Elderly woman in critical condition after suffering over 1000 Yellow Jacket wasp stings
LAKELAND - A Lakeland woman is in critical condition after surviving a horrific attack by hundreds of yellow jacket wasps.
Juanita Foshee, 81, wife was watering the lawn Saturday evening when she came across a yellow jacket nest in the ground, according to her husband Clyde Foshee.
Clyde said the attack started in their yard, but didn't stop until they got Juanita to the hospital.
"One of the nurses in the ER was stung by a yellow jacket that was in her hair," Foshee said.
Clyde said his wife's condition is guarded.
"Her condition is critical. The doctors have never seen anything like this before. They're amazed that she's still alive," Foshee said.
Clyde and Juanita Foshee have been married for 55 years. Imagine his shock when he got the call that she had been stung by more than 1,000 yellow jackets.
"Buddy, I couldn't believe my eyes," said Foshee. "There wasn't a place on her body that wasn't covered with yellow jackets."
Yellow jackets are known be aggressive, and will sting repeatedly if provoked. Experts say it would make sense that Juanita may have accidentally disturbed a nest in the ground.
"The yellow jackets actually prefer to be in the ground, they actually excavate the soil," said Jonathan Simkins of Insect IQ.
Juanita is at Lakeland Regional Medical Center.
"I can't imagine what kind of pain she went through. The doctor said she had over a thousand bites," Foshee said.
In addition to her external injuries, Clyde says his wife is suffering kidney damage. Right now, they aren't sure if she's going to make it.
Experts say a yellow jacket nest can house up to 5,000 yellow jackets. To avoid them, watch out for the warning signs.
"The one thing you want to look for is a flight pattern. You're gonna see yellow jackets flying in and out of an area -- that's a problem," Simkins said.
The Foshee family is hoping this mother of three survives her bout with the pesky insects.
"She's 81 years old and she's tough. She's gotta be tough to even survive this," said Foshee.
Entomologist's comment:
Our very own entomologist, Jonathan Simkins is intereviewed, explaining the very dangerous nature of these defensive insects. This year alone, dozens of Florida residents have suffered severe injury or death from stinging insect stings.
ALBANY, GA (WALB) – A Dougherty County man was stung to death in a bee attack Monday.
The 73 year old man was on a bulldozer on some property on Williamsburg Road, not far from U.S. 19 in Southeastern Dougherty County. The dozer bumped an old wooden porch post where honey bees had built a giant hive and they swarmed him. Tens of thousands of them attacked Curtis Davis.
Coroner Emma Quimbley says Curtis Davis was stung hundreds of times, too many to count. She told me it was so many stings there would have been little chance of anyone surviving this type of attack.
Several handfuls of dead bees doesn't begin to describe how many tens of thousands swarmed this field where 73 year old Curtis Davis lost his life.
"The bees were probably just three to four inches surrounding the bull dozer dead," said Battalion Chief Marty Leverett, Albany Fire Department.
More than an hour after Davis was attacked, bees still swarmed around the cab of the bulldozer.
"He got overcome by bees and he got stung. Actually he was unconscious when we arrived," said Leverett.
Firefighters battled the bees so paramedics could get to him.
"They had to use a CO2 extinguisher to brush the bees away from him and they used their turn out gear which gave them a pretty good bit of protection to go up and actually get him," said Leverett.
Still many got stung, including Beekeeper Dale Richter who found the honey bee hive inside an old porch rail being moved by the bull dozer.
"Probably between 20,000 and 30,000 honey bees there and with the tractor running and the fire fighters out here with all this equipment, it just kept them highly irritated," said Dale Richter, a beekeeper
"It was kind of scary they were all over your clothes," said Leverett.
While it's unusual for bees to swarm this late in the year, it's always better to check the debris before moving.
"People need to be aware when they're out building or destroying anything like this or pushing down equipment they need to really check for honey bees and yellow jackets," said Richter.
Some firefighters and several members of Davis' family were stung. Everyone has been treated for those stings.
Both the coroner and beekeeper met at the site late this afternoon. While honey bees only sting you once, they say hundreds of stings can be fatal.
PHOENIX -- A swarm of bees attacked and killed two pet dogs Thursday at a home near 24th Street and Indian School Road in Phoenix.
Robert Tomkins said that by the time a neighbor called to tell him there was a swarm of bees by his home, he could only get two of his dogs indoors. He said a couple hundred bees got inside the house, stinging him about 50 times. He said his wife and young son were also stung.Two dogs could not be saved in time -- Lucky, a Dalmatian and Baby, a Labrador-pit bull mix. They were were stung hundreds of times and died from their injuries."They’re like family. It’s hard. It’s like losing a loved one. It hurts. We still have one at the vet -- don’t know if he’s going to make it or not," said Tomkins. “We pulled 35 stingers out of my dog’s ears -- that’s just his ears."Tomkins said he wants to caution others to be aware and alert -- the bee attack happened faster than he could ever have imagined.
