behaviors. Safety issues, emergency procedures, and appropriate first-aid responses were also addressed, with the following suggestions offered: · Wear light-colored clothing. Bees tend to attack dark things. Dark clothing, dark hair, any thing dark in color could draw the animus of AHB. · Bees are sensitive to odors, both pleasant and unpleasant. The smell of newly cut grass has been shown to disturb honey bees. Avoid wearing floral or citrus aftershaves or perfume. · Check your house and yard at least once a month to see if there are any signs of bees taking up residence. If you do find a swarm or colony, leave it be and keep family and pets away. Find a pest control company or a local beekeeper to solve the problem. · To help prevent honeybees from building a colony in your house or yard, fill all cracks and crevices in walls with steel wool and caulk. Remove piles of refuse, honey bees will nest in an old soda can or an overturned flowerpot. Fill holes in the ground. (John Johnston, Boca Raton News, 7/9/06.)
WEST PALM BEACH, FL - The state-of-the-art rescue equipment for battling so-called killer bees: firefighting chemical foam and a beekeeper's suit, with its goofy pith helmet and mesh veil. Best advice if you're caught in a bee attack without your suit? Run and keep running. Enraged killer bees will give chase for about three football fields. Run farther. "If you disturb a colony of bees, make sure you're not the slowest person around," said bee expert Bill Kern, a University of Florida professor of entomology and nematology based in Fort Lauderdale. Firefighters from at least 15 Palm Beach County cities took Kern's three-hour course Thursday in dealing with the latest apocalyptic scourge to threaten Florida: Africanized honeybees. Africanized bees, though indistinguishable from the more docile European variety, are more aggressive, anger faster and attack in dozens instead of a handful. They breed more often, though their colonies are smaller, spread faster in the wild and are not particular about where they set up camp: in a water meter box, in the rafters of a park pavilion, under a bench. "They're about the only ones who like school portables," Kern said of the bees that nest beneath them. The aggressive bees arrived a few years ago at Florida ports despite inspections and bee traps designed to stop them. "They're going to become a big problem. They're going to cover the state in the next five to 10 years," Kern told the firefighter/paramedics. Pahokee Fire-Rescue Chief Ken Burroughs said his community already is seeing more bee calls. A homeowner recently set his window air conditioner on fire while trying to eradicate a bee colony that had settled there. Kern's advice to paramedics: Don't rush in to rescue a victim. Send in someone in a vehicle with the windows rolled up. No sirens or flashing lights, which anger the bees. Keep the fire engine at least 150 feet away and the rescue vehicle and paramedics 300 yards away. Everyone on the truck should be outfitted in bee suits or normal bunker gear, with bee helmets and veils with all of the sleeves and collars taped closed. "Think of it as a chemical spill. Every inch of your skin needs to be covered," Kern said. Spray the chemical foam around the attacking bees and the victim. The bees will die within a minute. Then the victim can be taken to the paramedics. "Africanized bees are not the horror show the movie industry has tried to make them out to be," Kern said. Only 14 deaths in the United States have been attributed to the bees, with none in Florida. "For most people, an encounter with an Africanized bee is five or six stings because (the victims) will run away," he said. Their sting is no more venomous than a normal honeybee's. Humans can withstand about five to 10 stings per pound of body weight. "An adult can survive 1,000 stings, but he's not going to be very happy," Kern said. He advises homeowners to call a pest control firm that deals with Africanized bees rather than to try to handle a colony on their own. He also gives seminars for that industry. "Within five to 10 years, they'll dominate South Florida," Kern told the firefighters. "We'll get lots and lots of calls." (Tim O'Meilia , The Palm Beach Post, 7/7/06.)
PLANTATION, FL. -- A parking lot in Plantation was partially closed down Friday afternoon to protect shoppers from a swarm of angry bees. Plantation police roped off an area near the Big Lots store located at West 70th Avenue and Broward Boulevard. Officers said a truck passed by a tree in the area, apparently disturbing a large beehive. A beekeeper was called to the location to round up the bees. After about an hour, he was able to saw off the limb of a tree on which the bees were swarming. He dropped the limb with the bees into a garbage bag and removed them from the parking lot. Officers said they had no reports of anyone being stung during the incident. (WPLG-TV 10 News, 7/7/06.)
ANNAVILLE, TX -- Bees attack a man in Annaville Sunday afternoon. It happened near the Tejas Archery Club on Allison near McKinzie. Police said the man was clearing some paths and brush near the archery club, when the angry swarm attacked. The 63-year-old suffered stings across his head and arms, telling police. there were so many bees and stings, he lost count. Authorities said he man was out of breath from running so fast. "He had run several hundred yards, 150-200 yards, from where the sting had occurred to over here to the roadway. What you're supposed to do, you're supposed to run in a straight line and get away from them," said CCFD Lt. Ron Ordner. The victim was treated on the scene. He said in all the years he's worked on the land he's never seen bees like that. (KRIS-TV NEWS 6, Corpus Christi, 7/2/06.)
LAKE HAVASU CITY, AZ --- Large bee swarms have been reported recently near several Lake Havasu City-area homes. The city fire department has responded to four bee threats in the past week. Fire Chief Dennis Mueller says that's not unusual for this time of year since bees tend to be more active in the pollination state. The majority of calls have come from the south side of town, which Mueller believes is due to its proximity to the open desert. But bee threats are not limited to the south side. The department has a few tips. If a bee swarm is migrating, firefighters ask the occupants to stay in their house, stay away from the bees and keep their pets indoors. The bees usually disappear within an hour. (AP, 6/28/06.)
PLANO, TX -- A dog was stung to death this week in in Plano. Some of the bees are being sent to Texas A&M University in College Station to check if they are the Africanized variety. "The clues indicate that they might be Africanized bees," said Jim Dunlap director of the Plano ISD's Living Materials Center. "But we need to have A&M confirm it." The incident occurred at the Sherreye Drive home of Terry and Judy Morrow. Max, the family dog, was outside when he was attacked by swarms of bees. "We tried to bush off the bees," Terry Morrow said. "We [he and his wife] got stung, too." They got into the house with the dog, but several of the swarm were embedded it the dog's fur, and they were attacked again inside the house until they were able to kill the intruders. "We took Max to the vet, and they removed over 100 stingers," Morrow said. The dog died at about 2:30 a.m. Wednesday. Morrow had an allergic reaction to the stings, causing swelling of his face and around the eyes. Harold and Louise Wright, owners of Little Giant Beekeepers and Bee Removal Specialist, have been dealing with bees for more than 25 years and have handled the more aggressive Africanized bees, as well as the European honey bees. "They don't want anyone to bother them," said Louise Wright. "If you even make too much noise, they will attack." Wright confirmed that the Africanize bees have been found in Dallas. "They are coming up from the Valley," she said. Most bees like enclosed places to build nests, and the Africanized bee is no different. "They will build in any enclosed area," she said. The bees' nest at the Morrow's was located in a tree stump. The nest and the bees have been destroyed by the owner. "We have little kids all over the area, and that concerns us," Morrow said. Max was like part of the family, said Morrow. "We have all cried about losing Max," Morrow said. "At least Max got the last bark." Africanized bees, known for their aggressiveness and pack behavior, have been slowly migrating north since a group of 26 Africanized queen bees and swarms of European worker bees escaped from a preserve in Brazil in 1957. Their descendants were first detected in the United State on Oct. 15, in 1990, when they were captured in a baited trap at Hidalgo, Texas. They were first spotted in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in 2000. To date, some 159 counties in Texas have reported the bees. (Jim Kilpatrick, Plano Courier, 6/24/06.)
AMARILLO, TX ---- Africanized 'killer' bees have been found in two different counties in the Texas Panhandle, the Amarillo Globe-News reported. The bees were discovered in Armstrong County on Jan. 30 and in Randall County on April 19, May 16 and June 1. This is the first year the bees have been found that far north, the newspaper said. The positive identification of the bees prompted a warning to Panhandle residents from Dr. Carl Patrick, a Texas Cooperative Extension entomologist. 'If you get near one of their colonies where they have an established hive going and they are disturbed, they certainly will come after you very aggressively,' he said, 'much more aggressively than the European bee, and in greater numbers.' The Africanized bee is believed to have migrated north from Brazil, where, in 1956, it was employed to improve European honeybee production. (UPI, 6/24/06.)
Tests are being carried out to see if Africanized bees killed the dog PLANO, TX ---- Angry European honey bees make a terrifying noise. A professional beekeeper just removed the swarm from a Richardson tree into a box. And these bees are considered non-aggressive. Ted Morrow believes Africanized bees, known for their unrelenting aggressiveness killed his dog Max. Morrow tied up the 3-year-old Bearded Collie in his back yard. Ten minutes later, when Morrow checked on Max, he saw a horrific site. "There were just hundreds of bees on him," said Morrow, who then called his wife for help. At that point, the bees started stinging him. "They're bees with an attitude, that's for sure, because they won't quit," said Morrow. Judi McGinnis ran inside to put on a coat to protect her arms. She then lifted Max and brought him to the patio to hose him off, but the relentless bees followed. "So we took him in the house and the bees started coming out of his hair and his ears - he even had them in his mouth and up in his gums," said McGinnis. Morrow took the badly stung dog to the vet where he died six hours later. The attack left the couple convinced the bees that attacked are Africanized or killer bees. "A lot of the factors are there, but the only way we can prove conclusively that these are the hybrid bees is through DNA testing," said Jim Dunlap of the PISD Outdoor Learning Center. Dunlap says Africanized bees often attack after hearing high pitched sound, like a dog barking and usually build their hives closer to the ground than European bees. But Dunlap says European bees may also attack, if they feel threatened. If the DNA tests prove they were killer bees, it would be Collin County's first verified case. (Steve Stoler, WFAA-TV, 6/23/06.)
PLANO, TX --- Some of the bees of the swarm that attacked a Plano family and killed the family dog. A dog was stung to death this week in Plano. Some of the bees are being sent to Texas A&M University in College Station to check if they are the Africanized variety. "The clues indicate that they might be Africanized bees," said Jim Dunlap director of the Plano ISD's Living Materials Center. "But we need to have A&M confirm it." The incident occurred at the Sherreye Drive home of Terry and Judy Morrow. Max, the family dog, was outside when he was attacked by swarms of bees. "We tried to bush off the bees," Terry Morrow said. "We [he and his wife] got stung, too." They got into the house with the dog, but several of the swarm were embedded it the dog's fur, and they were attacked again inside the house until they were able to kill the intruders. "We took Max to the vet, and they removed over 100 stingers," Morrow said. The dog died at about 2:30 a.m. Wednesday. Morrow had an allergic reaction to the stings, causing swelling of his face and around the eyes. Harold and Louise Wright, owners of Little Giant Beekeepers and Bee Removal Specialist, have been dealing with bees for more than 25 years and have handled the more aggressive Africanized bees, as well as the European honey bees. "They don't want anyone to bother them," said Louise Wright. "If you even make too much noise, they will attack." Wright confirmed that the Africanize bees have been found in Dallas. "They are coming up from the Valley," she said. Most bees like enclosed places to build nests, and the Africanized bee is no different. "They will build in any enclosed area," she said. The bees' nest at the Morrow's was located in a tree stump. The nest and the bees have been destroyed by the owner. "We have little kids all over the area, and that concerns us," Morrow said. Max was like part of the family, said Morrow. "We have all cried about losing Max," Morrow said. "At least Max got the last bark." Africanized bees, known for their aggressiveness and pack behavior, have been slowly migrating north since a group of 26 Africanized queen bees and swarms of European worker bees escaped from a preserve in Brazil in 1957. Their descendants were first detected in the United State on Oct. 15, in 1990, when they were captured in a baited trap at Hidalgo, Texas. They were first spotted in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in 2000. To date, some 159 counties in Texas have reported the bees. Stingers from any bee sting should be removed as quickly as possible to reduce the amount of venom entering the body, according to medical specialists. Stingers should
be scraped off the skin with a blunt knife or the edge of a plastic
credit card. Attempting to remove bee stingers with fingers or a pair
of tweezers only forces any remaining toxin within the venom sac into
the victim's body. (Jim Kilpatrick, McKinney Courier Gazette, 6/23/06.)
ALBUQUERQUE, NM ---- Killer bees have already have lived up to their name this summer attacking a Hobbs man last week and killing his dog. What had been thought of as just little honey bees with a sting are now being taken over by some killer hives. New Mexico bees should be taken very seriously, Reed exterminator Tony Candelaria of Bob Reed Pest Control of Roswell said. They attack adults, children, animals and practically anything that moves. The also love the smell of cologne, are drawn to dark colors and can even surprise professionals. The Reed firm responds to more than 10 bee calls a week including a large hive that turned out to be bigger and tougher than Candelaria anticipated. "I didn't think they were that bad, and man, I underestimated them," Candelaria said. "That's the last time I make that mistake." The hive in a recent chimney took four bottles of Delta Dust, a professional-grade bee killer only licensed pros can get. Once it kills the queen, the party's over. Still, you can't trust a honey bee, according to Candelaria. "Basically they're just geared to be mean," he said. "They're just a honey bee with a bad attitude." Professionals say every bee in southeastern New Mexico should be considered a killer bee, according to profession who say the response to encountering a hive is to take off running. Billy Bagenstos, footing the bill for exterminating bees in his chimney, didn't realize the danger he was in. "I drive right under them all the time when I mow the lawn," Bagenstos said. "They might have gone after me one time, but they didn't bite or anything. "Maybe it was a different brand of bee." Absent an attacking swarm, identifying killer bees requires lab tests. But Candelaria said one thing's for sure.
