Staff Reporter: 14 August 2014
One wonders how this happens and one manages to survive.
An angry swarm of honey bees stung a United States council worker at least 1000 times when he disturbed their hive. 1000 times!!!! This is according to the Telegraph. The flying insects, believed to be Africanised honey bees attacked the unfortunate man who was mowing grass in Wichita Falls, North Texas. The victim, who was not identified, fortunately managed to survive the ordeal.
Two co-workers rushed to help their colleague and were also stung. Another man managed to flee to a nearby tennis centre when the angry bees charged at him.
A beekeeper, John Bouchard believes the vibrations from the lawn mower put the bees on the offensive. He told News Channel 6 the bee hive was the size of a basketball, the biggest he had seen this year. Mr Bouchard added the hive could have been home to more than 50,000 bees.
John Reese, the Wichita Fire Department Chief said his team received a call at around 10am. ‘We always assume just regular honey bees, but in a case like this, when they are aggressive, then we assume that are Africanized honey bees,’ he explained.
According to the Wikipedia, Africanized honey bees known colloquially as "killer bees", are a hybrid of the Western honey bee
species, produced originally by cross-breeding of the African honey bee with various European honey bees such as the Italian bee and the Iberian bee. The African honey bee was first introduced to Brazil in the 1950s in an effort to increase honey production, but in 1957, 26 swarms accidentally escaped quarantine and since then have spread throughout South and Central America and arriving in North America in 1985.
Africanized honey bees, will aggressively attack any threats to their nest. Although their venom is no more toxic than their European counterparts, they will attack any perceived threats consistently and in large numbers.