September 7, 2010
San Marcos Daily Record
Anita Miller
When Lamar LaCaze named the road that leads to his house after his wife, he figured living on Lois Lane made a good case that he was Superman.
After he was nearly killed by a swarm of bees last week, his wife's buying in.
"Anyone who can survive that many bee stings is Superman," Lois LaCaze said Saturday from her husband's bedside at Seton Hospital in Kyle.
Lamar LaCaze, 65, longtime San Marcos barber, was attacked by bees while mowing Aug. 31. Emergency room workers pulled more than 1,200 stingers out of his body and whole bees from his ears, nose, mouth and throat.
The attack came just after he started mowing on the property off FM 150 between IH-35 and Hwy. 21.
"I made one loop and started up a little hill. It wouldn't go, so I took a right. The bees — like that — just flashed up in my face," he said.
He got off his tractor and fell. Intending to get to a water trough and get his head under, he made it "about 25 yards" before being unable to crawl over a fence. "I couldn't stand up. They just keep buzzing me."
LaCaze had his cell phone. He managed to open his eyes enough to call his wife "but it went to voice mail, she was working." Then he tried his son Trey. "It rang six times and I hung up."
Sometime around then Trey got home and had grown concerned about his father's whereabouts. Then his cell phone rang again. "I'm in bees," his father told him.
Trey rushed to the scene and initially searched a different area. When he did find his father he was slumped over the fence. "He was not moving. When I went to pull him out he looked up. His head was black, solid bees. It looked like a bee hive on his head."
Trey threw buckets of water on his father and a neighbor, Rudy Cisneros, came with a fire extinguisher. Lamar's granddaughter called 911 and when Kyle firefighters arrived, Trey noted they "suited up" before spraying the attackers and his father with foam.
Five days after the suicide bombing — bees die once they inject their stinger — Lamar LaCaze was a frightening sight. The swelling had subsided, the family said, but the area around his eyes was still blackened, one ear looked as if its lobe had exploded, and black bloody spots dotted his face, head, neck and arms.
Saturday was the first day he could really open his eyes, and he coughed intermittently.
Luckily, he was wearing heavy blue jeans and stingers didn't penetrate the starched fabric.
Rushed to Seton by EMS, he was a center of attention.
"It was like you see on TV," his wife recalls, with medical professionals completely surrounding her husband. When they gave her the jeans they'd cut off of him, "they said be careful getting things out of his pockets — they're full of stingers."
The family was on Saturday anticipating his release from the hospital within days. After that, there will be outpatient followups until his body has completely processed all the bee venom. "It ruined my kidneys sort of. My heart enzymes are bad," he said.
The family figures he encountered the bees around 2 p.m., and that about an hour and a half elapsed before Trey arrived on the scene. "I didn't see one bee. I seen a thousand," LaCaze recalls. "They were relentless."
Each of the family members experienced their own nightmare that day. Lamar LaCaze flatly didn't think he was going to make it. His wife — after a mad dash from San Marcos — thought this was the time she would lose him. His son, on first glance, thought he was already dead.
"There are so many things this venom in your body can cause. We're just pleased he's with us — just happy he's alive," Lois said.
The hive that had streamed out of a hollow tree is still on their property. They want them destroyed, but haven't yet been able to arrange that.
Lois LaCaze was employed at the Hays County Extension Office when the "killer bee" invasion occurred in the 1990s and back then when interest was high, "we had people signed up to go get hives."
No such list exists now. "I'm sure there's somebody out there, and we're going to keep looking," she said.
To confirm whether the swarm was actually Africanized honeybees, or hybrids with European honey bees, or a mix, would mean sending samples to A&M. "You've got to collect them and send them in and that's a dangerous situation," Lois LaCaze said. Still, she's like to try. "The neighbors want to know," she said.
"They're not worth anything, they don't even make much honey," Lamar LaCaze said of the aggressive bees. "I don't want any one of them to get away. I don't want them to go nowhere else."
He also won't be climbing back on that tractor any time soon. "I don't want to go outside this hospital without one of those bee suits," he said with a chuckle and cough. "They have no mercy," he said of the bees.
Bee attacks typically occur when a hive is swarming, which Africanized bees do much more frequently than European honey bees. Attacks can be precipitated by loud noise and vibrations like those made by LaCaze's tractor, A&M says, noting that attacks have been triggered by those activities "up to 100 feet or more" from the hive and "pedestrian activity up to 50 feet " away.
