Bee attack sends man to hospital

Jace Radke

Thursday, Feb. 10, 2000 | 10:53 a.m.

A large swarm of aggressive bees that fit the profile of Africanized honeybees sent one man to the hospital with an attack Wednesday near an elementary school in a northwest Las Vegas neighborhood.

The bees had built a nest on a wood fence between two houses in the 1200 block of Saylor Way, near Culley Elementary School off Jones Boulevard.

It is not known if the victim disturbed the hive, but the swarm attacked the 79-year-old man, stinging him several times, Las Vegas Fire Department officials said.

Following the attack, which took place around noon, the man was taken to University Medical Center. He later checked himself out.

George Botta, a member of the Nevada State Board of Agriculture, said that once specimens from the swarm are recovered the bees will be tested to determine if they are Africanized or "killer bees."

In October Africanized bees stung a 12-year-old girl several times and killed a Rottweiler in a northwest Las Vegas neighborhood.

Africanized honeybees developed after African bees escaped from an experiment in Brazil in which scientists were trying to increase honey production. As they migrated north, the bees mated with docile European honeybees, creating the new breed.

The Africanized bees are nearly identical in size and shape to their European ancestors but are much more aggressive and tend to swarm, creating the possibility of hundreds of stings in a matter of minutes.

The bees reached Texas by 1990, and the first reported contact in Southern Nevada came in 1998 in Laughlin.

Jace Radke is a reporter for the Las Vegas Sun. He can be reached at (702) 259-2318 or by e-mail at jace@lasvegassun.com