Posted on 03/07/2014 12:44:57 PM PST by nickcarraway
A 71-year-old woman and three firefighters Friday were recovering at a Riverside County hospital after they were attacked by thousands of killer bees.
The incident happened around 4:40 p.m. Thursday in a gated community on Lucerne Drive in Palm Desert, CalFire said.
The woman suffered 1,000 stings and looked like she was wearing a “suit of bees” when firefighters found her, Battalion Chief Mark Williams said.
She was quickly put into an ambulance and taken to a local hospital with major injuries. The woman went into shock, but is expected to recover.
Five firefighters suffered stings to their faces and necks during the rescue. Two were treated on scene, while three others were transported to Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage with minor injuries, according to CalFire.
The bees, which are attracted to vibrations, had swarmed inside a phone company’s metal box containing fiber optic equipment. A private company was later called to remove two hives said there were “approximately 60,000-70,000 confirmed Africanized honey bees,” officials said.
Africanized honey bees, commonly known as killer bees, arrived in the Coachella Valley in the 1990s, the Desert Sun reported.
Bush’s fault no doubt!
The bees, which are attracted to vibrations, had swarmed inside a phone company’s metal box containing fiber optic equipment. A private company was later called to remove two hives said there were “approximately 60,000-70,000 confirmed Africanized honey bees,” officials said.
The bees are not attracted to vibrations and they did not swarm into the phone companies metal box.
Global warming!
Man, killer bees are bad business.
I live where we have rattlesnakes and cottonmouths and black widows and brown recluses etc., etc............but nothing scares me like the killer bee. That is one hellish experience and you normally don’t make it out.
Africanized. Nasty little buggers. Some beekeepers actually keep them where they’re already endemic, but it’s definitely a “full bee suit and smoker at the ready” affair.
The firemen did good themselves walking into that, but that's what they do.
Oh you can survive an attack. Just depends on the number of times you get hit. They’re no more venomous than the European honeybee.
Just a lot more ornery.
How do you identify killer bees? Do you have to look for the little teardrop tattoos?
1000 is quite a few hits. 10 stings per lb of bodyweight is considered a lethal dose, but some have survived more. Still, not something you want to test. A sure way to ruin your afternoon.
No, nothing so difficult as that. They wear orange suits.
“How do you identify killer bees? Do you have to look for the little teardrop tattoos?”
They give each other gang signs.
Actually you can’t identify them with certainty except through genetic testing. They look the same as European. The Africanized bees are a hybrid. A real good indication, though, is that they’re chasing you and stinging the s*** out of you.
-——The bees are not attracted to vibrations and they did not swarm into the phone companies metal box-—
You are correct.
At some point in the past, the colony did swarm and those charged with the responsibility made a decision to set up in the wonderful metal box. It is an ideal hive. (perhaps little to hot in summer, but they are African and like the heat)
The decision is not made by the queen. She follows the worker committee that selected and agreed on the new location
Until we learn to communicate with Bees, we can forget about communicating with ET
ouch!
“You are correct.”
How many ladies you taking care of?
. . “ Inspite of the recovering economy, and freezing temperatures, the disenfranchised bees reacted the only way they know how . . “
zz zzz zzz
True, no worse individually than any honey bee. But it’s the crazy “defend the hive at all costs, banzai!” attitude that they have that makes them dangerous. Get swarmed by 10,000 of them. No place to go. I don’t want to know what that feels like.
I was watching a program on them recently and common wisdom was that an attacking swarm of them would pursue you 1/2 mile to a mile after initiating the attack. Two guys (in suits) intentionally disturbed a hive of them and those bees chased those guys in excess of 5 miles while attacking them. Imagine that, 5 miles worth of hundreds or thousands of bees attacking you.
Unreal.
Doncha' remember?
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