US

Swarm of 60,000 Bees Shuts Down Calif. Street, Sends 4 to the Hospital

Swarm of Bees Attacks Santa Ana Man

With bees swarming, Bee Keeper Technician Kris Fricke runs back to his truck for equipment to remove a swarm of aggressive honey bees in Santa Ana, Calif. on Thursday, Sept. 15, 2011. (AP Photo/Orange County Register, Ken Steinhardt)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Thousands of angry bees swarmed a man in a wheelchair, sending him and three others who came to his aid to the hospital in the Southern California city of Santa Ana.

The attack also shut down a street and forced the evacuation of several businesses while beekeepers removed the hive, which was estimated to contain 60,000 bees.

The trouble started at a storage yard when a man in a wheelchair apparently disturbed the hive, causing the bees to bombard him, Santa Ana fire Capt. Steven Snyder said.

“He was attacked and stung over 60 times and had fallen out of the wheelchair and was yelling for help,” Snyder said.

The man’s cries attracted the attention of three bystanders who ran to his aid.

The bees were so aggressive that the three men had to retreat initially, but they dove back in and managed to pull the man to safety, Snyder said.

The men were stung dozens of times during the “very impressive” rescue, he said.

“They probably saved his life,” Snyder said.

All four men had difficulty breathing and suffered rashes, nausea and vomiting. They were taken to hospitals and at least two of the men were released Thursday night, Snyder said.

He didn’t know their conditions or if the man in the wheelchair was still hospitalized. No names were released, but Snyder estimated all four men were in their 40s.

Swarm of Bees Attacks Santa Ana Man

Bee Keeper Technicians Ryan Moore finishes up neutralizing a hive of aggressive honey bees in Santa Ana, Calif. on Thursday, Sept. 15, 2011. (AP Photo/Orange County Register, Ken Steinhardt)

Two firefighters who responded to the scene also were stung.

Snyder said DNA tests were planned to determine if the bees were Africanized because of their aggressive behavior.

The bee attack wasn’t the first to make headlines this week.

On Wednesday, Africanized bees swarmed several farm animals and killed a 1,000-pound hog at a farm in Bisbee, Ariz. An 800-pound pregnant sow also was stung so many times that it went into a coma and lost its litter:

In northern Arizona, a 49-year-old man remained hospitalized after authorities say he disturbed bees nesting under a cattle trough Sunday and was stung more than 1,000 times.

Comments (56)

1 2
  • SoCalConservative88
    Posted on September 16, 2011 at 1:10pm

    @thegreatcarnac: LMFAO hahahahaha

    Report Post » SoCalConservative88  
  • tylertxsteve
    Posted on September 16, 2011 at 1:09pm

    guess that fireman is making a bee line four his truck

    Report Post »  
  • inferno
    Posted on September 16, 2011 at 1:05pm

    Did the guy who counted the bees get stung ? Also, was his job created by Obama’s stimulus bill ?

    Report Post »  
  • thegreatcarnac
    Posted on September 16, 2011 at 12:57pm

    Africanized bees make less honey, attack and try to kill anything in range of their hive, are excited by loud colors and loud sounds/music, and are generally more of a menace than an asset. Also…if you kill off a hive and cut it open…you will discover tine basketballs scattered about inside. Kind of makes you realize America is africanized too.

    Report Post »  
    • Rowgue
      Posted on September 16, 2011 at 2:52pm

      Africanized bees actually produce honey far more efficiently than the european variety. They are in fact the preferred bee for most keepers in central and south america specifically due to higher productivity. Despite the many drawbacks of the africanized bee due to them retaining most of the undesireable traits of the african honey bee, they still use them because they simply produce more.

      Report Post »  
  • LB
    Posted on September 16, 2011 at 12:51pm

    We were attacked 2 weeks ago as my daughter and son in law were moving into a new home. We were touring the back yard where a playset was. Their dog was the 1st to be attacked and then they came after us. We (and the dog) were all stung as we ran to the house. Had a bee professional to the house said they were a type of wasp (looked like a regular bee to us) The hive was underground. I’m guessing their new neighbors thought we were really fun or crazy as we ran screaming through the yard peeling off any cloths we could as they were landing and stinging through our cloths. This was in Illinois. Maybe Obama is starting his army (of bees)

    Report Post » LB  
  • Gary Fishaholic
    Posted on September 16, 2011 at 12:41pm

    Look’s like some of them made it out of the Superdome!

    Report Post » Gary Fishaholic  
  • drago
    Posted on September 16, 2011 at 11:57am

    Even the bee’s dont like californians…..@Republicorp, bee flash mob…thats funny…

    Report Post »  
  • jrcess
    Posted on September 16, 2011 at 11:37am

    Like to meet the Bee counter, the guy is a genius.

    Report Post »  
  • wakeup1
    Posted on September 16, 2011 at 11:29am

    Now who counted 60k bees? Some more of that sweet stimulus money at work? One bee, two bee, three bee…wait wait was that 2 bee? Its hard they keep flying around…sob sob sob..OBAMA HELLLLP MEEEE !

    Report Post » wakeup1  
  • EqualJustice
    Posted on September 16, 2011 at 11:07am

    Our ever so clever government thought it was a great IDEA to mix docile honey bees with killer bees. BAD BAD results…

    Report Post » EqualJustice  
    • biblegeek119
      Posted on September 16, 2011 at 1:01pm

      Government?

      Report Post »  
    • Rowgue
      Posted on September 16, 2011 at 1:02pm

      No.