LOS ANGELES, CA --- A man and a woman were attacked by a swarm of bees Wednesday and barricaded themselves inside a house to escape, authorities said. The bees chased the pair into a home at 158 W. 84th St. just before 11 a.m., according to Brian Ballton of the Los Angeles Fire Department. They were eventually rescued by firefighters and taken to California Hospital Medical Center to be treated for bee stings. They were in good condition, Ballton said. A dog that was chained up in front of the house was also stung, but was expected to recover, Ballton said. A baby in the house was unharmed, Ballton said, adding that the bees may have come from a colony that firefighters discovered in the attic of a neighboring house. Bee attacks are not uncommon in the Los Angeles area. City firefighters have already responded to several similar calls this year, Ballton said. (KNBC-TV NEWS 4, 6/14/06.)
HOLDENVILLE, OK --- Agriculture officials confirm that a massive hive of bees at a home in Holdenville is the so-called "killer bees." Officials say more than three thousand bees removed from the residence on Friday were the first case of Africanized bees discovered in Hughes County. Hughes is the third county this year where the bees have been discovered. Bees also were found in Cotton and Stephens counties. The insects have been spotted in 30 counties since 2004, when the first case was discovered in Oklahoma. Agriculture Department spokesman Jack Carson said the Holdenville homeowners found the bees in a hole in a wall. (AP, 6/14/06.)
BEAUMONT, TX --- First responders say a Beaumont tree trimmer was stung by bees over 100 times after he became stuck in a tree Friday afternoon. It happened at a residence on the 3800 block of Ironton. The man whom authorities did not identify, was working in the tree when bees in the tree became agitated and attacked the man. He became entangled in his harness and was uanble to get down. When firefighters arrived, they were unable to rescue him because the tree was too close to power lines. Authorities were forced to try to hose down the victim with foam and water to try and keep the bees off of him. It was not until Entergy came that authorities were finally able to rescue the man. (KBTV-TV 4 NEWS, Beaumont, Texas, 6/9/06.)
ARK CITY, KS --- It may be just a matter of time before the dreaded Africanized bees, sometimes called killer bees, come to Kansas. No confirmation of them being here yet, but one Kansas family is concerned that a colony of bees near their home may be Africanized. Karen and Brad Tharp have lived east of Ark City for seven years. They've always had bees around, which was fine with Karen because she knew they pollinated flowers. Now, two things make them suspicious of these bees. They say the bees disappeared for several months at one point, and recently Karen was stung by a bee for the first time since moving there. Plus, they've been around the bees numerous times before with no problems. Realizing that Africanized bees have already been confirmed in Oklahoma, and they live only two miles from the Oklahoma border, makes them wonder if Africanized bees replaced the former bee colony. They both say they could ride the noisy lawn mower into the shed where the bees were without provoking them, but this time there was an attack. The Kansas Department of Agriculture is monitoring the migration of Africanized bees, and has done several tests on bees people suspected of being Africanized. So far there has been no confirmation. (KAKE-TV 10 Wichita, KS, 6/6/06.)
PAHRUMP VALLEY, NV --- The invasion of dangerous Africanized honey bees into the Pahrump Valley began in 1996, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture considers all honey bees as Africanized, regardless of location. Areas near Calvada Boulevard have the highest concentration of bees. Beekeeper Susan Jones of Arid Pest Control said "the number of requests for removal of nests has increased significantly within the last few years. I removed 80 nests in 2005, and so far in 2006, three nests have been removed." "The largest nest I've removed contained more than one million bees located in Amargosa," she said. "The bees had taken over an old travel trailer by moving in through the heating unit." The most recent removal was done at the bottom of a utility pole located off Huracan Street. Valley Electric was on the scene to shut off the power so the bees could be removed. Jones and her assistant, Bernie Yarborough, donned their special beekeeper suits and taped both legs and arms to ensure the bees did not fly in and attack them. The nest was located in an electrical junction box at the bottom of the pole. "We've been finding more and more nests in these junction boxes," said Tim Dunlop of Valley Electric said. "It's amazing," said his partner, Cory Parker. "The bees seem to have made these boxes a favorite nesting place." Once the power was off, Jones and Yarborough removed the cover of the box and immediately poured a concoction of soapy water on the nest. Needless to say, the bees were not happy about it. All 1,000 bees in the nest were destroyed and buried on site. Jones said destruction of nests is normally done at night when all the bees are inside, but when the weather was cold, she was also able to remove them early in the morning, because they were too cold to fly. She does not recommend that people try to remove the bees themselves, as the stinging insects will attack at will. "They are agitated by noise, exhaust fumes, vibration, dark colors, and odors, and will attack anyone or anything that invades their space.," she said. These bees are extremely dangerous and have been known to sting animals and humans to death. Attacks have taken place in Boulder City, Henderson and Las Vegas within the past 10 years, with fatal results to the targets of choice. If you see high concentrations of bees in any one area, especially near power poles, contact either Valley Electric at 727-5312, or Jones at 702-353-4666. The Africanization of honey bees occurred as a result of an accidental release of the bees in South America. While it was thought the bees would not move into areas with cold temperatures, they have learned to adapt to most climates as they move north. The invasion is expected to continue and cover most of North America within the next decade. (Mary Baldasano, Pahrump Valley Times. 6/2/06.)
FLOUR BLUFF, TX --- A Flour Bluff man was stung at least a hundred times Sunday afternoon when he was attacked by a swarm of Africanized honey bees. The vicious attack happened as the man was mowing his yard. The victim, John Webb, and his dog tried to outrun the angry swarm. Webb said, "I got scared. I really got scared because they were all over me." He added, "I rolled on the ground and started beating them, and they were all stuck in my hair." Webb said he was mowing his yard when the bees attacked him. They went for his head and face, and then they went after his dog. "I ran around the house, and I didn't want to run in thinking the bees might come with me, so I got in my truck, closed the doors, and just started killing bees, shaking like a leaf, breathing hard." His dog ran off covered in bees. Webb jumped in his truck and called 911.. He also called his kids, who were inside the house, to tell them not to come out. Webb said he waited in his truck for about an hour. "Every time I opened the door to the truck thinking they might be gone because it rained for a second, they'd come right at me man," he recalled about the frightening ordeal. Webb finally had to wait for Vector Control, and they found about two thousand bees inside the walls of his home. Webb was shocked. "I've never been scared of bees before, but today I got scared of bees," he said. Webb suffered about 100 bee stings to his head, face and legs. As for his dog, it came back home, and both are now recovering from the painful bee attack. Webb will need to hire a pest control company to come in and remove the honeycomb from his wall. By the way, experts say the best way to escape an attack is to cover your head and run for cover. (KRIS-TV 6 News, 5/28/06.)
CORONA, CA --- Bees stirred up by a traffic accident attacked motorists, police and firefighters along the eastbound lanes of the Riverside Freeway in Corona on Wednesday, sending two firefighters to the hospital after they suffered allergic reactions to the stings, a fire official said. The bees' hive was tucked into a wooded area west of the Main Street exit when a Chevrolet pickup veered off the freeway and slammed into the area. The driver of the pickup was stung as he ran up a hill to the freeway. Three Corona police officers and three Corona firefighters were also attacked after the afternoon accident. "Once we knew there were bees in there, we backed out, but these bees were attacking us from 100 yards away," Corona Fire Battalion Chief John Medina said. "That's the most aggressive hive I've ever seen." Firefighters planned to kill the bees by spraying the hive with firefighting foam so the truck could be pulled out, Medina said. (Los Angeles Times, 5/25/06.)
SAND SPRINGS, OK ---- Preliminary tests show a swarm of bees that attacked and killed a Great Dane dog this week weren't Africanized "killer" bees. Thousands of bees stung and killed the 140-pound great Dane in front of the dog's family on Monday. State Agriculture, Food and Forestry Department spokesman Jack Carson says the tests normally take two weeks, but the agency placed a priority on the tests because a large mammal had been killed. Carson says D-N-A tests show the bees were European, although the tested bees will be sent to a lab in Arizona to rule out any possibility of African lineage. The Agriculture Department says the closest case of Africanized bees to Sand Springs came last year in McIntosh County in east-central Oklahoma. Carson says a swarm of European bees can act aggressive if they've been exposed to Africanized bees. (AP, 5/25/06.)
HARRIS COUNTY, TX --- Imagine being so terrified that you won't go in your own backyard. One northwest Harris County family said they are that scared, and their calls for help have been ignored. The bees have taken over the electric box in the backyard. The summer sounds of splashing into a pool and giggling in a park have been replaced by frightening buzzing for one Spring family. The bee problem in their back yard is getting worse, the homeowner said. "My wife doesn't come outside because of all the bees," Walt Doyle said. Doyle admits he is handy around the house and said he wouldn't mind getting rid of the bees himself, except they are living in the electric box in his yard - which his owned and operated by CenterPoint Energy. "I know not to open the box and don't go in it, so I mean and when I call them they say, 'don't go in there yourself; someone will take care of it,'" Doyle said. "But it's been almost two months, and they still haven't been able to come out and fix it." The Doyle's phone records show several calls for help. Since that time, their son has been stung. Now the family won't leave their dogs outside alone for fear they will be attacked. There's also serious concern about what the bees are doing to electrical wiring. "Worried about the fact what can honey do to the power," Doyle said. "Are we doing to lose power, is it going to short something out?" CenterPoint said they would send a bee removal company to the house in about two to three days. The company said the family did everything right, and if you find something wrong with an electrical box, don't try to fix it yourself. (Amy Tortolani, KHOU-TV 11 News, 5/22/06.)
OKLAHOMA CITY, OK -- A million busy bees are creating quite a buzz around a house in Oklahoma City. The queen bee made herself at home in the house over the weekend, and then the swarm started. The bees have already built a good-sized honeycomb in a doorway and are too numerous for a can of Raid. The queen has wormed her way inside of a wall. If she stays, so does the colony. "Somewhere in my house, there's a queen bee and there's many others trying to cluster around her," said the owner of the house, Joe Busch. "So that's kind of unsettling for me." A professional bee remover exterminated inside the walls to try and kill the queen. He'll be checking back to make sure he got her. (NBC-TV 4 NEWS, 5/24/06.)
SAND SPRINGS, OK --- There's a warning from Sand Springs Police. Watch out for swarms of bees. One swarm killed a family pet this week in the 800 block of North Grant. Thomas Forbes says his family heard their Great Dane yelping. When they went outside to see what was wrong, they were shocked at what they saw. "In the whole yard, there must have been at least I'd say a thousand or two. They were swarming on the air and they were covering all of her body." A neighbor turned and sprayed a water hose at the bees. The family pulled the 120-pound animal away, but the bees followed. Forbes saved some of the bees in a plastic bag for the Department of Agriculture to test. He believes the
bees were attracted to his swimming pool. (AP, 5/24/06.)
HUTCHINSON, KS --- First responders in Kansas soon could be adding bee veils to the emergency gear they wear. EMS workers, firefighters and law enforcement officers are about to learn how to respond to a possible influx of Africanized honeybees into the state, according to Kansas Department of Agriculture Program Manager Bill Scott. Recently discovered about 80 miles south of the Kansas border in Dewey County, Okla., the bees possibly could cross into the state, said Sharon Dobesh, a pest management coordinator at Kansas State University. To the undiscerning eye, the insects look like common honeybees, but they don't have the docile honeybee personality, Dobesh said. "The European honeybees - the ones we think of as honeybees - and the Africanized honeybee are undistinguishable to the human eye," Dobesh said. "If you are looking at them side by side, you can't tell the difference. But you can see a difference in the behavior and how they act as a group." The Africanized honeybees have a different energy, Dobesh said. A person can unassumingly get in their way, which could provoke an attack. While an individual sting by the Africanized honeybee is no more harmful than a sting from a common honeybee, it's the hostile swarm that can cause a person to go into anaphylactic shock. "When they sting, an alarm pheromone is released, signaling they need help," she said. That's when a swarm of several thousand might angrily attack. However, Dobesh said there was no need to be alarmed, as there was no indication that the bees have crossed over the state's border. "They may never arrive," she said. But, just to be safe, several state agencies are making an effort to educate the public. Being proactive, Dobesh said, is better than waiting for a swarm to attack before people are warned. Scott said the 30-minute sessions were being offered to first responders in four towns as part of an anhydrous ammonia training session. A session, offered by the department and Kansas Farmers Service, was Tuesday evening in Sublette. The responder needs to protect himself when he heads to a call of possible swarming of Africanized bees by wearing the standard gear along with a bee veil, Scott said. "It's recommended that they get suited up and be prepared so they aren't a victim themselves," he said. Haskell County Emergency Management Coordinator John Hall agreed that being prepared was important. He said it would be farmers and rural people who would see the bees before others, so it will be important to be able to identify them if they are coming up from the south. Like anything in nature, Scott said whether the bees arrive is unpredictable. Currently, it's the season for bees, European or Africanized, to swarm, searching for a new hive. Scott suggested calling 911 to report a bee swarm or calling an exterminator or beekeeper. He said the important
thing is to not disturb the bees. (Kathy Hanks, The Hutchinson News,
5/17/06.)
JACKSONVILLE BEACH FL --- A field trip to the park for the kindergarten class at Saint Paul's Catholic School was interrupted by swarming bees. The school says 17 students were stung, none seriously even though paramedics were called to make sure everyone was alright. Patrick Brennan was bite twice. He showed where he got stung both on the chest and neck. Brennan says, "I was running in the woods, it came up and stung me. Was it big? I did not see it. But you felt it? Yes." The school's principal,
Kathy Boice, says the presence of fire trucks and the attention given
by paramedics only added to the excitement. (Roger Weeder, First Coast
News, 5/17/06.)
Hollywood, CA -- Teri Hatcher has revealed that she became a real-life Desperate Housewife when her home was invaded by killer bees. The actress, who plays Susan Meyer on the hit US show, discovered that a huge swarm had built a hive in her sofa. She told chat show host David Letterman, "I have a vintage 60s couch on the deck by my back door and 20,000 of them had made their home in it." Africanized Killer Bees are responsible for 100 deaths each year. (Daniel Kilkelly, Digital Spy, 5/13/06.)
