Beekeeper had no idea killer bees were on her property

3 people stung: Amateur Beekeeper had no idea killer bees were on her property

PEORIA, Ariz. -- Peoria Homeowner Lesley Brewer has a lot of explaining to do.
There were hundreds of dead bees leftover from Tuesday.
“Bees were everywhere and coming after me.  I didn't know what to do. I took my stuff off and took off,” said Latroy Campbell, 17.
On Tuesday, Campbell ran from a swarm of bees coming from the 7200 block of West Yucca Street.
The teen was stung multiple times so was a firefighter.
Brewer said admits four years ago she kept Italian honey bees but never Africanized killer bees. She went on to say that didn't know the bees were on her property.
A Peoria code enforcement officer stopped by Brewer’s home Wednesday.
Brewer told the officer things got ugly when her husband went to move their old bee-keeping box.
She told 3TV she wasn’t raising the bees for honey.
The story is a little different from what Peoria Deputy Fire Chief Rick Picard presented.
“This was an amateur bee keeper and he had hives all over his backyard,” he said.
A firefighter climbed over Brewer’s back wall and got quite the surprise.
“[He was] coming over the wall and disturbed the bees and, of course, they swarmed all over him. He was almost covered with all the bees when he came out,” Picard said,
The deputy fire chief wants amateur bee keepers to buzz off of residential neighborhoods.
“In close neighborhoods, just like there is all around the Valley, it’s against code to do it. Because people walking down the road will be attacked,” Picard said.

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Man, 70, dead after setting fire to wasp nest in house

CEBU CITY—A 70-year-old man in a mountain village here died in a fire that he started to stop wasps from building a nest in his house, authorities said.
Alfonso Lopez, who suffered severe burns, was trying to drive away wasps that were building a nest in his house in Barangay Babag which were made of light materials.
According to Timoteo Gabisay, village councilor, Lopez was alone at home when he lit a pile of leaves hoping that the smoke from the burning leaves would drive the wasps away.
The wasps had been building a nest on a bamboo wall of the house. The fire that Lopez started, however, grew and started to burn the wall, according to Gabisay.
Lopez tried to put the fire out as neighbors shouted at him urging him to flee his burning house.
The 70-year-old man, however, didn’t immediately flee as he tried to carry food with him.
Lopez was found lying on his stomach with severe burns on the back just outside his burned house.
The village was so remote that firemen failed to reach the burning house hours after the fire started.
Gabisay said he believed Lopez, who was known to have difficulty walking as a result of old age, tripped on his way out of his burning house

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Mesa, AZ: "All we could hear was screaming"..Beekeeper stings self, family, neighbors

MESA, AZ - Four people were attacked by bees in Mesa Sunday afternoon


Officials say, a bee keeper had been called to a vacant house near Stapley and McKellips to get rid of the bees.

The bee keeper's wife and kids decided to go with him on the call.

The wife and kids were attacked while he was fighting the bees.

A neighbor heard screaming and came outside and hosed them down.

The bee keeper's wife was stung more than 70 times.

The kids, a boy and girl, were stung more than 40 times each.

Read more: http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/region_southeast_valley/mesa/mesa-fd-bees-attack-4-in-mesa#ixzz1mDoJdena

Peoria, AZ: 4 Children Hospitalized after Bee attack

5 Children Stung During Bee Attack

via: MyFoxPhoenix:

PEORIA - Fivechildren are recovering after being stung by a swarm of bees Thursday afternoon, near 91st Ave and Peoria.
They were chased by hundreds of bees and stung at least a dozen times -- but firefighters say it could've been much worse.
"It was a large swarm of bees that attacked the kids," says a Peoria firefighter. "They were stung around the head, face, arms, exposed areas mostly.
Firefighters say the kids were playing with an irrigation box when they were attacked. They ran a quarter mile down a parking lot and asked workers at Shower Doors & More for help.

