Swarm of 800,000 Bees Kills Arizona Man
Swarm of 800,000 Bees Kills Arizona Man – Five people were attacked and one killed by a swarm of some 800,000 bees Wednesday. The attack has Africanized bees in the spotlight again.
A massive swarm of Africanized bees killed a man doing landscaping work in southern Arizona, Wednesday, and sent other to the hospital. The attack happened in Douglas, Arizona, when landscapers accidentally disturbed a colony in the attic of a home with noise from the lawnmower. the colony was home to an estimated 800,000 bees.
Firefighters used foam and pesticides to fight the swarm before they were able to remove the hive, which, an exterminator said could have been there for as many as ten years.
According to the authorities, a 90-year-old man lived in the home, and was possibly unaware of the hive, which was the size of a 55-gallon drum. the homeowner was not stung.
Africanized bees are particularly well-established in the southwest, having been first detected in Texas’ border with Mexico back in 1990 … so much so, that the massive attack which almost sounds unbelievable to many, didn’t come as a total shock to the Douglas fire department.
Although the numbers of the bee colonies are pretty varied, on average, a colony of Western honey bees will number around 50,000 to 60,000. So a colony of 800,000 is significant, to say the least. Still, the Africanized bees, as the US Department of agriculture (USDA) notes, have been melodramatically labeled “killer bees” by Hollywood hype because of their aggressive nature.
Africanized bees are more prone to swarming and defending their colonies more aggressively than other western honey bees, which are more common in most of North America. They’re actually, a crossbreed of western honey bee and its African counterpart, originally bred in Brazil in the 1950s by a scientist who was looking to produce a hardier, more productive species of bee. Some bees escaped the apiary where they were being bred and have since established themselves across the south and central America, with their arrival in the US in the early 1990s.
Another man who was taken to the hospital after the attack in Arizona was reportedly in a critical condition on Wednesday night.
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