CORPUS, CHRISTI, TX ---- Four people received several stings when a colony of bees was disturbed near the 6600 block of Brisk Wind, police and vector control officials said. A man was working on his yard near a row of flowerbeds surrounded by landscape timbers when the bees began swarming around him. There were no major injuries. (Corpus Christi Caller-Times, 5/13/06.)
FULSHEAR, TX - Corine Penrice began noticing bees outside her home on Fulshear-Katy Road about three years ago, but thought nothing of seeing the insects buzzing around her back yard. But when they began entering her house through several tiny holes in the wall, it was war. Penrice said she contacted the Fort Bend County Extension Office for a list of folks who might exterminate the bees, but none would remove the hive she figured must be quite sizable by now. "They just wanted to kill the bees and leave them in the wall," she said. "They say that's the worst stink you ever smelled, is a bee hive left in a wall." So Penrice let her fingers do the walking through the Yellow Pages, where she found EZ Bee Pest Control, which agreed to do the job for $350. Her church, Missionary Baptist in Simonton, provided the funds for the job, and an exterminator was on the job Wednesday afternoon, removing 50 pounds of honeycomb. "It was full of honey," said Penrice. "He filled up two of those large, black garbage bags." She said the bees "gradually started working their way in the house over the past few months," bringing more friends along every day. As they enter near her kitchen window, Penrice sprays them with Windex, which she said kills them quickly. "I've never had anything like this before, and I sure hope I don't have it again. I am so glad they're gone," she said Thursday morning. "I've been in the kitchen all day because now I don't have to be afraid of the bees." (B.J. Pollock, Fort Bend Herald and Texas Coaster, 5/11/06.)
LAS VEGAS, NV ---- People all over the Valley are getting some pesky neighbors, Africanized Bees, also known as killer bees. It can only take a few hours for the bees to gather and the warm weather draws them out and they're starting to swarm all over the county. Exterminators say the bees are known for their bad tempers which makes them more likely to aggressively attack in a group when bothered. It's best to leave a group of bees or a hive alone and call an exterminator to get rid of them for you. If you are ever attacked by bees don't swat at them. Walk away slowly, don't run, and find shelter in an enclosed area. Between one and two million people are severely allergic to bee stings in the United States. And every year as many as 100 people die from allergic reactions to stings. Bee Sting Allergic Reactions: (Source: Ohio State University) Normal Reaction : Lasts a couple of hours, red, swelling and itching. Large Local Reaction: Lasts several days and it's symptoms are similar to a normal reaction. Severe Allergic Reaction: Dizzy, lightheaded, nauseated, weak, hives, trouble swallowing. A more severe allergic reaction can happen within a few minutes of getting stung. You can feel dizzy, lightheaded, nauseated, and weak. You may also break out in hives or have trouble swallowing. Unlike a lot of other allergies, insect allergy can cause you to go into anaphylactic shock. That's when you stop breathing and your circulatory system stops. (KVBC/DT NEWS 3 Las Vegas, 5/8/06.)
BAKERSFIELD, CA ---- Wild bees are building hives by the hundreds under eaves and in backyard trees and it is has plenty of local homeowners upset. Many residents throughout Bakersfield are finding bees inside their homes. One local exterminator said he received four calls from people needing help on Wednesday alone. Many people are facing a bee infestation this season and it's taking a lot more than mandates. Leslie Coleman is just one person whose apartment or home has been turned into a mini hive. She says after two weeks attacking the bee problem with a vacuum, Coleman decided to wage all out war. A local exterminator sealed off her swamp cooler, but the resulting battlefield was not a pretty sight. Wild bees seem to have gained immunity to bee mites, tiny insects that can kill off a hive. So their numbers this year have swelled. Larry Killian the owner of Killian Pest Control says, "most of the bees that we have in the area a mix of the Africanized with the European honey bees. "They're a little more aggressive than a domesticated European bee so the best thing to do is not antagonize them," he adds. Meanwhile, people should be careful and call a professional for help. The bee mite created quite a problem for almond growers in 2005, who unlike residents had a hard time finding bees to pollinate their crops. A local expert says that didn't happen this year, because farmers ordered extra honeybees before the growing season. (KGET-TV 17, 5/3/06.)
MERIDAN, KS ----- European honeybees, like the ones we see in Kansas, are normally calm and docile. But soon Africanized or what Hollywood has coined "killer bees" may be buzzing into the Sunflower State. This has Tom Sanders with the Kansas Department of Agriculture concerned. "One sting from an Africanized bee is no more dangerous or harmful that a sting from a European bee, the problem is, that in an attack situation, if the bees become disturbed or agitated they tend to sting in greater numbers" says Sanders. Africanized bees started as an experiment in South America more than 50 years ago and have been moving to the north ever since. They are now about 70 miles from the Oklahoma-Kansas border and could enter the state in the next few years. However if they do move into Kansas, it would be hard to tell because Africanized bees and honeybees look exactly the same. The main difference is that Africanized bees are much more aggressive and this could be dangerous. "A person walking within 50 feet or using a power-tool within 100 feet can trigger an attack" says Sanders. "The bees also tend to pursue the victim farther than European bees do." So how worried should we bee? Steve Tipton, a local honeybee beekeeper in Meridan says it's our cold winters that will prevent the Africanized bees from living in Kansas. "Africanized bees have been transported all over the county, and their inability to make winter food storage keeps them from surviving any place there's a chance for freezing weather" says Tipton. So, although Kansas
is an unlikely permanent home for the Africanized bee, it may be an
unwelcomed tourist in the future. (Tom Hagen, KSNT-TV 27, 5/2/06.)
WELLINGTON, FL --- Jacinto Perez was lucky. The bees that furiously swarmed around him as he worked in a Wellington field stung him only a few times and instead zeroed in on the goats and sheep he was frantically trying to help. One goat and a sheep died in the April 14 attack. Three others suffered multiple stings and required medical attention. Almost certainly, experts say, Perez and the animals were attacked by Africanized honeybees. The Africanized honeybees, defensive and aggressive, have been in Florida since 2002, entering on cargo ships. They started to spread more quickly last summer. And they are here to stay. They have been found in mailboxes, outdoor equipment and water meters. While their European honeybee relatives look similar, the Africanized honeybee swarms more often and fiercely defends the hive. Africanized bees perceive any disturbance of their nest as a threat, so they'll chase any animal or person that disturbs their home for up to a quarter of a mile. Their persistence is legendary, so much so that government brochures with advisories on Africanized honeybees urge people to RUN, with upper case letters and exclamation points, to a safe area. John Capinera, chairman of the University of Florida's entomology department, said people should assume they are dealing with an Africanized bee if the insect is acting aggressively. "Most times, bees are fairly docile," Capinera said. "Africanized bees, if they are disturbed, swarm out in large numbers and attack." Chances are, most South Floridians who live in suburban areas aren't going to encounter Africanized bees at this point, Capinera said. But they are spreading. "Over time, they will replace the regular bees, and we'll have to be more careful in our dealings outdoors," he said. "Just as people in Arizona, Texas and Southern California have had to use more caution." While the "killer bee" stories have been over-dramatized, there is cause to be on alert, Capinera said. In the incident on 40th Street South near Lake Worth Road, Perez was working on a shelter for the goats and sheep with his boss, Mirna Calvo-Foucauld. She had gone on an errand when the bee attack happened. On the phone with Perez during the attack, Calvo-Foucauld told Perez to run. "He had already been stung several times," she said. "I instructed him to leave the animals and go as far as he could. Thank goodness he did not have as many bee stings. They attacked the poor animals around him." Palm Beach County Fire Rescue workers were able to help some of the goats and sheep to safety, but two of the animals later were found dead on the property, she said. Entomologist John Warner of Shalom Pest Control found the nest in a tree and killed thousands of bees. "They were very agitated bees," Warner said. "Domestic bees are pretty gentle, I play with them, let them walk on my hands. These bees? Forget it. They were bouncing off my veil doing everything they could to sting me." Though the bees were found on a fairly large, 5-acre lot, Calvo-Foucauld's property sits near a residential area and is fairly close to an equestrian community, causing some concern for Calvo-Foucauld that there might be other hives. "I was extremely worried, especially after the attack, about the potential of danger that the bees can place on human beings and the animals in the area," Calvo-Foucauld said. "It is definitely something to address." Earlier this year, about one mile from Calvo-Foucauld's property, a man on a bulldozer suffered multiple bee stings to his face, neck and ears, according to Palm Beach County Fire Rescue. It's unclear whether those bees were Africanized. A preliminary analysis of the bees in the April 14 incident showed a high possibility that the bees were Africanized, said Jerry Hayes, chief of the aviary section for the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services' Division of Plant Industry. DNA testing is being conducted for confirmation. William Kern, an assistant professor of entomology and nematology at UF's Fort Lauderdale Research and Education Center, said Africanized bee sightings are becoming common in South Florida. "I expect throughout the state, within the next five years, they will be pretty well distributed," said Kern, who recently conducted an Africanized honeybee seminar in Belle Glade and has scheduled more training with first responders and law enforcement. Though eradicating the Africanized honeybees is not an option, state officials suggest that any bee colonies not associated with registered beekeepers be eliminated because they pose a concern, Hayes said. Agriculture officials also want to make sure tourists and residents are aware that the Africanized honeybee is not going away, so they may as well learn to live with them as they have other pests like fire ants. "They've dominated South America and Mexico," Hayes said. "There's no reason that they won't do the same thing in Florida and the Southeast." (Nancy L. Othón, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 4/24/06.)
SAN BERNARDINO — Experts say Africanized bees are dominating the High Desert and can be an annoyance for residents now that the weather has warmed and flowers are in bloom. James Felton, director of the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health, said 90 percent of the bees in the High Desert are Africanized bees, a species that is extremely defensive. A large number of them may sting people or livestock with little provocation. “This is bee season,” he said. “They are swarming, but we have not had any direct problems.” Joan Mulcare, county environmental health manager, said her office has received several calls about swarming bees. “Swarming is a resting phase for bees,” Mulcare said. “Leave them alone if they are in a location where they are not going to bother anybody. In one, two or three days, they will be gone.” If it looks as if the bees are making a hive, she said, then property owners should call a local pest-control company. Animal-control representatives for Victorville, Apple Valley, Adelanto and Hesperia also said swarming bees on private property must be handled by private pest-control companies. Mulcare advises residents to look around their property for places where bees might build a hive, including sheds, attics and outdoor fireplaces. “Also watch your animals. Barking dogs and even horses have irritated a hive and been attacked,” Mulcare said. The swarms should subside during the heat of summer. (Tracie Troha, Victorville Daily Press, 4/22/06.)
SAN ANTONIO, TX - Even a professional pest controller's suit couldn't fend off these bees. Agitated at being disturbed, they swarmed over a Century Pest Control employee, who tried to chip away at some bee nests in the Georgian Apartments in the 500 block of Busby Drive, Fire Department District Chief Ron Rodriguez said. The man walked a block away and firefighters sprayed him with carbon dioxide. Still, he was stung at least 10 times. "They were very, very aggressive," Rodriguez said. "They stung him through his suit and some even got into it." The man and a tenant of the apartment complex were treated at the scene, he said. Pest control workers suspected the insects to be "killer" bees, or Africanized honeybees, Rodriguez said, because of their size and behavior. The bees are wilder than the domestic honeybee, not used to people and very defensive of their hives. Tommy Hultgren/Special to the Express-News An unidentified worker with the San Antonio Health District works to quell an angry mass of bees at the Georgian Apartments. Fire and police officials blocked off the complex, told tenants to stay inside and encouraged patrons of nearby restaurants to take a longer lunch, Rodriguez said. By early Friday evening, pest control employees were busy spraying a powder onto the 5-foot-long hive built around a rain gutter on the back wall of the complex. The powder would kill the bees, they said. The Africanized bee or a crossbred variety has killed 11 people in Texas since being discovered in the U.S. in 1990. More than 60 percent of Texas counties count the bees as residents, and experts say their bad reputation is highly exaggerated. For acting Lt. Richard Macias, the day was nothing extraordinary. During the spring and summer, fire officials respond to bee stings about once a week. As he took off his netted hood and untaped his sleeves, he said that even though the bees clouded around his head, "you get used to it." (Lomi Kriel, San Antonio Express-News, 4/22/06.)
LITTLE ROCK, AR - Africanized honeybees, commonly known as killer bees, have been reported in Arkansas and could be in nearly one-fourth of the state's 75 counties by the end of the year, lawmakers heard Thursday. First reported in southwest Arkansas last year, the bees are a danger to beekeepers and to agriculture in general. Though generally defensive in nature, an average of one person a year dies from attacks in the United States, State Plant Board Director Daryl Little told the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Forestry and Economic Development. Since the bees crossed the border from Mexico into Texas in 1990, Plant Board officials have expected their migration into Arkansas, and special training is under way to teach people how to deal with the dangerous flying pest, Little said. "I just wanted the committee to be aware that this bee has moved into the state and we are busy training people and trying to get the public in a position where we can deal with this new pest," he said. The bees were first discovered in Arkansas last year in Miller and Lafayette counties. Eight swarms or hives of the bees have been reported in the two counties. Single swarms have since been found in Union and Clark counties, Little said. Based on the way the bees spread through Texas and into Oklahoma and Louisiana, Little said 13 other counties - Calhoun, Columbia, Crawford, Hempstead, Howard, Little River, Nevada, Ouachita, Polk, Sebastian, Scott, Sevier and Pike - could see an influx of the bees by the end of the year. Little said the state Plant Board formed a special committee about 10 years ago to prepare for the bees' move into Arkansas. The committee later developed a plan to train people on how to handle the bees. In the past few years, more than 500 beekeepers and county extension service employees, along with state Forestry Commission and Natural Resources Conservation Service employees, have been trained in what to do when a swarm is found, and how to treat people who might have been stung, Little said. Eighty percent of those trained live in the southwest corner of the state, he added. Emergency workers and firefighters in Crawford, Lafayette, Miller and Polk counties have also been trained, he said, as have county coordinators with the state Department of Emergency Management. Rep. Travis Boyd, D-Piggott, asked about the possibility of eradicating the bees from the state, Little said it couldn't be done. "This pest has moved from Brazil, 200-300 miles a year. It's just a matter of the bee industry learning how to reclaim their hives and manage the honey bees, and also educating the public on being aware of bees and being safe," he said. "This is something that we'll just have to learn to live with." He compared the bees' move into the state to that of fire ants. The best way to kill the bees is with soap and water, he said. The bees are descendants of southern African bees imported in 1956 by Brazilian scientists trying to breed a heartier honeybee for the South American tropics, according to the Arkansas Plant Board's Web site. Some of the bees escaped in 1957 and began breeding with local Brazilian honeybees. The bees quickly multiplied and began moving throughout South and Central America. The bees reached Texas in about 1990. Along with Arkansas, the bees have been discovered in several parishes in Louisiana and 27 counties in Oklahoma, Little said. (Rob Moritz, Arkansas News Bureau, 4/21/06.)
