Alert to Rubato: Mind Your Own Bees Nest

[Joe Guy]

How bee rampage terrorized neighborhood, killed 2 dogs

By Rachel Swan and Peter Fimrite Updated 6:04 pm, Sunday, May 15, 2016

The Concord beekeeper who set off an attack by a swarm of suspected “killer bees” over the weekend was an experienced hobbyist who had the beehives for 15 years and didn’t notice anything amiss with his honeybees until he tried to move the hives so his father could do some backyard landscaping.

Nothing was out of the ordinary when Arthur Janke, 41, moved the first hive on Friday. But when he tried to move the second one, those bees went berserk, stinging him despite his bee suit, attacking his parents and rampaging out into the neighborhood around Hitchcock Road, stinging neighbors, passersby, a mail carrier and pets. Two dogs that were repeatedly stung were killed.

The terrifying incident comes months after scientists confirmed that Africanized killer bees had migrated from Southern California and were in the Bay Area, at the edge of Briones Regional Park. If DNA tests confirm that the insects are Africanized bees, the incident would be the first known attack in the Bay Area of the invasive species, whose ominous movements northward have been documented for decades.

Northern Californians living in warmer areas would also be faced with a new reality: This could happen in your neighborhood, park or campground, and experts say people need to know what to do if they encounter the dangerous bees.

“I’ve never seen a behavior like that,” said Alex Janke, whose son has kept bees for 15 years. “There was a big swarm and they were trying to sting everything. Arthur tried to move as many as he could back in the hive, but there was still a cloud of bees in the backyard. They were all over.”

The pugnacious bees spread out along Hitchcock, near Cowell Road and Treat Boulevard, attacking pedestrians, swirling around cars and harassing police officers who arrived to help.

Mike Malley, who lives across the street from the Jankes, said he got stung about 16 times on his face and arms on Friday.

“I could hear the mail lady screaming from my house,” Malley said. “She took off screaming and ran down the road. Two guys in a pickup truck stopped to help her, and the bees attacked them. So they ran the other way and left their pickup idling for about two hours.”

Malley said he tried to help the postal worker, who was “was covered in bees.”

“A jogger came by, got swarmed by bees,” he said. “He made a helicopter out of his shirt and was swatting to get them away.”

Alex Janke said he was stung a dozen times on the arms and face during the first wave of attacks. His neighbors found their two dachshunds, Milo and Gunner, covered with bee stings in the backyard when they returned home that night. A veterinarian found at least 50 stingers in their bodies, authorities and neighbors said. The dogs died.

The furious onslaught continued Saturday and Sunday in the well-kept neighborhood of one- and two-story houses, and very few people were venturing outside. Play structures, basketball hoops, decks, gardens and other features of suburban life stood empty.

The bees, however, buzzed around people’s heads and stung those who stepped out of their cars, including several reporters. The bees circled a vehicle of one fleeing driver Sunday, apparently waiting for the person to emerge.

Arthur Janke moved the hives Friday to a ranch the family owns in Clayton and on Saturday sprayed them with warm, soapy water when they clustered into a ball for the night, a recommended technique for killing them.

The strategy didn’t immediately work, because many bees remained in Concord.

“These were all bees that were left behind,” said Norman Lott, a beekeeper with the Mount Diablo Beekeepers Association, who got stung when he tried to help. “The bees had no central point to focus on, so they spread all over the neighborhood. They’re agitated, out protecting their territory.”

The Jankes were still struggling Sunday to get rid of the bees as members of the Mount Diablo Beekeepers Association collected samples to submit for DNA testing.

Africanized honeybees, also called killer bees because of their tendency to aggressively pursue and repeatedly sting animals and people over distances of as much as 500 yards, were found in the Bay Area in 2014 in Lafayette, near Briones Regional Park, by UC San Diego researchers. Their findings were reported in September’s issue of the journal Plos One.

The Africanized honeybee is a hybrid of the European bee and the African bee, originally brought west to Brazil to improve honey production. The breed eventually escaped and spread through South America, Central America and ultimately the U.S. It entered California in 1994 and has gradually spread north.

Africanized bees have killed animals on chains and in fenced enclosures in Southern California and Texas. In August 2015, a swarm of Africanized bees killed a construction worker and injured two others in Riverside as the workers graded land for a parking lot, unaware that an underground vault housed a hive.