African Killer Bees readily nest in water meters & irrigation boxes

"We heard the screaming, there was tons of screaming. We didn't know what was going on, then we started clueing in," says Kim Beardon. She called 911.
There were five kids stung, ranging in age from 5 to 14.
"They were trying to take off as much clothing as possible to get the bees out of their clothes and hair," says Beardon.
Four of the five kids were taken to the hospital as a precaution and should be released soon.
The owner of the complex will have to hire a bee removal company to kill the bees.
Firefighters say the lesson here is to never lift an irrigation box if you see bees flying around it.

See the rest of the article here: http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/dpp/health/children-stung-during-bee-attack-1-26-2012

Wasp attack victim died of heart attack :

New Zealand:

A man who died after being stung "hundreds" of times by swarming wasps on Saturday was killed by a heart attack brought on by the frenzied attack, a coroner has revealed.
Morris Robert Stretch, 62, was collecting firewood in a forest in the Marlborough Sounds with his nephew Craig Wilson, 49, when the pair disturbed a massive underground wasps' nest.
Mr Stretch, who had only just moved to the picturesque Kenepuru Sound area last month, told his nephew to run for it into the forest to escape the killer swarm.
The retired cleaner sprinted towards a nearby road where he was overcome by the "aggressive" swarm.
When his nephew came to find him moments later, Mr Stretch was dead on the road - with dozens of wasps still covering his face, neck, and body. Mr Wilson tried to resuscitate him with CPR and was helped by a passerby, but Mr Stretch passed away at the scene before emergency services arrived.

Yellow Jacket Wasp

Now, his family have destroyed the nest, and local police have issued a public warning on wasps' nests in the Nelson and Marlborough Sounds area, which is regarded as having some of the densest populations of wasps in the world.

Mr Stretch's body was returned to Kereru marae in his home region of Manawatu today (Monday) and will be laid to rest in a tangi on Wednesday.
His niece Darcia Mangakahiao travelled back from Kenepuru Sound today and paid tribute to "a neat bloke, a real family man."

She said the family, especially her brother Mr Wilson who was also stung in the attack and required hospital treatment, are stunned by the freak death.
"Everyone ... friends and family are absolutely devastated to lose him. And they are all devastated at exactly how he died,"
Ms Mangakahiao said her uncle had gone to live with his sister Mona Wilson and her husband Jim in Kenepuru to "have a change of lifestyle" and spend time with his southern family.

She told APNZ how her brother and uncle had ventured into the forest at the back of the family property on Saturday morning to cut firewood and go fishing.
"They were walking along and uncle Morris noticed he had stood on a wasps' nest and they became aggressive straight away," she said.
"Uncle Morris told my brother to make a run for it. He ran one way - towards the trees - and my uncle ran towards the road.
"When my brother went to find him, he came across him lying on the road, dead.
"When Craig opened his shirt to do CPR, he was still covered in wasps. They were all over his face, neck, and chest - everywhere."
Ms Mangakahiao revealed that it wasn't the "hundreds, if not more" stings estimated to have been inflicted on her uncle's body that killed him, but a massive heart attack.
"The coroner told us that the wasps caused him to have a heart attack and that was what killed him," she said.

"To have that number attack you ... you can hardly imagine what it must have been like.
"He was a neat bloke, a real family man. He loved all his family - nieces, nephews, and they all loved him to pieces more like a cousin than an uncle.
"He had become a christian and was a very staunch person. But he was also a very fun-loving, outgoing person. He kept the family together.

"My mum is very cut up. He was a great help to my mum and dad and they'll definitely miss him."
Ms Mangakahiao said Mr Stretch had worked as a cleaner in Palmerston North before retiring.

He is survived by his daughter Rangitaiki, 42, son Justin, 18, and two grandchildren.
Senior Constable Andrew Wilson of Havelock police said the horror attack happened at around 9am on Saturday.

He said Mr Stretch had suffered a "significant amount" of stings, which amounted to "hundreds, if not more."

The officer said: "Wasps are aggressive and can sting hundreds, if not thousands of times, per individual. So when you've got a significant number attacking your body, you can hardly imagine how horrible it must have been."

Read more of the story at: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10783779