SAN ANTONIO, TX - A swarm of dangerous Africanized Bees is still buzzing around one neighborhood after attacking at least two people. One man, who lives in the area, is recovering tonight after being stung 30 times. The bees are nesting outside the Georgian Condos on North New Braunfels. The area where the bees have built their hive is blocked off with yellow police tape. Pest control workers say there are thousands of the aggressive bees, and at first, they didn’t realize what they were dealing with. "As we began to work on them and spray them we realized we were dealing with Africanized bees,” says Chuck Angelini, with Century Pest Control. “One poor guy [happened] to be passing by when they decided to come out and they chased him down for blocks." The guy Angelini saw get attacked is Buff Marlin. The bees chased Marlin as he tried to get to his car. “Bees just started swarming me everywhere,” says Marlin. "I just took off running. I ran all the way to Chester’s. The swarm [was] all around me." Emergency workers say the bees stung Marlin at least 30 times. A pest control worker was also injured, while spraying the nests. Angelini says the
chemical will attract and kill the bees and that it’s already working.
He says they’ve killed most of the bees, but say anyone with bee allergies
should try to avoid the area. ( Lauren Jenkins, WOAI.COM NEWS, 4/21/06.)
ORLANDO, FL --- The Florida Pest Management Association is holding a series of free classes to help first responders -- such as fire and rescue and law enforcement agencies -- deal with increased encounters with potentially dangerous Africanized honey bees. Classes will be held in various cities across the state in the coming weeks, including one in Apopka on May 26. David Pomfret, president of FPMA, says that with more attacks expected from these so-called "killer bees" in the state, the association wants to educate both pest management professionals and first responders on how to handle such incidents. Phil Koehler of the University of Florida says Africanized bees recently attacked people, dogs, firefighters and news crews in Miami. "Don't be foolish and think Africanized bees are just an average pest," says Koehler. The class in Apopka will be held at the Mid Florida Research & Education Center, 2725 Binion Road, at 3:10 p.m. Registration is a half-hour before the start. Other classes will be held in Jacksonville, Fort Lauderdale, Tampa and Panama City. Based in Orlando, the Florida Pest Management Association is one of the largest state pest control organizations in the country. (Orlando Business Journal, 4/13/06.)
RALEIGH, NC --- Agriculture officials in the Carolinas are bracing for an invasion of killer bees that could threaten humans and livestock and interfere with growing crops, such as strawberries and watermelons, that sweeten summer picnic tables. Swarms that appeared in Florida last summer are expected to move north - either through natural migration or unwitting human aid - and could reach the Carolinas as soon as this year, experts say. Both states are training their bee handlers to spot the invaders, and they're working on ways to teach police and other emergency workers how to protect themselves and rescue victims of killer bee attacks. Traps have been set in North Carolina to try to detect the interlopers, and South Carolina will announce a new testing program at a statewide beekeepers meeting this summer. "Definitely within the next couple of years, those bees will be here," said Stan Schneider, a University of North Carolina at Charlotte biology professor who studies Africanized honeybees. That's the real name for the so-called killer bees, which rarely kill but earned their moniker because they're more easily provoked and attack in greater numbers than the European variety. "They stay after you and don't retreat," said Mike Hood, an entomology professor at Clemson University and a bee specialist for the state extension service. Killer bees have been known to chase people for up to a quarter of a mile, even following them into homes and cars. Their venom, though, is the same. There's nothing necessarily "killer" about it, except to those with bee-sting allergies. About 15 deaths have been blamed on killer bees since they entered the U.S. in 1990. Africanized honeybees have migrated from Mexico throughout the Southwestern U.S., Arkansas and Louisiana. Georgia officials expect them to cross the state line from Florida this year. However, the most likely method isn't migration, Schneider said. The bees could hitch a ride in a truck or shipping container. That's how they got into Florida. N.C. Agriculture Department officials have set up bait stations near the ports at Morehead City and Wilmington, hoping to detect the bees if they come by sea. If they get closer, officials might place traps around truck stops, too, said Don Hopkins, North Carolina's state apiarist. North Carolina has had a plan in place for more than 16 years, since before killer bees first appeared in Texas. But the state's killer bee task force met in February to update the strategy. In South Carolina, Hood plans to start collecting samples of bees from across the state this year - especially in Charleston and the coastal areas, where the warmer weather helps the bees survive. He'll outline the testing program at the state beekeepers' meeting in July and ask bee handlers to report any aggressive behavior in their colonies. (Scott Dodd, Knight Ridder, 4/10/06.)
CLOVIS, NM --- A Portales pest control company official said a sample of bees found in Clovis "in the middle of town" has tested positive as being a strain of Africanized or "killer" bees. Lewis Hightower, owner of Southwestern Pest Control, said the sample was tested at the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Maryland. An educational meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Memorial Building in Portales. Hightower said he will attend and urges concerned citizens to attend as well. "I think it's a public safety issue," he said. "There are plenty of places (in Portales and Clovis) for these bees to make a home. There are plenty of places where they can find food and water." Hightower said there is no way to know how many of the Africanized bees are in the area, or predict if they will be out in force this year, but now is the time for the public to become aware of the potential for harm. "The hives we found last year were pioneer hives, the first wave of the bees (in the area)," he said. "The bees may be worse this year, or it may not be bad at all. The problem is, an adult can run away and might not get hurt too bad, but a small child might not be able to run away." Hightower said Africanized bees have been found in more than 20 New Mexico counties since 1993. This year could be an awakening for Roosevelt and Curry counties. Hightower said Bill Moyer, an employee of Southwestern Pest Control, will attend next week's public meeting, and will bring a film recently shot of an attacking swarm of what Hightower expects are Africanized bees. "He (Moyer) and another employee went to a hive (in northwestern Roosevelt County) in a rural area and purposefully made the bees attack to show what it's like to be attacked by a swarm." Terry Teti of Community Resources, one of the organizers of next week's meeting, said Moyer informed her that the film of the attacking swarm is intense, but Moyer said he wished he had kept filming the bees after he had made it safely inside his vehicle.
Hightower said Africanized bees often make homes in the eaves of houses and around water meters. He said he wouldn't go within 100 yards of a hive of Africanized bees without donning full protective gear. (William P. Thompson, Clovis News Journal, 4/4/06.)
LAWRENCE, KS --- The bad news is that it has been a year of drought and raging wildfires. The good news is that the fires and drought will probably keep the killer bees from reaching Kansas this year. Or so says a Kansas University expert who disagrees with the warning from state agriculture officials that the bees are likely to arrive in Kansas this year. "I think right now it's a lot of hype about nothing," said Chip Taylor, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology. "I don't expect much to happen this year." Nevertheless, Kansas officials warned this week that the first swarms of the aggressive Africanized honeybees could arrive in southern Kansas border areas sometime this year. Traps have been set for the bees by federal and state agriculture officials along the border. While Taylor said it was good to be prepared, the drought and fires have taken away much of the forage bees need for food. Also, the bees do not thrive in colder climates. Because of the Kansas climate, even during mild winters, it would generally be too cold for killer bees to inhabit the state, Taylor said. "The only thing that might change is if we continue to have warmer winters," he said. "If we had still been dealing with winter conditions as they were in 1975, we wouldn't even have them in Oklahoma or north Texas. But it has warmed up considerably and allowed them to move farther north." Africanized bees have been found in Oklahoma just south of the Kansas border, and they typically move north 100 to 300 miles a year. Over the past years they have spread into Mexico, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Arkansas, Nevada and Florida. And some bees could manage to hitch a ride aboard a truck and be in northern Kansas immediately, but they wouldn't last long, Taylor said. They would need a good habitat that would supply them plenty of nectar and pollen, he said, and Kansas doesn't have that diversity of plants. "They may get here, but their numbers will never be strong unless we continue to warm up," Taylor said. (Mike Belt, Lawrence Journal World, 4/1/06.)
WICHITA, KS - Kansas officials are bracing for the first swarms of so-called "killer bees" to cross into the state as early as this year, the Kansas Department of Agriculture said Thursday. Federal and state agriculture officials have been setting up traps along the state's southern counties to detect their arrival and have notified emergency first responders. They also have prepared an informational pamphlet for the public. "Anytime you have something that potentially can have a negative impact on what you are doing every day, you need to become aware of what you should do to keep yourself and your family safe when you are in that environment," said Tom Sanders, coordinator of the Kansas Agriculture Department's Cooperative Agricultural Pest Survey. The highly aggressive Africanized honeybees bees already have been found in Oklahoma just two counties south of the Kansas state line. They typically move northward about 100 miles to 300 miles a year. Africanized honeybees also have spread to Mexico, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, Arkansas and Florida. Commonly known as killer bees because their behavior is aggressive, Africanized honeybees are easily provoked. A single sting is no more dangerous or painful than a sting from any other honeybee, but Africanized bees attack in far greater numbers than more docile domestic bees. Fewer than 20 deaths have been linked to killer bees in the last 16 years, when they first arrived in Texas. A person walking within 50 feet of a colony can trigger an attack, as can someone operating power tools or lawn equipment as far away as 100 feet from a hive, according to the Agriculture Department. If the bees colonize in Kansas, the Agriculture Department plans to provide educational support and help the public identify them, Sanders said. A database would also be maintained so public to pinpoint areas of infestation. Because the Africanized bees look similar to the calmer European bees now in Kansas, the Agriculture Department plans to set up a lab capable of providing the DNA analysis needed to accurately distinguish them, he said. "It has been the experience of other states that eradication has not been effective and is not practical, so Kansas at this point does not have any plans to even attempt eradication," Sanders said. "If you see a hive, you can kill a hive, but to think you can exclude a pest like this from this state is impractical." It is unknown whether the Africanized bees, which do not typically survive well in cold temperatures, would be able to survive a Kansas winter. But recent winters here have been so mild that the colonies would not have been killed, Sanders said. Tim Tucker, a Niotaze beekeeper who lives just two miles north of the Oklahoma state line, said he expects to be one of the first affected when the Africanized bees arrive in Kansas. Tucker, who is also president of the Kansas Honey Producers Association and a board member of the American Beekeeping Federation, said he does not expect the Africanized bees to dramatically affect the economics of beekeeping in the Kansas. But he noted he has friends who have left beekeeping because of it. "It is going to cut down on a few hobbyist beekeepers, but not affect commercial beekeepers very much," he said, noting beekeepers in areas in the country with Africanized bees have simply adapted their practices. Tucker, who rears his own queens, said once Africanized honeybees are found in his part of the state, he will have to start buying impregnated queens or take his to northern Kansas or southern Nebraska for mating so they do not breed with the Africanized drones. Beekeepers in other affected states also have had some success running pollen traps beneath domestic hives to keep Africanized queens from taking them over, he said. He also said he will have to be more vigilant when he checks his own hives: "A lot of times, I just go out with a veil. I hardly ever wear gloves or a full suit with my bees because they are gentle. The mean ones I get rid of very quickly." The Africanized variety was bred by a researcher in Brazil who mated European bees with bees from southern Africa to try to produce a hybrid more tolerant of the tropics. The resulting queens were more aggressive and 26 were released in 1957, breeding with European bees. Swarms of the hybrid bees spread northward. (Roxana Hegeman, Associated Press, 3/31/06.)
