Killer bee attack sends four to the hospital
A killer bee attack sent four people to the hospital in La Mesa, a suburb east of San Diego, officials said Wednesday.
A 79-year-old woman was stung 30 to 50 times by the insects, also called Africanized bees. Her 82-year-old husband was stung 20 times.
A 36-year-old woman and her 5-year-old son also were stung. All four victims were taken by the La Mesa Fire Department to Sharp Grossmont Hospital. Two other people also were stung.
A Fire Department spokesman said the bees from one hive had migrated to a new location, led by a queen bee. En route to the new location, the bees swarmed their victims.
A fire extinguisher and soapy water were used to "neutralize" the hives in preparation for removal of the hives, their honey and the bees by a professional beekeeper.
--Tony Perry
EDITOR'S PICKS:
I feel sorry for these folks. Bees scare the **** out of me.
Posted by: Jim | March 25, 2009 at 08:32 PM
These are the real enemy. These and the leaders of that financial unit at AIG. The two should meet.
Posted by: Roger | March 25, 2009 at 08:55 PM
On the bright side, everyone has been worried about bees dying out. These bees are apparently alive and well (except the poor drones who went on the attack)
Posted by: Scott | March 25, 2009 at 09:59 PM
"A fire extinguisher and soapy water were used to "neutralize" the hives in preparation for removal of the hives, their honey and the bees by a professional beekeeper."
How about a few cans of Raid? SO California!
Matt
NYC
Posted by: Matt F. | March 25, 2009 at 10:49 PM
Wow!
This afternoon, my husband drove through a thick swarm of bees out in Yucca Valley. Fortunately, he had his windows shut.
I wonder if they were Africanized bees?
We've never seen anything like that before.
Posted by: dada | March 26, 2009 at 02:07 AM
OMG :s I hate bees. I've never been stung and never want to be stung. Poor people. Being stung 30 - 50 times is dreadful. Hope they will be ok.
Posted by: effects69 | March 26, 2009 at 02:59 AM
Insecticide may not be the best tool, since you want to make the bees sedate immediately rather than stir them up even more (even if they die later). And you'd have to use an awful lot of insecticide to kill that many bees. These bees don't have a worse sting than normal bees, but they are much more aggressive. Remember, it was someone trying to breed a better type of bee, to produce more money, that first mixed the Africanized bees with the regular bees (in Brazil).
Posted by: Steve | March 26, 2009 at 07:00 AM
Time to learn to love the Killer Bees. Pretty soon, they may be the only bees we have left, and it will be live with them, or worldwide starvation. Ain't life grand?
Posted by: Howie Felch | March 26, 2009 at 07:24 AM
I and my wife are Brazilians and saw a bunch a killer bees (about some 15 of them) flying around our pool near South Coast Plaza, CA for the first time. As big as beetles and making a LOT of buzzing noise each one, we preferred to warn others with kids and left immediately.
I warned the complex's maanger, but I do not think she believed us. I once saw from distance these kind of bees attacking chikens for some reason in a Brazilian farm (perhaps the chikens had tried to eat them) - and I took them just a minute to kill the 5 of them all. After doing this they simply left.
Posted by: Luiz Cruz | April 19, 2009 at 04:53 PM
By the way, do NOT try to spray plain coackroach RAID on such large 1-inch bees since it takes 5-7 minutes for them to die, and before this it WILL sting you for SURE. Remember that once a bee stings someone it dies afterwards, so attacking you is really a suicide mission of life-AND-death for them.
Posted by: Luiz Cruz | April 19, 2009 at 05:01 PM