Africanized bees attack woman

Tuesday, March 28, 2000 | 10:34 a.m.

A 77-year-old Las Vegas woman suffered an almost lethal attack by Africanized honeybees as she walked near their hive at Maryland Parkway and U.S. 95 Monday.

Las Vegas Fire Department crews responding to an emergency call before noon found the woman sitting on a curb swatting at a swarm of the bees, popularly called "killer bees," fire department spokesman Tim Szymanski said.

Firefighters fought the bees off with a fire hose. They estimated she suffered 500 stings. The woman was taken to University Medical Center where she was listed in critical condition this morning.

Between 30,000 and 40,000 bees built a hive about six to eight months ago in a hollow tree two houses away from where the woman was walking, Szymanski said.

"They are Africanized," said Gina Stoneking, Africanized bee program director for the Nevada Division of Agriculture, after she examined some of the dead bees Monday afternoon.

The Africanized bees are nearly identical in size and shape to their European ancestors. But the Africanized bees are much more aggressive and tend to swarm.

Stoneking said Africanized bees foraging for honey won't attack, so Southern Nevada homeowners don't have to pull out every flowering plant in their yards.

But swatting them can provoke an attack if a nest is nearby, she said.

If a beehive is discovered, it is best to have it removed professionally, she said.

Rodney D. Mehring Jr., owner of BeeMaster, answered the call after Monday's attack and eradicated the colony nesting in a tree.

"I hope this lady survives," Mehring said. He said 300 stings contain enough venom to kill a 50-pound child.

In previous attacks in the Las Vegas Valley, a 79-year-old Las Vegas man was stung when he disturbed a nest on a wood fence between two houses in the northwest valley in February. The man was trying to remove the swarm himself. He survived the attack.

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

A Long Beach, Calif., man died in Los Angeles County in September, two weeks after he disturbed a backyard hive with his lawn mower. A woman died and 12 other women and children were attacked by the bees in August in Mexico.

Africanized honeybees developed after the bees escaped from a Brazilian laboratory in 1956. The first reported swarm in Southern Nevada came in 1998 in Laughlin, followed by another swarm at the County Government Center near downtown Las Vegas.