SHERWOOD, AR ---- The accidental releasing of Africanized honey bees in South America 50 years ago has finally hit home in Arkansas as state officials have confirmed the existence of the so-called "killer bees" in Miller County, which borders Texas. According to the Arkansas State Plant Board, killer bees were found in Miller County late this year. But a quarantine has been placed on bees entering nearby Grant County, which touches Pulaski County. A total of 18 other Arkansas counties are considered at risk for killer bees spreading to their regions. Mark Stoll, apiary manager for the Arkansas State Plant Board, said the board set up the quarantine system because it wants to warn Arkansans within a 100-mile radius that the Africanized honey bees (AHBs) have been cited close to them. "We want to warn people," Stoll said. The purpose of a quarantine also mandates that beekeepers in those counties must have their bee colonies inspected before they are transported to other counties, Stoll said. Stoll said he believes it is only a matter of time before the Africanized honey bees migrate to much of Arkansas. "If you look at Oklahoma, they are as far north as Dewey County, and if you run a line straight across from Dewey County, then you will see them as far north of the Siloam Springs area of Arkansas," Stoll said. The confirmation of Africanized honey bees (AHBs) was confirmed through lab reports from the University of Arkansas and the U.S.D.A., according to the board's Web site. "They were discovered in an Arkansas State Plant Board trap in southwest Arkansas near the town of Brightstar, in Miller County," according to the Website. The AHBs are descendants of southern African bees imported in 1956 by Brazilian scientists attempting to breed a honeybee better adapted to South American tropics. "When some
of these bees escaped quarantine in 1957, they began breeding with local
Brazilian honeybees, quickly multiplying and extended their range throughout
South and Central America at a rate greater than 200 miles per year,"
according to the Web site. "Before coming to North America, Africanized
bees acquired the name 'killer bees' because of a misunderstanding of
their behavior and a mistranslation of the Portuguese used to describe
them when they first entered Brazil." "People can proof their homes and be educated to the risks to minimize adverse effects," according to the plant board. " The plant board reports that the AHB poses a risk to American beekeepers. "Africanized bees probably present the greatest danger in the U.S. to American beekeeping and American agriculture in general," according to the Web site. "AHBs often enter European colonies to mingle and mate with them. Such mating results in more hybrid bees having African genes and tendencies dominating over European ones. An entire colony may suddenly take on aggressive and short-tempered behavior." The plant board states it is not necessary to disturb a hive to incite an AHB attack. "In fact, Africanized bees have been known to respond to mundane occurrences like noises, pedestrians, or vibrations of vehicles or equipment," according to the Web site. "Though their venom is no more potent than that of European honeybees, AHBs attack in far greater numbers and pursue perceived enemies for greater distances. Once disturbed colonies may remain agitated for 24 hours; (they may) attack people and animals within a range of a quarter mile from the hive." AHBs are slightly smaller than European honeybees, but only an expert can tell them apart, according to the plant board. Other characteristics of these honeybees are: *They defend their nest more rapidly than their European cousins. *Usually sting in greater numbers. *Are less selective
about where they nest. *Collect nectar
and pollen and make honey. Some potential nesting sites near a person's home for AHBs include: *Holes or cracks
in building walls or foundations. *Underneath mobile homes. *Culverts or drainage pipes. *Inverted flower
plants. *Bird houses. *Barns or sheds. *Woodpiles. *Wooden spools often used as playground equipment. Arkansans are urged to seek professional help in removing any potential AHB colony. The plant board states that the best method of escaping an AHB attack is to cover your head and run for shelter. "Any covering for your body, especially your head and face, will help you escape," according to the Web site. "If you don't have anything, grab a blanket, coat, towel, or anything that will give you momentary relief while you look for an avenue of escape. If you have nothing else, pull your shirt up over your face. The stings you may get on your chest and abdomen will be far less threatening than those you would get on your facial areas." People are urged to take shelter as quickly as possible. "Get in a house, car or tent and close the windows and doors. Do not jump in water as bees will still be there when you come up for air," according to the plant board. Once you are away from the bees, evaluate the situation. "If you've received more than 15 stings or are having symptoms other than local pain and swelling, seek medical attention immediately. If you see someone else being stung or think someone else is in danger, call 911 immediately." People are to remove the stingers as soon as possible to stop the venom from entering the body. "Do this by scraping the stingers with a fingernail, credit card, or dull knife. Do not remove stingers with fingers or tweezers as this will force more toxins into the victim." The plant board
adds there are other safety tips to avoid an encounter with an unfriendly
AHB colony: *Remember that AHB
sting to defend their colony, so be on the lookout for honey bee swarms
and colonies. *Listen for the hum of an active bee colony. *Look for bees in holes in the ground, holes in trees, or in sheds. *Be extra careful for bees that are acting strangely. Quite often, bees will display some preliminary defensive behavior before going into a full-fledged attack. *When you are outdoors, in a rural area, a park or wilderness reserve, be aware of your surroundings and keep an eye out for bees the way you would watch for snakes and other natural dangers. *Don't panic at
the sight of a few bees foraging in the flowers. Bees are generally
very docile as they go about their normal activities. (Greg Rayburn,
Sherwood Voice, 3/24/06)
ROBINSON, TX --- A Robinson woman who marked spring this week by using a smoke bomb to rid her back yard of thousands of bees ended up instead burning down a shed filled with her grandparents' keepsakes. The bees were building a honeycomb in a space just below the shed's roof, 21-year-old Destiny Hallman said. Solution: Insert a smoke bomb into the crevice to drive them out. Hallman said she and her 76-year-old grandmother watched the bomb billowing for a while Tuesday, eventually decided the situation was firmly resolved in their favor, then went to the Jack in the Box down the street. When Hallman returned, the shed, filled with her grandfather's Vietnam War memorabilia as well as decorations from her grandmother's old catering business, lay in a heap of ashes. Luckily, Hallman had removed her grandmother's wedding dress and grandfather's army uniform a month before, she said. Sandra Parcenue, a neighbor, was one of the first to notice the blazing shed, which ignited shortly after 1 p.m. "I was sitting in my living room and heard what sounded like a gunshot ... so I run around the edge of my house and there were the flames," she said. "A bunch of neighbors were running and throwing water on it until the fire department got here. It was pretty scary for a minute there. I tell you, it was roaring." Waco firefighters found little left to save. Flames largely consumed the shed before they arrived. But not everything was lost. Hallman said she later found part of the roof – only to notice some of the bees still stubbornly in residence, busily rebuilding their honeycomb. (Monica Ortiz Uribe, The Waco Tribune-Herald, 3/23/06.)
PHOENIX, AZ --- The outfield was not a safe place to be Wednesday at Phoenix Municipal Stadium. The sun made high flyballs impossible to see, and then a swarm of bees descended. The sun and the bees made things especially tough for left fielder Nick Swisher in the third inning of the A's 11-7 loss to Arizona. He lost a foul ball in the sun, and he briefly decamped from left when he heard buzzing. "It was a whole swarm of them,'' he said. "I wasn't going to stand out there. The fans were yelling, 'Go back to your position,' and I said, 'Why don't you go out there?' '' After a few minutes, he was back in place. "I thought Swisher stayed strong,'' said former A's outfielder Eric Byrnes, who was standing on third. "I'd be halfway up the bleachers.'' (Susan Slusser, San Francisco Chronicle, 3/23/06.)
NORTH LAUDERDALE, FL --- There was quite the 'buzz' at a South Florida elementary school when students were evacuated because of a swarm of bees. The massive clump of bees blocked the front entrance gate at the North Lauderdale school on Tuesday. The students were kept inside of the school until officials decided to evacuate them by using a different way out. Some of the kids were scared that they might get attacked by the swarm. "They can be killer bees, poisonous bees, they can be anything and they are dangerous," said student Burchard Burows. School administrators called bee wrangler Craig Ebert to get rid of the insects. He said it could have been a dangerous situation, but it is common for bees to swarm in an open area like the school. (WFTV-TV 9, 3/22/06.)
HAHIRA, GA. ---- Georgia officials are worried an invasion of killer bees from Florida may cross the state line this year, before moving north into other Southern states. The state Agriculture Department has placed traps along the state line to detect the bees' arrival from Florida, where they have been found in more than a dozen central and southern counties. Officials are hosting classes to teach emergency workers how to rescue and treat victims of killer-bee attacks, and they're recommending that fire and emergency medical workers purchase protective bee suits. "I would not be surprised if we find them in 2006 because there is simply no natural barrier between us and Florida," said Keith Delaplane, a University of Georgia bee specialist. The highly aggressive Africanized bees are already in Arkansas, Louisiana and some Southwestern states. They are known as "killer bees" because they are easily provoked, attack in far greater numbers than docile domestic bees and will chase intruders for up to a quarter of a mile, a lot further than honey bees. "They've got a short fuse and their reactions are exaggerated," Delaplane said. The killer bees were created when a researcher in Brazil mated European bees - the traditional honey bees found in North America - with bees from southern Africa, hoping to produce a hybrid that was more tolerant of the tropics. The resulting queens were more aggressive and 26 of them were released in 1957. They bred with European bees, producing the aggressive hybrid known as killer bees which spread northward and arrived in Texas in 1990. Initially, there was a lot of hype about killer bees. Municipalities banned trucks carrying bees, and some property owners told beekeepers to relocate their hives, said Kim Kaplan, a spokeswoman for the federal Agricultural Research Service, which has studied the bees extensively. But fewer than 20 deaths have been linked to killer bee attacks in 16 years, Kaplan said, and American beekeepers have adjusted by replacing aggressive queens with European queens to minimize the impact on honey production and crop pollination. While killer bees have been spreading out from Texas at a rate of 100 to 300 miles per year, Florida's bees arrived by "human assisted transport," such as trains, ships, trucks or airplanes, Kaplan said. Danny Drew, one of Georgia's leading beekeepers, said he's followed the killer bees' spread through other states and is not particularly worried. Drew, his wife and their son and daughter run Drew Apiaries in the south-central Georgia town of Hahira, which honors bees and beekeepers with an annual Honey Bee Festival. "I don't look at it as that big of a concern," said Drew, who sells honey and bees, including queens, and rents about 5,000 hives each year for pollination. The killer bees are becoming less aggressive as they breed with European bees living in the wild, he said. Tommy Irvin, Georgia's agricultural commissioner, is concerned that the presence of Africanized bees could hurt the state's sale of queen bees. While Georgia is a small player in honey production, it is a major supplier of queen bees. The demand for queen bees has always been strong and since the arrival of killer bees, some beekeepers in Arizona have made a point of buying Drew's queens to replace Africanized queens that invaded their hives. Georgia's beekeepers also rent their bees to farmers who depend on the insects for pollinating more than 90 crops, such as almonds, blueberries, cucumbers, cantaloupes and watermelons. Africanized bees are considered less efficient than European bees, so they could lower honey production and pollination, Irvin said. Delaplane predicts Georgia's strong bee industry will prove helpful in curbing the aggressive invaders. "We need lots of gentle European bees in nature to out breed the African types," he said. "Beekeepers are an asset in that they know how to deal with these stinging insects." Delaplane said the chance of being attacked by a swarm of killer bees is about as likely as being struck by lightning, but the attacks do occur. "With Africanized bees, instead of one or two dozen stinging insects, people face the risk of hundreds or maybe thousands of stings," Delaplane said. Honey bees don't move around much and they often make their homes in hollow trees. But killer bees tend to relocate often and they create colonies in usual places, such as old tires, culverts and around water meters. Those at greatest risk of stumbling on a killer-bee hive are people who work or play outdoors, Delaplane said. "I honestly do think the majority of people in Georgia will be totally unaffected by this," he said. (Elliott Minor, Associated Press, 3/18/06.)
SANTA MARIA, CA ---The February death of a Santa Maria farmworker who was attacked by bees has stirred some suspicion that African honey bees - also known as "killer bees" - caused the fatality. However, according to reports from the Santa Barbara County Agricultural Commissioner's Office, the county coroner's office and the county Public Health Laboratory, the bees that attacked Clemente Hernandez, 77, between 1 and 2 p.m. Feb. 9 were European honey bees, not African honey bees. And despite about a half-dozen bee stings that caused elevated bee venom in Hernandez's blood stream, there was not enough of a concentration to cause death, the Public Health Laboratory found. No autopsy was performed, but cause of death was attributed to numerous heart- and artery-related problems, said Sgt. Erik Raney, coroner's spokesman. Hernandez, who had worked for Betteravia Farms since 1963, had various heart-related ailments, according to a report from his physician and information family members gave the coroner's office, Raney said. "Apparently he ran from the bees and ran only a short distance and apparently suffered a heart attack," said Guy Tingos, deputy agricultural commissioner. His department collected samples of the bees and a laboratory report revealed they were European honey bees, said Tingos. The incident took place as Hernandez was using a large excavator to knock down brush along a creek bed about a quarter-mile northwest of the 4100 block of Brown Road and accidentally disturbed a bee hive, Raney said. Hernandez ran about 150 to 200 feet from the excavator and collapsed, he said. A co-worker, who had received a cell phone call from Hernandez and heard the victim yelling, drove to the scene and found Hernandez on the ground with 20 to 40 bees on his head and flying over the body, Raney said. The co-worker grabbed Hernandez, who was unresponsive, and dragged him to a clear area. Co-workers attempted CPR but Hernandez was not breathing and did not respond, Raney said. Santa Barbara County Fire Department arrived soon afterward and Hernandez was pronounced dead, he said. African honey bees have been found on the Central Coast, Bob Lilley, San Luis Obispo County agricultural commissioner, wrote in a recent column in the Santa Maria Times. "Over the past few weeks, the Agricultural Commissioner's Office has received a number of phone calls regarding high numbers of bees - some aggressive - in San Luis Obispo County," Lilley wrote in the column. "Recently, our department sent a bee sample taken from a residence to the California Department of Food and Agriculture for identification. The sample tested positive for the African honey bee strain. This is the second confirmed instance in SLO County." (Kent Miller, The Lompoc Record, 3/17/06.)
PORTALES, NM --- Temperatures are warming and flowers will bloom soon. 'Tis the season to beware of bees in Roosevelt County. Portales Police Capt. Lonnie Berry said officers responded to a call about bees at a residence on the 1700 block of South Avenue B on Tuesday. He said officers confirmed bees were on the property and notified exterminators from Southwest Pest Control. Lewis Hightower, co-owner of Southwest Pest Control, said he could not share details about the incident, but said there was no emergency. He did say bee season is upon us. Bees are not active during cold weather, but once flowers begin to bloom, they go in search of food. Hightower said European honey bees, the region's most common variety, are typically not aggressive. Africanized bees, however, can be a problem. Last year, Jene Evans of Kenna found nearly 80,000 Africanized honey bees at her home. Last September, Roosevelt County's agricultural extension agent reported he'd received an unusual amount of calls about bees. Extension Agent Floyd McAlister said an Eastern New Mexico University worker was stung 30 times by bees while he was working at the Lewis Cooper Rodeo Arena. A report from New Mexico State University said Africanized honey bees first arrived in the United States in 1990. "More swarms started moving into our territory last year," Hightower said. Southwest Pest Control has workers in Roswell, Portales, Clovis, Alamogordo, Las Cruces, Truth or Consequences and Hobbs. "We don't know how (bee problems) will be this year, but we have a feeling (they) might not be real good," he said. Hightower said his concern is due to the swarms moving into Chaves and Roosevelt counties last year. Hightower said once Africanized bees are established in an area, the only way to get rid of them is to kill them. Two years ago, he said, his company received two or three calls in all of southeast New Mexico related to Africanized bees. "Last year we received 22 calls in one month towards the end of the summer," he said. Terry Teti, executive director of Community Resources Inc. in Portales, said some of the bees captured are sent for study at the Carl Hayden Bee Research Center in Tucson, Ariz., and the New Mexico State University Cooperative Extension Service in Las Cruces. Teti said she and Roosevelt County Health Council members are in the process of getting together town hall meetings to inform residents about bees and what to do when a swarm is found. Teti said her fear is children being stung by bees. (Tony Parra, Portales News-Tribune, 3/17/06.)
