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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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

"I was afraid they were going to kill me":Modesto Ca: Bees attack 70 year old man walking his dog

MODESTO -- African honey bees attacked a 70-year-old man walking his dogs near Modesto in the first known documented "killer bees" assault north of Madera.
Agricultural officials believe African bees have not colonized north of Tulare County and suspect that the July 5 attack, though savage, was isolated.

"It felt like my head was on fire," Jack McBride said Saturday, a day after learning that a state laboratory confirmed the identity of the aggressive insects that stung him more than 50 times.

"They zeroed in on my head," McBride said. "I couldn't see anything but bees. I was spitting them out, then gritted my teeth so they wouldn't get in. I was afraid they were going to kill me."

McBride was stung inside his nose and on his eyelids, face, neck, armpits and torso.

He fell, lost his glasses, tried rolling and finally ran, half-blinded, about one-eighth of a mile to take shelter in a house -- bees chasing him the whole way.

European honey bees, crucial for pollinating many California crops, "just don't overdo it like that," said Eric Mussen, a University of California at Davis apiculturist, or bee expert.

Mussen and Gary Caseri, Stanislaus County's agriculture commissioner, said African bees likely swarmed, or escaped a hive to repopulate elsewhere, after being trucked in to pollinate almonds around Modesto.

It's unlikely that African bees moved that far north on their own without confrontations reported in other counties such as Fresno and Merced, Mussen said.

African bees are similar to their European cousins in size, venom and honey production, but are much more defensive of territory, sending many more attackers and chasing victims up to a quarter-mile.
Ambulance workers administered antihistamine and an IV before rushing McBride to the hospital, where he was given morphine for pain.

"I was bitten so many times. It felt like the worst sunburn you've ever had," he said.
He felt better in about 24 hours and eventually retrieved his glasses.

One of his dogs was stung in the eye and another vomited, so he took both to a veterinarian. They seemed to recover more quickly, McBride said.

The property owner hired an exterminator who destroyed four nests, using a crane to reach some in trees.

See the rest of the story here

Entomologist's Comment:

This event is becoming ever more common... A resident, out doing his or her thing, becomes a victim of a Killer Bee Attack. 

Sadly, attacks by Africanized Honey Bees, (AHB or Killer Bees), will only become more commonplace, as these invasive insects continue to exploit available areas. Here in Florida, our official AHB slogan is " Bee Aware: Look, Listen, Run!, which at first sounds silly, but in fact is quite helpful. Take a look at our Dept. of Agriculture's, Apiary Section AHB Poster

Bee Aware: Look, Listen, Run poster

Richard Martyniak, M.Sc., Entomologist
The Buzzkillers, LLC
ALLFloridaBeeRemoval.com

Tuscon AZ: Friends remember man killed in bee attack

Friends remember man killed in bee attack

Posted: Jul 14, 2011 2:11 AM EDT Updated: Jul 14, 2011 2:11 AM EDT

By Sonu Wasu, reporter

Friends expressed shock and sadness after hearing about the tragic death of 46-year old Oscar Navarro, a man attacked by a big swarm of killer bees last Friday.
Neighbors who shared the property with Navarro described him as a very friendly man, who would always bring candy for their kids, and greet them with a kind word.


Lewis Urling was not only good friends with Navarro, he was also his landlord.  Urling said Navarro was a former pilot, who was on disability.  He was diabetic.
Urling said with his health and condition, there was no way Navarro would have been able to out-run or fight off the hundreds of bees, that attacked him.
 Neighbors were horrified to hear about the death.
"I just burst out crying.  You would expect that.  He was the sweetest man you would ever meet.  I can't imagine his pain.  Nobody should die like that,"  said Navarro's neighbor Dulce Pena.
Tucson city crews found a bee-hive buried in a Mesquite tree in a wash, just a few hundred yards away from the boys and girls club, at Joaquin Murietta Park, on N. Silverbell Road.
The city called the Northwest Exterminating company to get rid of the hive.
Crews put on bee suits and protective masks, and attacked the hive with rakes, and nozzles filled with a soap solution.  They also left behind sticky traps to catch the bees that were still alive.
By Wednesday evening, crews said they had killed off most of the Africanized honey bees, including the Queen of the colony.
Dena Berg, the manager of Northwest Exterminators said Africanized Honey Bees were the most prevalent species in Tucson.  They typically came out during the monsoon, when plants started to flower.  They were also considered the most aggressive and deadly bees out there.
This was the first bee death in Pima County this year.
Friends say Navarro, who did not have a car, was walking by the park towards Blockbuster video to return some movies, when the bees attacked him.
Witnesses said he was covered with bees from head to toe, and was stung hundreds of times.
Pima County officials said an autopsy showed that Navarro died from "mass envenomation."

See the rest of the story here

Entomologist's Comment:

Sadly, attacks by Africanized Honey Bees, (AHB or Killer Bees), will only become more commonplace, as these invasive insects continue to exploit available areas. Here in Florida, our official AHB slogan is " Bee Aware: Look, Listen, Run!, which at first sounds silly, but in fact is quite helpful. Take a look at our Dept. of Agriculture's, Apiary Section AHB Poster

Bee Aware: Look, Listen, Run poster

Richard Martyniak, M.Sc., Entomologist
The Buzzkillers, LLC
ALLFloridaBeeRemoval.com