“You mess with a honeybee hive, you may have two or three bees after you,” said Lott. “You mess with an Africanized bee hive, you’ve got 200 or 300 bees after you.”

The swarming bees may be an indication that the species is more widespread than previously thought. Lott said the killer bees can move into an area and form hives of their own, usurp a honeybee hive or have drones mate with a honeybee queen, forming a mixed race of bees.

Lott said the bees in this case apparently killed the honeybee queen and took over the hive, unbeknownst to the beekeeper. When the hive was moved, he said, they went berserk.

The stinging insects had calmed down a bit by Sunday evening, but the streets were still quiet. A community alert was still in effect and police were patrolling the area warning passerby about the danger.

“I suspect our neighbors are staying in their houses,” Alex Janke said. “However there are just a few bees left in my backyard, and they’ll be out of the neighborhood in the next couple days.”

Judy Weatherly, president of the Mount Diablo Beekeepers Association, said the bee attack should prompt the state and county to track Africanized bees, which can be controlled genetically by hive keepers.

“There are hives everywhere out there. We just don’t see them because they aren’t aggressive,” Weatherly said. “We need to catch more bees, assess their behavior and destroy those aggressive hives. We want to eliminate those genetics so it doesn’t become an issue in Northern California.”

What to do when bees attack

Although Africanized bees are slightly smaller than European bees, there is no accurate way for the casual observer to distinguish between them.

Africanized bees out foraging will usually not attack.

If you get close to a hive, you should move away quickly.

If you sense that bees are approaching, run at least 100 yards. Africanized bees have been known to swarm perceived threats relentlessly and in high numbers.

Do not swat away or crush Africanized bees. That will only further antagonize other members of the hive.

If you can get away from enough of them to run inside, do it. You can deal with the ones who made it in with you. Brush them off your clothes. Then remove the stingers by scraping them with a credit card or similar object. Don’t use tweezers (that will inject more venom).

Don’t jump in a swimming pool or bodies of water to get away. They have been known to wait for people to surface.

When in a safe location, call a local bee professional and emergency personnel.

source

[MajGenl.Meade]

Bees don't kill people. People who keep bees kill people. Dogs, anyway

[BoSoxGal]

Without bees, we all die. Only @ 40 people die every year in the US from bee 'attacks'; we should do away with beds before we do away with beekeeping, as @ 450 people die every year in the US from falling out of bed and beds aren't a requirement of life. Bees are.

[Lord Jim]

Without bees, we all die...

Well, yes, I suppose so...that seems rather extreme...

We need bees, but we don't need idiots...I think we'll manage...

[TPFKA@W]

Every good beekeeper needs a smoker at his side-and a flame thrower as back up.

[Bicycle Bill]

.... -and a flame thrower as back up.

Also useful for spiders —

-"BB"-

[MGMcAnick]

I've often heard that highway accidents involving semi-truck loads of honey bees are very dangerous for police and other first responders. This time of year I see loads going north almost daily. It's a big business. If you've ever seen what looks like a load of boxes covered with net or mesh, you've seen a load of bees. Sometimes there will be bees clinging to the inside of the net. Sometimes there are bees outside the net. I don't know if those are local bees who have been attracted to the truck, or escabees.

I caught up with a load of bees at a traffic light to discover that they liked my BRIGHT yellow green motorcycle jacket. Maybe they thought I was a BIG flower. I didn't get stung, but they sure buzzed around a lot. Just another reason riding a motorcycle is dangerous.

[rubato]

Bees are color blind to red. If that makes a difference. OTOH red is the second worst color for nighttime visibility after black.

Africanized bees first appeared in Monterey county 10 years ago. I haven't heard of them being found here yet. Annual re-queening with mated queens can help to keep them out of your hives but I don't know if there is a perfect solution.


yrs,
rubato

[Long Run]

I caught up with a load of bees at a traffic light to discover that they liked my BRIGHT yellow green motorcycle jacket. Maybe they thought I was a BIG flower. I didn't get stung, but they sure buzzed around a lot. Just another reason riding a motorcycle is dangerous.

The radio ads do caution that buzzed driving is dangerous.

[dales]

I haven't heard of them being found here yet. Annual re-queening with mated queens can help to keep them out of your hives but I don't know if there is a perfect solution.


yrs,
rubato