ALBANY, GA ---- Agriculture experts say they would not be surprised to find the first killer bees in Georgia this year. Now they are telling South Georgians and emergency responders to get prepared. University of Georgia Entomologist Dr. Keith Delaplane briefed GEMA and First Responders from the 23 county Southwest Georgia area about the danger. Africanized Honey Bees are already in Florida and most of the Southwest United States, and could soon force their way into the European Bee colonies we are used to. The Africanized bees are actually smaller and their venom less toxic, but they are much more aggressive. Dr. Delaplane said "I don't think most people will ever be affected. But when some unfortunates are, it will be a big story." If you encounter an Africanized bee hive, thousands could attack you. To save yourself, run. Experts say most people will stand and swat and wave their hands when swarmed, and that is the worst thing you can do. Second , Get inside an enclosed area, like a car or building. And third, stay there. The same study of attack victims shows many people leave the safe zone because there were a few bees inside, and run back into thousands outside. Dr. Delaplane says he has never heard of a confirmed United States death from the killer bees. (Jim Wallace, WALB-TV 10 News, 3/16/06.)
TUCSON, AZ --- So-called killer bees have reportedly arrived in Tucson, Ariz., early this year, with a shortage of food on the desert causing colonies to move about. The Africanized bees have been forming new colonies around the city since at least February, while that activity doesn't usually begin until the middle or end of March, the Arizona Daily Star reported Thursday. Scientists believe the ongoing drought over the southwester United States has reduced the amount of food available for existing urban colonies or in the desert where many of the bees normally live. "The bees are kind of confused," said Justin Schmidt, a research biologist and Africanized bee expert, told the newspaper. "Normally, in January and early March, there will be lots of flowers from early rains in the desert -- mesquite, mustard and mistletoe -- that provide good food for them. "This year we haven't had any of that. You walk around in the desert and there are no flowers. The bees are kind of starving," he added. (UPI, 3/9/06.)
TUCSON, AZ --- Killer bees are swarming early and often around Tucson this year because of the drought. Africanized bees have been forming new colonies around the city since February or even earlier this year, when that usually starts in mid- to late March, experts say. There's not enough
food for the bees in existing urban colonies or in the desert where
many of the bees normally live. "Normally, in January and early March, there will be lots of flowers from early rains in the desert — mesquite, mustard and mistletoe — that provide good food for them," he said. "This year we haven't had any of that. You walk around in the desert and there are no flowers. The bees are kind of starving." Midtown resident Lois Longobardi got a swarm of bees for Valentine's Day — it flew into her backyard grapefruit tree. Ultimately, she had the bees killed in part because her husband is allergic to bee stings, she said. But while the Africanized bee's sting can be deadly, the swarms usually aren't harmful, experts say, unless the bees stay around long enough to form a hive. That doesn't usually happen. Still, some pest control company officials and a just-retired University of Arizona bee expert say the drought has increased the bees' aggressiveness and toughness and made them harder to kill. The former UA expert, David Langston, who was superintendent of the university's Maricopa Agricultural Center, also predicts the total number of bees in Tucson this year might actually increase. Overall, though, most authorities say they expect Tucson to get fewer bees this year because there isn't enough rain to nourish the mesquite blossoms and other wildflowers from which they feed. Drought should also slash the number of termites and mosquitoes seen in Tucson this year, experts say. But those bugs could still thrive, if people don't manage their yards and swimming pools properly to keep stagnant water from building up, they say. Longobardi's husband, David, spotted the bee swarm in late afternoon, and it looked about the size of a football, Lois said. "It was just a swarm, brown-colored," said Longobardi, a UA human resources specialist. "We were surprised. We hadn't had any problems with bees until now." Acting on the advice of UA bug expert Carl Olson to give the bees time to move, the Longobardis waited five days before having an exterminator spray the bees with chemicals to kill them, for $80. By then, she and
the exterminator thought the bees were starting to build a hive, which
often causes bees to behave more aggressively. The exterminator told
her that in a couple of days they would have been much harder to remove. Entomologist Olson didn't criticize that action but said he doesn't think those bees posed a threat. Based on the description he got, it sounded like the bees hadn't yet constructed a hive. Typically, bees form hives in sheltered areas, he said But Marylou Stengel, business manager of the UA's entomology department where Olson also works, said that when longtime co-worker Longobardi called her for advice shortly before calling the exterminator, "I said, 'I think you have to go with your gut feeling.' " A former beekeeper but not an entomologist, Stengel said, "I think if you are fearful enough you should probably just call someone, a bee-removal place." A sheltered bee colony turned up late last week at the North Side home of Claire Scheuren. Her aging mother's caregiver spotted bees buzzing around a gate, Scheuren said Wednesday. The bees didn't attack, but the caregiver thought they seemed a little aggressive. Ultimately, the
bees were traced to a hole less than an eighth-inch wide in the corner
of a ceiling in the garage. Tom Martin, president
of Arizona Pest Control Co., said his company's officials have actually
seen colonies full of dead bees out in the desert this winter, because
their honey stores have diminished to the point where they are dying
from starvation. The company monitors Africanized bees in the desert
as well as in Tucson and Phoenix, he said. While Southern Arizona's total bee population will probably decline this year, many desert bees will swarm and look for more suitable homes in the city, boosting Tucson's exposure, Langston said. "My understanding is that Africanized bees have a tendency if the going gets tough, they pack up and leave, while European bees stay and starve to death." Schmidt, however, said that because the fall was so dry, most bees have probably already bolted from the desert into the city. One would also expect bees to get less aggressive over time, he said, because people will call exterminators to kill off the ones who sting them. That leaves behind more docile ones that would then produce more, he said. (Tony Davis, Arizona Daily Star, 3/9/06.)
SAFFORD, AZ --- Safford residents near the corner of 10th Avenue and Seventh Street recently found out they had a colony of unsavory neighbors moving in across the street from them. A hive of Africanized bees was found lodged in a nearby fence. Safford Police officer Luke Arbizo arrived on the scene and called dispatch for assistance. Moments later, Safford Fire Chief Mike Rhodes, along with firefighters Gary Richards, Wayne Klajda, Justin Mack and John McGaughey, responded to the scene wearing white safety suits. The firefighters cordoned off the area and prepared to remove the hive. Because the hive had formed on both sides of the fence, firefighters were unable to put it into a bag. Instead, Rhodes vacuumed the hive. "The vacuum creates a tornadolike effect that will kill the bees because they are so fragile," said Rhodes. As a precaution, firefighters were standing by with a hose of soapy water to spray on the bees if the situation got out of control. Bob and Ruby Aranda, who live across the street from where the hive was found, said, "We found a hive a few weeks ago in our yard, but no one would help." Someone had told them to spray soapy water on the bees, so they waited until dark, when all the bees were in the hive. They then soaked the hive with the soapy water mixture, and the bees died, the couple said. "We get calls about bees all the time, and it's only getting worse," Rhodes said. "Right now, 95 percent of the bees in Arizona are Africanized." Both Chief Rhodes and Graham County Undersheriff Dave Boyd said to call 911 immediately in the event of an attack. "Do not attempt to remove a hive yourself," Rhodes said. "Call a professional pest control service if you find a hive." Earlier this week, Safford firefighters were called to Lafe Nelson Elementary School and the helipad near Mt. Graham Regional Medical Center in response to swarming bees. Bee prepared As Africanized bee colonies increase in an area, the likelihood of human and animal encounters with them also increases. Wear light-colored clothing. Bees tend to attack dark clothing and hair. Bees are sensitive to odors - pleasant and unpleasant. The smell of newly cut grass has been shown to disturb honeybees. Avoid wearing floral or citrus aftershaves or perfume. Check houses and yards at least once a month to see if there are any signs of bees taking up residence. If swarms or colonies are found, leave them be and keep family members and pets away. Find a pest control company or a local beekeeper to solve the problem. To help prevent honeybees from building a colony, fill all cracks and crevices in walls with steel wool and caulk and remove piles of refuse. Bees target the head, and nearly all those who suffer serious stinging incidents with Africanized bees are overcome by stings to the head and face. The best method of escaping a bee attack is to cover the head and run for shelter. If nothing else is available, pull a shirt up over the face. The stings sustained on the chest and abdomen are far less serious than those to the facial area. Try to find shelter as soon as possible. Take refuge in a house, tent or a car with the windows and doors closed. Do not jump into the water. Bees will wait for their victims to come up for air. Remove stingers as soon as possible to lessen the amount of venom entering the body. Scrape stingers off the skin with a blunt instrument or plastic card. Do not remove bee stingers with fingers or tweezers - this only forces toxins into the victim's body. (Venis Hollinshead, Eastern Arizona Couier, 3/6/06.)
APACHE JUNCTION, AZ --- Apache Junction officials remind residents to ensure their property is bee-proof and to take proper precautions if they spot a swarm. "Although 'killer bees' have been in the country for some time, it is important to remember certain precautions need to be taken if you come upon a swarm," said Pat Brenner, city spokesman. He said residents can detract bees from their property by keeping it clean and free of debris, or cracks and holes in a structure where they can establish a colony. Mr. Brenner suggests: 1. Eliminating shelter
for Africanized honey bees Robert Duffin, owner of Atomic Pest Control at 3660 E. University Drive, No. 1A, east Mesa, explained home owners should also inspect barbecues as well as cracks and crevices in overhangs. "It's important to get those things sealed. If you have an old nest, it's real important to seal that off. They leave a lot of pheromones and the pheromones are what causes the new swarms to come to that area," Mr. Duffin said. Atomic Pest Control, which services the entire Valley with its eight trucks, serviced at least 70 calls per day last year during the season. Mr. Duffin explained the season runs from the first week of March through the summer. "Springtime, the first week of March is when everything kicks off. But for us, it's a year-round thing. It's basically a daily service here in the Valley because of the business we have. We're really known for it," Mr. Duffin said. "But really March, April, May, June and July are very, very strong months. April and May are the absolute top month of the year. October is a very important month as well. It's real cyclical. It's always like that. It just spikes those months. It's out of control," he added. Mr. Duffin's company uses chemical and non-chemical methods to treat bee problems. "We use different fumigants and different residual pesticides that have a longterm effect. We try to flush them out of the walls with a sort of self-defense spray. We get a good flush on them and treat that area typically with pesticides," Mr. Duffin said. Mr. Brenner said golfers, hikers, pedestrians and others should be aware of their surroundings. If attacked by a colony, folks are urged to stay calm, run away as quickly as possible, pull their shirts over their heads to keep bees away from eyes and head, and run until they reach shelter. "Do not jump in a pool of water as the bees will wait for you to emerge," Mr. Brenner said. He also recommended not swatting at bees and using a credit card or fingernail to scrape away stingers in skin. "Pulling it out will just allow more venom to excrete," he added. Those who see a bee attack in progress should call 9-1-1. The Apache Junction Fire District responds to all bee complaints, said Fire Marshal Dave Montgomery. "When we get there, we try to assess whether or not the bees are being aggressive to man or beast. If it's evident they're being aggressive, we use a class A firefighting foam which seems to be a good product. The bees don't like it and they usually don't survive," Fire Marshal Montgomery said. "If they aren't
being aggressive, or we don't think they're going to be aggressive,
we will recommend they get a bee keeper or call their own exterminator
to take care of the hives," he added. (Christina Fuoco, Independent
Newspapers, newszap.com, 3/6/06.)
WASHINGTON, DC ---- In 2005, Africanized honey bees showed up for the first time in Louisiana, Arkansas and Florida. An updated map showing the spread of Africanized honey bees by county and state has been posted on the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) website at www.ars.usda.gov/ahbmap/. The arrival in Florida was not contiguous with the bees' spread from the Southwest. It was most likely a result of human-assisted transport, by which trucks, ships, railroad cars or other types of transportation inadvertently bring Africanized honey bees into new areas. Usually, human-assisted transport finds are not considered part of Africanized honey bees' spread. But because they have been found in 14 counties, the state of Florida now considers Africanized honey bees to be established there. The ARS Carl Hayden Bee Research Center in Tucson, Ariz., is responsible for official identifications of Africanized honey bees, especially when the bees are found in new states. Additional information about ARS research on Africanized honey bees can be accessed at gears.tucson.ars.ag.gov/. Among ARS' recent research accomplishments related to the bees is new guidance for beekeepers on the best time to requeen hives to reverse Africanization of honey bee colonies. Queens of known genetics, from reputable breeders, should be introduced into hives in the fall to give them the best chance of being accepted by the bee colony. ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific research agency. (Kim Kaplan, AXcess News, 3/6/06.)
