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KTLA, TV Channel 5 in Southern California, reports
A woman was critically injured after being stung "hundreds of times" by a swarm of bees in Lake Forest [South Orange County] Monday morning [July 16], and three others--including two firefighters--were also injured, officials said.
[...] "Units arrived on scene and they found her basically completely covered with bees from head to toe", Fire Authority Capt. Tony Bommarito told KTLA.
The swarm was so severe that firefighters didn't have time to put the special safety gear on that they would normally wear while responding to such incidents, according to Bommarito.
"They got out, they started felling the bees, they saw the patient down this cul-de-sac completely covered--her face was completely covered with bees", he said.
They grabbed [a carbon dioxide] extinguisher in an effort to remove the bulk of the bees off of the victim, then "basically dragged" her to a safe area about 200 yards away, according to the fire captain.
"She was basically non-responsive" to firefighter commands, although she could still move, Bommarito said.
The woman, described as being about 50 years old, was stung "hundreds of times", according to a tweet from the Fire Authority. She was taken to a hospital in critical condition.
The firefighters were stung "multiple times" and taken to a hospital in stable condition.
I have seen other stories about humans in SoCal being swarmed by Africanized "killer" bees. (I am assuming that that is what these were.) It makes me wonder how far north these bugs will range before winters get too cold for them--and how much climate change will exacerbate the situation.
Anybody north of L.A.'s latitude had similar reports where you are?
(Score: 4, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 17 2018, @06:18PM
Disclaimer: I'm not an agricultural entomologist, but my father is.
You're wrong.
There are many different varieties of bees with different habits. The typical stock for honeybees is taken from rather docile bees that make decent honey and can be readily controlled with smoke. Good ol' Apis Mellifera Mellifera.
African bees (Apis Mellifera Scutellata) are a different subspecies. You do get entirely different bee species (such as Apis Florea) but in the USA, it mostly comes down to A.M.M.
Now as it turns out, different subspecies of honeybee have quite different temperaments and habits, and tolerate different environments. A.M.S. is quite good at dealing with hot, relatively arid environments full of major bee predators such as the honey badger. It is angry, it is full of bee rage, and is generally good to avoid although it makes great honey. Interbreeding A.M.M. and A.M.S. was not intended to make A.M.M. more wild and savage like its primitive forebears, but to make it more suited to Brazil.
However, there's a flipside. A.M.S. and its hybrids are not good at overwintering, or dealing with cold, damp weather at all. This is why you won't find them a whole bunch around, say, Seattle, or Minneapolis. For reasons that are presently poorly understood, the temperament seems to be linked to the wintering ability.
But no, this has little to nothing to do with how much of an overbred domesticated little wuss A.M.M. might be.
Interestingly, A.M.S. has a problem with Apis Mellifera Capensis, the cape honey bee (so named for its native grounds around the Cape of Good Hope and environs) which has the curious ability, in some workers, to produce diploid eggs. In other words, some of the hive sisters can have female offspring, unlike your typical honeybee (or most eusocial creatures - there are some exceptions among primitive ants, to my knowledge). However, they will hybridise with A.M.S. and this can result in the weird situation where the workers will murder the queen and start behaving like minor queens themselves. With the wrong active worker balance, this can kill the hive.