Bees attack the victim's head because they are attracted to animal breath, according to A&M. Other attractants include "hair, dark colors, new mown grass, citrus-scented candles and perfume."
"I've heard about these bees, you know, but I never thought about any of them just attacking like this," Lamar LaCaze says. "I didn't even see them coming. All of a sudden they were just there."
LaCaze has owned and operated Lamar's Barber shop for 38 years. He's been barbering in San Marcos for 46. The shop remains open during his recovery.
Two men were stung at least 30 times each at their far Southwest Side home by swarming bees Saturday, city fire officials said.
A firefighter who showed up to help also was stung, a Fire Department commander said.
Neither the two residents of the home in the 6100 block of Frio Valley nor fire Capt. Brian Soberalski were seriously injured, although the two residents were taken to Southwest General Hospital for treatment, said acting Battalion Chief Jarrett Vocke.
He said neither man appeared badly hurt, although both were stung “at least” 30 times, likely more.
It was not clear if the bees were Africanized killer bees.
Vocke said the men were doing yardwork when they came close to shrubs in the backyard.
A large swarm of bees attacked the men, who retreated to the home and summoned emergency responders.
“The bees were swarming pretty heavily when first responders arrived,” Vocke said. “But they quickly calmed down, so we were not required to spray” them with water to stop them from attacking, he said.
Vocke said the swarm, while large, was not a threat to neighbors.
But they were a threat for Soberalski, whose engine company was one of the first to arrive.
Vocke said at least one bee crawled over the firefighter's collar and under his fire hat, stinging him on the head.
He was not treated, Vocke said.
“He wasn't fazed by it at all,” Vocke said. “He continued on the job, 'cause he grew up on a ranch, and he's used to it.”
Vocke said city vector control officers would be investigating today to make sure “that the bees are no longer a problem,” or to dispose of them if they are.
GEORGETOWN, Guyana — Hundreds of Africanized "killer" bees have stung a rice farmer to death in the South American nation of Guyana. It is the second such death of a Guyanese farmer in two weeks.
Police identify the latest victim as 45-year-old Jerome O'Brian Scott. A statement says Scott and two other men were swarmed Thursday as they headed home from a rice farm in Liverpool Village.
Bees attacked and killed a farmer yesterday in an area aback of Liverpool Village on the Corentyne as he was returning home from tending to his rice field.
Dead is 45-year-old Jerome O’Brian Scott also known as ‘Bunch’ of Liverpool Village.
According to his son, Michael Scott, he and his father left home in the morning to go “in the backdam to bail water from the rice field”, after heavy rainfall on Wednesday.
Jerome O'Brian Scott
After they had completed their work in the backdam, Michael Scott said, they saw a dragline which was clearing drains in the same area. As the operator was making his way out with the machine, he added, they decided to join him for a ride out.
After about fifteen minutes on the machine, he told Stabroek News, “honey bees attack we from nowhere. Me just knock the glass and the man stop and open and we start fuh run.” He said he held his father’s hand as they ran and together they plunged into a nearby trench. Most of the bees were swarming his father, Michael said, and he (Jerome) took another direction. He said when he realized this he called after his father, but he was nowhere in sight.
Then he heard “some groans” and saw his father who appeared to be experiencing some difficulty.
Michael said he told his father, “come in the corner hay” and took him out of the water, even though bees continue to swarm them. He said his father then told him, “son me can’t mek am, gwan [go on]“.
He tried to carry away some of the bees by going away, he said, and at the same time seek help. He found another farmer, ‘Nutman’, who was on a horse, and related the story to him. They both returned to where his father was but “when we meet back deh, he just lie down like he dead with he face inside a water”.
They went back to look for a tractor to transport him home. They found John Corlette, another rice farmer, who brought his father’s body out and took it to the station and then to the Port Mourant Hospital.
Jerome’s wife Pamela Scott, said that he would “go backdam and come home everyday, but me din know that he nah guh come home today,“ as she broke down in tears.
Keonjhar (Orissa), Sep 11 (PTI) Four children including a girl of a family were killed in bee attack in Orissa's Keonjhar district, police said today.
The incident took place at Sapakanta village under Bansapal block in tribal dominated Keonjhar district yesterday when the children (all below 8-years of age) were guarding their family corn field, they said. The wild bees stung the children when they were sitting on a wooden platform erected to guard the corn field.
While a four year-old boy died on the spot, two others succumbed to bee attack on their way to hospital. Another died while undergoing treatment at the district headquarter hospital, a health department official said.