OILDALE, CA --- The unluckiest day of Dustin Taylor's young life quickly turned into the luckiest. A swarm of aggressive bees attacked the 12-year-old in Oildale Tuesday afternoon, stinging him more than 60 times and landing him in the hospital. But thanks to a nearby car accident, Taylor didn't have to test his allergy against the stings. Law enforcement officers and paramedics were little more than a block away from the thrashing boy, and treated him immediately. His mother and grandmother credit them for saving Taylor's life. A day later, except for some red marks on his body, he was a typical, healthy boy: bored with interviews and asking his mom if he could jump on their trampoline. Taylor is allergic to bee stings. He's managed to avoid them since he was a toddler, but on Tuesday, he mistook a bee for a fly and swatted at it, unleashing the wrath of the hive. Taylor's mother, Tammie Couch, , had warned Dustin to stay away from bees ever since she was told he was allergic. When her son was 2 and playing in the backyard at their Arkansas home, he was stung 44 times by yellow jackets. On Tuesday, Taylor was walking home after checking out the car accident that drew the ambulance. As he passed a large dead tree branch that housed a beehive on 200 Woodrow St., the bees attacked. "He was an ambulance chaser," his mother said, "and he ended up in the ambulance." "It felt crazy," Taylor said. The bees stung him above the waist, even his lower eyelid, and then died in swarms. "I'm just thankful," said Jeanni Pope, Taylor's grandmother, who was taking care of him while his mother was at work. "The paramedics were right on the spot. He was just in a horrible state before they started giving him meds." With dead bees falling to the floor at Bakersfield Memorial Hospital, it took three nurses 40 minutes to pull 52 stingers out of Taylor's body; his grandmother and mother said they counted "in excess of 60" marks in all. The attack is characteristic of Africanized honey bees, a genetic strain of bees that migrated to California from South America. Africanized bees are almost identical to bees used by farmers to pollinate crops, but they're much more assertive when threatened. "The (Africanized) bees aren't really aggressive, they're more defensive," said Joe Traynor, who owns a local bee pollination service for almond growers. "(They go on the attack) if you get close to their home and rattle their cage, so to speak." The county will try to confirm through lab tests which strain of bees attacked Taylor, according to Jack Marks, deputy agricultural commissioner. While on the scene at Tuesday's car accident, California Highway Patrol Captain Brian Smith saw Taylor thrashing against the swarm. "As we drove down there I saw people screaming. Somebody yelled something about bee stings," he said. Smith put the boy in his patrol car and delivered him to paramedics, who pumped Taylor with anti-inflammatory drugs and painkillers. They took him to Bakersfield Memorial Hospital, which released him Tuesday night. The ambulance wasn't needed for the car accident Taylor had gone to look at. After Tuesday's bee incident, the Kern County Fire Department contacted beekeepers to eradicate the hive, said spokesman Capt. Doug Johnston. Africanized honey bees are also known as "killer bees," but experts dismiss this label as overly dramatic. Like other honey bees, Africanized honey bees can only sting once. When they do, these bees release pheromones calling others to action. Mark Sproat's allergy to stings led him to delve into the world of bees. He's an inspector with the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District and a local amateur bee expert -- known among safety-engineer colleagues as "the bug man." Africanized honey bees, when riled, will give chase for miles, he said. If you jump into a swimming pool, they'll wait for you to come up for air, he said. Experts agree that when Africanized honey bees are attacking, you should run away and find shelter -- a car, a house or anyplace else that might protect you. Africanized honey bee attacks are infrequent in Kern, Marks said. He recalled an attack in Lake Isabella and another out in the desert in the past decade, but none in Bakersfield, he said. Eliminating aggressive bees from the landscape is impossible, Marks said. "It's something we have to live with, just like black widows or snakes or whatever," he said. (Sarah Ruby and David Burger, The Bakersfield Californian, 3/2/06.)
MIAMI, FL --- A neighborhood in South Florida is asking for help after a swarm of more than 2 million bees was found at a nearby vacant house, according to a Local 6 News report. An elderly man who lived inside the South Miami home died last year. And since his death, the house has deteriorated and become overrun with bees. Neighbor Kim Perretta said every time her family leaves their home in the morning, they're greeted by a swarm of bees. Perretta said her son is allergic to insect stings, and is concerned about his safety. "When we would get up in the morning and they would all leave the hive, it would be like a curtain -- a curtain of bees," Perretta said. South Miami Acting City Manager Yvonne Soler-McKinley said city officials are currently trying to figure out how to resolve the problem. The beekeeper was expected to go to the abandoned home Tuesday, according to the report. (WKMG-TV 6 Orlando, 2/28/06.)
APACHE JUNCTION, AZ --- A swarm of bees attacked and killed a dog Tuesday afternoon in Apache Junction, officials said. The attack occurred about 5 p.m. in the 200 block of West 18th Avenue, Apache Junction Fire District Battalion Chief Scott Slingluff said. "The occupants of the house are staying inside," Slingluff said. He added firefighters are working to capture the swarm of bees. (Senta Scarborough, The Arizona Republic, 2/7/06.)
PERRY, GA --- Georgia scientists studying the migration of the Africanized honey bee, the so-called “killer bee,” say there’s no real way to predict exactly when the aggressive insects will spread north from Florida into the state, but an official with the Georgia Department of Agriculture said late last week that he wouldn’t be surprised to see killer bees in Georgia within the next two years. “Right now they seem to be moving south,” said Barry Smith, an agricultural manager with the Georgia Department of Agriculture. “But I tend to believe they’ll be hear sooner rather than later.” Researchers, scientists and government officials met in Perry Friday for the first in a series of public meetings throughout the state to talk about the killer bee threat. “Most of us will never be affected by this,” said Professor Keith Delaplane, an entomologist with the University of Georgia. “But the point is to be prepared.” The Africanized honey bee was first detected in the United States near Hidalgo, Texas, in 1990. The bees moved west throughout the 1990s, colonizing throughout the Southwest, Southern California and parts of Nevada. But the aggressive species has begun to turn east. Since 2004, the Africanized honey bee has been found in parts of Arkansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma. Smith said that the bees were first detected in the deep-water ports of Florida in 2002, and have since spread throughout the state, detected in several northern Florida counties in 2004 and 2005, according to Smith. According to Delaplane, Africanized bee attacks have led to more than a dozen deaths in the United States. Bee behavior Known for their aggression and fierce, unwavering defense of their colonies, the killer bee poses a unique challenge for both public officials working to prepare the public, and local police and firefighters who will have to deal with any killer bee attacks. “The Africanized honey bee’s sting is no more venomous than the sting from a normal bee,” Delaplane said. “There’s nothing that makes its sting more potent. It’s the number of stings that’s really the problem.” Delaplane said that the Africanized bee will often attack in great numbers if their nests are disturbed. “They will virtually empty their colonies into the air,” Delaplane said. Africanized bees will often build their nests in unexpected places, like the gaps between walls in a home or sometimes in holes in the ground. “You will see a lot more open nests with the Africanized honey bee,” Delaplane said. “Something as small as a soup can will hide a colony. Sometimes they’ll nest in old tires.” According to Delaplane, the species is also unpredictable. Some colonies of Africanized honey bees are tame, while some European honey bee colonies show aggressive tendencies. Delaplane said this is most likely due to interbreeding. “If there’s two things to take from this, first off, run,” he said. “Then, try to get inside.” History on the move Honey bees are not indigenous, brought to the Americas by European colonists in the 17th century. Although the European honey bee was able to spread and thrive throughout North America, bees did not adapt to the tropical and subtropical climates of South America. In 1956, researchers imported bees from Africa into Brazil to breed a honey bee that could thrive in tropical climates, but the Africanized bee soon began displacing European colonies. According to the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Service, the killer bee spread northward at a rate of 200 to 300 miles per year, eventually establishing colonies in every Latin American country except Chile. While European honey bees can adapt to colder climates, the Africanized bee cannot adapt as well, and colonies often migrate in response to food shortages. Smith said researchers have been monitoring the southern counties of Georgia since the Africanized honey bee was detected in North Florida. For six months, the state has been using special traps to collect bees along Georgia’s southern counties in an effort to test for Africanized bees. “We have not found any killer bees in Georgia yet,” Smith said. “But there is a good chance we’ll see a migration in to Georgia.” Facing problems Although state officials and Georgia scientists continue to monitor the threat, they will face two major challenges. Smith said the state is compiling a list of pest control companies who are outfitted and willing to exterminate Africanized colonies, but admitted there are few companies in Georgia who are ready to exterminate these aggressive bees. “We’re still facing the question of who’s willing to deal with this,” Smith said. Delaplane, however, said he sees a silver lining. “It’s something of a niche market that could be explored,” Delaplane said. “We’re hoping more companies will.” Delaplane said several companies in Florida have emerged willing to exterminate Africanized hives, but the same process is expected to take time in Georgia. Another major factor is cost. Bill Owens, a Monroe County firefighter and former president of the Georgia Beekeepers Association, said that local governments may have to equip their departments with special equipment and suits to deal with Africanized hives on the attack. The suits alone are priced at $150 each. Owens said the standard fire suit is only a mere distraction for many Africanized bees, who are willing to crawl into the gaps of the suit to sting at firefighters. “The average person can run faster than a bee can fly, but people just stop and swat,” Delaplane said. “Just run.” Smith said his office plans to complete their list of pest companies willing to deal with killer bees in the coming months, posting that information online and with county extension offices. “Don’t try to do anything yourself,” Smith said. “If you have a good idea you have these bees, start with your phone book and call as many pest control companies as you can. “If you can’t find a company, call your local county extension office.” Houston County’s Cooperative Extension office is located inside the Houston County Government Building on Main Street in Perry. To reach the office, call (478) 987-2028. (Mike George, Houston Home Journal, 2/1/06.)
PALM BEACH, FL --- As if hurricanes, roaches, sea lice and insurance bills weren't bad enough, Floridians can add a new menace to their list of worries. Killer bees are here. And they're going to change your life. After decades of hype and cheesy disaster movies, Africanized honeybees have established a foothold in Florida, bringing a hair-trigger temper that makes them a threat to farmworkers, landscapers, meter readers, firefighters and basically everyone who ventures outdoors. In St. Lucie County, thousands of bees nesting below ground near water meters swarmed onto unlucky utility workers late last year, though not fatally. Separate attacks killed two dogs near Miami and Sarasota, along with a horse near LaBelle west of Lake Okeechobee. Africanized bee colonies have turned up in ports throughout the state, including Fort Pierce and the Port of Palm Beach, and have been suspected at tourist attractions such as Busch Gardens and Downtown Disney. Nobody knows how to stop them. So Floridians will just have to adapt just as they've learned to nail plywood before hurricanes and scan lawns for fire ant mounds. That means residents should "bee-proof" their homes, sealing any openings that could allow the insects to turn attics and walls into killer-bee condos, experts say. People also should look out before starting lawn mowers, whose noise can provoke the bees, or opening potential nesting sites such as sheds and barbecue grills. Those are already realities from Texas to California, where the bees showed up in the 1990s after a decades-long march from Brazil to Mexico. California firefighters receive training in rescuing bee victims, while Arizona educators have drawn up bee lesson plans for children as young as kindergarten age. (One tip for handling a bee attack: "RUN! RUN! RUN!) But experts say the bees are just one more potential hazard in a state teeming with them. They say people are more likely to be struck by lightning than killed by bees. "We live in a state that has fire ants that actually kill people," said Jerry Hayes, assistant chief of apiary inspection for the Florida Agriculture Department, which is including bee brochures in its display at the South Florida Fair. "We have scorpions and spiders and boa constrictors and all those scary things." David Barnes, a bee technician for the department, said he already has had to placate panicked callers, including a landscaper's wife. "I told her he has more to worry about about yellow jackets." So far, the Africanized bees haven't killed anyone in Florida, the department says. They have killed roughly 1,000 people in the Americas, including at least 14 in the United States, since the bees' ancestors escaped from a Brazilian lab in 1957. Unlike Hollywood's fictional killer bees, the real-life ones don't roam the countryside looking for people to kill. They're slightly smaller and no more venomous than the docile European strains prized by beekeepers. But what the Africanized bees lack in size, they make up with a severe lack of anger management. All honeybees defend their hives, but the Africanized bees erupt against disturbances that European bees might shrug off - a noisy leaf-blower or nosy dog, for example. And they attack in much greater numbers. "People end up with 300, 400, a thousand stings," said Bob van der Herchen, who runs a bee removal service in Englewood, south of Sarasota. Five hundred stings might be enough to kill a child, federal experts say. Hayes said the deaths that have occurred "have been horrific," noting that the bees' favorite stinging targets include the nostrils and the mouth. "It's a very gruesome way to die." Once angered, the Africanized bees stay agitated for as long as 24 hours, posing a continuing hazard, Barnes said. In September, a swarm of Africanized bees trapped three residents in their Miami Gardens home and attacked several firefighters, three dogs and two television journalists after someone tried to move the log where the bees were living, The Miami Herald reported at the time. One dog died. Near LaBelle in Hendry County, Imogene Risner said her niece was washing a horse near their home last year when a cloud of bees attacked, besieging the animal's head and face. The horse died that night after suffering about 2,000 stings, she said. Hayes' department then performed DNA tests on hives that Risner's husband, an amateur beekeeper, was tending nearby. She said the state workers killed all 40 hives with soapy water after several of those tests came back positive for Africanized genes a result she disputes. "Bees are temperamental," Risner said, adding that after the execution, "We had a mess all summer. The honey was run out and the flies was coming from all directions." Other incidents are less clear-cut. Last month, Palm Beach County sheriff's officials said bees attacked nine deputies, three burglary suspects and a dog during a chase through woods west of Lantana, putting three deputies in the hospital. But nobody saved any samples, so the state couldn't determine whether they were Africanized bees, European bees or even yellow jackets. Bee removal expert Ronnie Sharpton, owner of Palm City-based Alpine Farms, said not all mass bee attacks involve Africanized bees. "The only time we run into aggressive bees is when someone else has been aggravating bees by throwing rocks or spraying them," he said. He urged people to leave all bees alone and let professionals handle them. Hayes' agency continues to try to slow the Africanized bees' spread by maintaining hundreds of baited traps at ports and other key locations. But now that the bees are here, education will be a major strategy. "We can be safe," Barnes said. "Maybe this is one more thing to pay attention to." (Robert P. King, The Palm Beach Post, 1/28/06.)