      First off nothing was crossbred with “killer bees”, africanized honey bees ARE what people commonly refer to as killer bees. Secondly our government had nothing to do with it. Some researchers in Brazil are the ones that decided to crossbreed the european honey bee with the african honey bee. They were trying to breed a bee that was more adaptive to their environment because the more fragile european bees don’t fare so well in tropical climates.

      Those hybrid bees were accidentally released. They have slowly spread over the entirety of south and central america and are now spreading into north america.

      Report Post »  
  • deebriggs
    Posted on September 16, 2011 at 9:54am

    It is a good thing to be educated about bee behavior. I was washing windows couple of years ago in September and I accidently disturbed a bees’ nest and got stung three times before I could retreat inside. The key is September. Bees are all aggressive in the fall of the year when they are swarming. Just a hint to keep you on alert in September.

    Report Post » deebriggs  
    • mocobeekeeper
      Posted on September 16, 2011 at 11:14am

      DEEBRIGGS, your information is not accurate. Bees usually swarm in the spring, not fall. When they swarm, they are usually leaving an overcrowded hive and looking for another place to live. A swarm is usually not aggressive. However, all bees are aggressive if they are threatened and their hives are disturbed.

      Sometimes people confuse bees with yellow jackets, which are a kind of wasp. Yellow jacket colonies reach their peak in the fall and die off during winter.

      Report Post »  
  • TX_45_ACP
    Posted on September 16, 2011 at 9:53am

    So that’s where they all went! ;)

    Report Post » TX_45_ACP  
  • dirtydog1776
    Posted on September 16, 2011 at 9:13am

    What was he doing annoying the bees for in the first place? Leave nature alone.

    Report Post » dirtydog1776  
    • ashestoashes
      Posted on September 16, 2011 at 9:50am

      Sometimes you walk or in this case he rode into the trouble. You usually don’t notice a hive. He probably had a motorized wheelchair. Say if you were pushing a lawn mower, and you get into their vicinity, they will swarm you. I saw a lady rescue a man once by donning a hat with a wedding veil.

      Report Post »  
    • TomFerrari
      Posted on September 16, 2011 at 10:36am

      Interesting idea – leave nature alone – kind of like genetically altering bees and creating africanized-bees?

      Report Post » TomFerrari  
  • Constructionist
    Posted on September 16, 2011 at 8:32am

    The problem with Africanized bees will continue to spread until we address flower subsidies.

    Report Post » Constructionist  
  • SamIamTwo
    Posted on September 16, 2011 at 8:26am

    African-American bees…sounds familiar, eh? LOL j/k

    Report Post » SamIamTwo  
  • Bryan-tribeofbeck
    Posted on September 16, 2011 at 8:14am

    Im waiting for Obama to blame this on Bush

    Report Post » Bryan-tribeofbeck  
    • SamIamTwo
      Posted on September 16, 2011 at 8:27am

      Nah, they were African-american bees, part of the plan for the rise up event supported by Obama. lol

      Report Post » SamIamTwo  
  • chasbronson
    Posted on September 16, 2011 at 8:10am

    What is it that causes such anger ,hate and violence from african descent? (Africanized),Where is the pc police,Oh, here they come now.Obama and his thugs need to be dealt with in this same manner,before more citizens are harmed.

    Report Post »  
  • jackbauer2012
    Posted on September 16, 2011 at 7:54am

    @The Blaze. I grade this story a “bee” for importance. And an “A” for it beeing interesting.

    Report Post »  
  • searching for the Truth
    Posted on September 16, 2011 at 7:50am

    Long ago the Lord used these little fellows to fight His wars.

    Report Post »  
  • travlman77
    Posted on September 16, 2011 at 7:48am

    How in the world would you “estimate” the number of bees?

    Count their legs and divide by six?

    Report Post » travlman77  
    • lakeside patriot
      Posted on September 16, 2011 at 9:12am

      The average colony is about 60,000 bees. They tend to keep their size around that number. One way to count them is by weight. When you buy bees from a apiary, they sell you bees by the pound. There is roughly 10,000 per pound. I have noticed that with most bee colonies that I have dealt with will swarm (split into two) if the hive gets over populated.

      Report Post » lakeside patriot  
  • grandmaof5
    Posted on September 16, 2011 at 7:48am

    We are in pest control in FL and are called to eradicate bees from time to time. Used to be you could call a bee keeper but with the African bee situation, now all bees have to be killed. To my knowledge we have only dealt with honey bees but further south they have had African bees. Hopefully everyone involved in this situation and in prior attacks will recover.

    Report Post »  
  • TxMadMac
    Posted on September 16, 2011 at 7:46am

    No good deed goes unpunished ! Prayers to the people harmed and hope for a quick recovery !

    Report Post »  
  • MidWestMom
    Posted on September 16, 2011 at 7:28am

    - sorry, hit Reply by accident…

    - The man’s cries attracted the attention of three bystanders who ran to his aid –
    Another case of Good Samaritan’s. Someone needed help and people stepped up.

    Report Post »  
  • SpankDaMonkey
    Posted on September 16, 2011 at 7:24am

    .
    Angry Bee’s? Must be jelous of the Angry Bird’s……………..

    Quick someone make an Angry Bee App………

    Report Post » SpankDaMonkey  
    • TomFerrari
      Posted on September 16, 2011 at 10:39am

      I don’t care WHO you are -
      THAT’S FUNNY right there !
      .

      Report Post » TomFerrari  
  • Texan_Shooter
    Posted on September 16, 2011 at 7:19am

    The Bees Know…….

    Report Post »  
1 2

Sign In To Post Comments! Sign In

Sign Up For Our Newsletter!

Glenn Beck Radio

Listen to Glenn Beck 24/7 Listen Now
Restoring Love