OKEECHOBEE COUNTY, FL --- In preparation for the onslaught of Africanized Honey Bees to the area, formerly dubbed “killer bees,” the University of Florida/IFAS Extension is hosting a workshop Friday, Jan. 27, from 9 a.m. until noon at the St. Lucie County Extension office’s Hurricane House. The workshop is for pest control professionals, law enforcement officers and emergency first responders. Dan Culbert, county extension agent in Okeechobee, said they are looking for some local people who would be willing to be first responders in case the very aggressive Africanized Honey Bees are on someone’s property and the nest needs to be destroyed. “Our goal is to get a few knowledgeable people to be first responders for these bees,” he said. The bee first responders will need to get the training and some equipment — a bee hat and gloves that are necessary to ward off the bee stings, which come in droves with the Africanized bee. The equipment will be at St. Lucie County. None of the Africanized bees have found their way to Okeechobee as of yet, according to Mr. Culbert. “I have no confirmation that we have them here,” he said. Yet, it could be just a matter of time. Jerry Hayes, assistant chief of the bureau of apiary inspection for the Florida Department of Agriculture, said he had a report of the Africanized bees in Moore Haven a couple of months ago. “They are in South Florida, from Miami Gardens to Fort Myers. And I expect more this year,” he said. Mr. Culbert said the aggressiveness of these bees is similar to fire ants. They both release a pheromone that tells the rest of the group to attack to defend their territory. The bees will chase people and, if under attack, people are cautioned to run away in a straight line and seek shelter in a car or building and keep their faces covered. People are told to not try to hide in water, because the bees can remain in an area for 30 minutes or longer. Mr. Hayes said that the Africanized bees probably will not attack someone who is just standing on their patio, but they become aggressive and defensive when defending their home. He said they would attack those who are camping or hiking in the woods, and they may build their nests in a barbeque grill, mailbox, upside down empty flower pot or other outside container. He cautioned people to be aware of their environment. The Africanized Honey Bee is about the same size as the gentle European bee — only about 1 to 2 percent smaller, said Mr. Hayes. And, its coloring can be different. The African Honey Bee was bred with the European Honey Bee to create a honey bee that would be better suited to tropical conditions. It began its journey to the U.S. from Brazil in 1957 when 26 African queen bees escaped from the breeding program. The bees made their way through South and Central America, Mexico and the Western U.S. According to Mr. Hayes, the feral population of the gentler European bee has been moving away and some diseases have eliminated their population. “A void is usually filled, and the Africanized bees are filling it,” he said. While the Africanized bees pollinate, they do not do this feat as well as the European bee, and because of their aggressive nature they are hard to manage and cause problems for grove workers. “They do collect a lot of pollen and nectar, but rather than storing it for the beekeeper, they use it to create more bees,” Mr. Hayes said. Although people should be concerned about the Africanized bees, Mr. Hayes put it into perspective. “We live in a state that has fire ants, alligators, snakes and a lot of things to look out for, and this just adds one more insect. People will probably look over their shoulder a lot, but they can mitigate it as much as possible by just being aware,” he said. (Audrey Blackwell, Okeechobee News, 1/25/06.)
LAKE HAMILTON, AR - The threat of Africanized honeybees, or killer bees, is expected to spread northward in Arkansas from the southwestern corner of the state so in effort to battle the insects the state has started training emergency workers. The bees' presence was confirmed in Miller and Lafayette counties last April, but the state Plant Board considers nine more counties along the southern and western border to be at risk as well. Yesterday, nearly 50 emergency workers from ten Arkansas jurisdictions gathered at Lake Hamilton to learn more about the emerging threat. According to the Plant Board the bees are much more aggressive than the common European honeybee. Derrell Reynolds, who was stung by one of the bees and is deputy coordinator of the Miller County Emergency Management Agency, said workers have found that unscented Dawn dishwashing detergent has been their most effective spray to knock out a bee swarm. (AP, 1/16/06.)
ST. LUCIE COUNTY, FL --- As if hurricanes, roaches, sea lice and insurance bills weren't bad enough, Floridians can add a new menace to their list of worries. After decades of hype and cheesy disaster movies, Africanized honeybees have established a foothold in Florida, bringing a hair-trigger temper that makes them a threat to farmworkers, landscapers, meter readers, firefighters and basically everyone who ventures outdoors. In St. Lucie County, thousands of bees nesting below ground near water meters swarmed onto unlucky utility workers late last year, though not fatally. Separate attacks killed two dogs near Miami and Sarasota, along with a horse near LaBelle west of Lake Okeechobee. Africanized bee colonies have turned up in ports throughout the state, including Fort Pierce and the Port of Palm Beach, and have been suspected at tourist attractions such as Busch Gardens and Downtown Disney. Nobody knows how to stop them. So Floridians will just have to adapt - just as they've learned to nail plywood before hurricanes and scan lawns for fire ant mounds. That means residents should "bee-proof" their homes, sealing any openings that could allow the insects to turn attics and walls into killer-bee condos, experts say. People also should look out before starting lawn mowers, whose noise can provoke the bees, or opening potential nesting sites such as sheds and barbecue grills. Lightning a greater hazard Those are already realities from Texas to California, where the bees showed up in the 1990s after a decades-long march from Brazil to Mexico. California firefighters receive training in rescuing bee victims, while Arizona educators have drawn up bee lesson plans for children as young as kindergarten age. (One tip for handling a bee attack: "RUN! RUN! RUN!") But experts say the bees are just one more potential hazard in a state teeming with them. They say people are more likely to be struck by lightning than killed by bees. "We live in a state that has fire ants that actually kill people," said Jerry Hayes, assistant chief of apiary inspection for the Florida Agriculture Department, which is including bee brochures in its display at the South Florida Fair. "We have scorpions and spiders and boa constrictors and all those scary things." David Barnes, a bee technician for the department, said he already has had to placate panicked callers, including a landscaper's wife. "I told her he has more to worry about about yellow jackets." So far, the Africanized bees haven't killed anyone in Florida, the department says. They have killed roughly 1,000 people in the Americas, including at least 14 in the United States, since the bees' ancestors escaped from a Brazilian lab in 1957. Unlike Hollywood's fictional killer bees, the real-life ones don't roam the countryside looking for people to kill. They're slightly smaller and no more venomous than the docile European strains prized by beekeepers. But what the Africanized
bees lack in size, they make up with a severe lack of anger management. "People end up with 300, 400, a thousand stings," said Bob van der Herchen, who runs a bee removal service in Englewood, south of Sarasota. Five hundred stings might be enough to kill a child, federal experts say. Hayes said the deaths that have occurred "have been horrific," noting that the bees' favorite stinging targets include the nostrils and the mouth. "It's a very gruesome way to die." Once angered, the Africanized bees stay agitated for as long as 24 hours, posing a continuing hazard, Barnes said. In September, a swarm of Africanized bees trapped three residents in their Miami Gardens home and attacked several firefighters, three dogs and two television journalists after someone tried to move the log where the bees were living, The Miami Herald reported at the time. One dog died. Near LaBelle in Hendry County, Imogene Risner said her niece was washing a horse near their home last year when a cloud of bees attacked, besieging the animal's head and face. The horse died that night after suffering about 2,000 stings, she said. Hayes' department then performed DNA tests on hives that Risner's husband, an amateur beekeeper, was tending nearby. She said the state workers killed all 40 hives with soapy water after several of those tests came back positive for Africanized genes - a result she disputes. Education will be key "Bees are temperamental," Risner said, adding that after the execution, "We had a mess all summer. The honey was run out and the flies was coming from all directions." Other incidents are less clear-cut. Last month, Palm Beach County sheriff's officials said bees attacked nine deputies, three burglary suspects and a dog during a chase through woods west of Lantana, putting three deputies in the hospital. But nobody saved any samples, so the state couldn't determine whether they were Africanized bees, European bees or even yellow jackets. Bee removal expert Ronnie Sharpton, owner of Palm City-based Alpine Farms, said not all mass bee attacks involve Africanized bees. "The only time we run into aggressive bees is when someone else has been aggravating bees by throwing rocks or spraying them," he said. He urged people to leave all bees alone and let professionals handle them. Hayes' agency continues to try to slow the Africanized bees' spread by maintaining hundreds of baited traps at ports and other key locations. But now that the bees are here, education will be a major strategy. "We can be
safe," Barnes said. "Maybe this is one more thing to pay attention
to." (Robert P. King, Staff Writer , Palm Beach Post, 1/14/06.)
Last summer, Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services officials announced the Africanized honeybee population was booming in Florida because of new pathways into the state via ships and a lack of effective eradication techniques. "Africanized honeybees have no more venom," said St. Lucie County Horticulture Agent Anita Neal. "They're just a more aggressive bee." Glimpses of the Africanized bee communities were first reported to St. Lucie County environmental officials in November. In two separate cases, employees of Port St. Lucie Utilities reportedly opened a water meter where the bees nested. Also, a Port St. Lucie man was stung more than 50 times and hospitalized after encountering the bees, Neal said. The Africanized bees nest in areas uncommon to the wild native or managed honeybee. They look for small openings in barbecue grills, abandoned containers and vehicles, and meter boxes to build and protect their nests, she said. The Africanized bees are not going to swarm St. Lucie County, Neal said, but they will attack and pursue targets over long distances up to a quarter-mile if they feel their nest is being compromised. While the sting is no worse than a standard honeybee, the Africanized bee will react in higher numbers to their perceived attacker, Neal said. Florida is proposing several outreach programs to educate the public on how to respond to possible Africanized bee attacks. The St. Lucie County extension office is training first responders at its Hurricane House on Jan. 27 from 9 a.m. to noon for law enforcement, school officials and others. Participants also will learn how to correctly outfit someone exposed to the bees. The department is also working with Florida's Institute of Food and Agriculture Services on response and control training for first responders and pest control operators and developing "Ag in the Classroom" curriculum for students. "We can't just destroy the bees altogether. We'd have no food sources or flowers," Neal said. The Africanized honeybee swarms as much as 16 times a year, while its European counterpart swarms once or twice a year. In case of an attack, emergency officials suggest people run from the bees by going inside a building or car. Report swarms of defensive bees to pest companies, 911 or 888-397-1517, the state's toll-free help line. "I don't perceive this as getting out of hand. We just need to learn to deal with them like the Southwest states have," Neal said. (Casse Carling, Fort Pierce Tribune, 1/9/06.)
ST. LUCIE COUNTY, FL ---- There was a moment that September afternoon when Dale Hunt felt like he was in an Alfred Hitchcock movie. "All of a sudden, there was this black cloud coming out of the ground," recalled Hunt, a supervisor in the Port St. Lucie utility department. Hunt backed away from the water meter he had just approached on Southwest Kenyoun Street and darted to his truck about 12 feet away, slipping inside as the buzzing mass of hundreds of bees smothered his windshield and side windows. "I couldn't see a thing," Hunt said. "I turned on the wipers and put it in drive." As the wind ripped the black specks off the windshield, Hunt suspected he wasn't dealing with a swarm of typical honeybees. He probably was right. Hunt's attackers were likely Africanized honeybees, also known as killer bees, the fearful subject of many a made-for-television movie. As of July 2004, Africanized bees had killed 14 people in the United States, according to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Last month, tests done on samples of bees taken from another site, a water meter on Dalton Avenue, confirmed that the invasive insects have made their way to St. Lucie County. So far, Martin County has had no reports of the bees, which have been spotted elsewhere in Florida for several years. But state officials warned last year that the population of Africanized honeybees will only grow. In the 1950s, scientists brought honeybees from Africa to Brazil with the idea of crossbreeding with local bees to create bees that would produce more honey, according to the Smithsonian Institution. In 1957, 26 African queen bees, along with swarms of European worker bees, escaped from the breeding site in Sao Paulo. The escaped insects and their descendants formed a hybrid that is more aggressive than either the African or European bees. The hybrid has spread gradually beyond South America. In 1990, Africanized honeybees reached southern Texas; by 1995, they had made their way to California. St. Lucie County agricultural extension agents say the bees' arrival locally is no cause for hysteria. "It's like red ants: If you're out in the field, out in the yard, you just have to be alert to that," said Ed Skvarch, an extension agent who specializes in commercial horticulture. "With proper knowledge, people can avoid attacks." Africanized bees look like other honeybees, but they are more vehement than their cousins in defending their hives, which they like to build in buckets, cans, empty boxes, holes in fences and water meters in the ground. The slightest bit of movement near their hive can trigger an attack. "What makes them probably a little bit more dangerous is that they release an alarm pheromone after they sting, which signals other bees to come and attack," Skvarch said. "Where European bees might come in and sting one time, Africanized bees could probably sting 10 times." On Sept. 12, one of Hunt's employees at the Port St. Lucie utility department learned that the hard way when he was checking the water meter on Southwest Kenyoun Street. He tried to escape the bees by jumping into a pool. But that's a bad idea with Africanized bees. "They'll just hover over you, waiting for you to get out," Skvarch said. And they did. The meter reader was stung at least 50 times before a fellow employee was able to pick him up and drive him to the hospital. He recovered. "Thank God he wasn't allergic, or he'd probably be dead," Hunt said. It was later that afternoon that Hunt went to the site of the attack and was chased into his truck. Early the next morning, when the weather was cooler and the bees were more sedate, he returned and killed them with a chemical spray. A few months later, another Port St. Lucie utility employee discovered a hive of Africanized bees on Dalton Avenue. There have been no more reports of the bees, which prefer tropical weather to the current cold snap. Still, extension agents are stepping up educational efforts so that utility workers, police, paramedics and pest control companies will know how to respond if attacked. The St. Lucie County extension office expects to have public workshops in the next few months. Skvarch, the extension agent, recommends that residents carefully examine work areas before starting yard chores. Listen for buzzing, which can signal a swarm is nearby. If you're attacked by Africanized bees, run for a nearby car or building, Skvarch said. If there's no shelter nearby, run in a zigzag motion or through tall bushes; it may confuse them. Africanized bees can fly 12 to 15 mph, so it's possible to outrun them. But the bees may not give up their chase for a quarter-mile. Stings to the face and head are more dangerous than those to the arms or legs, so cover yourself with a towel, a blanket or a jacket. If you are stung, remove the stinger as soon as possible because the poison can keep flowing for a couple of minutes, said Anita Neal, a St. Lucie County extension agent. (Rachel Simmonsen, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer, 1/7/06.)
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SWARM OF BEES ATTACKS TWO TEENS, FIREFIGHTERS AND DOG
BEES ATTACK THREE PEOPLE, TWO DOGS IN BACK YARD