.gif)
Los Angeles County West Vector & Vector-Borne Disease Control District
Local AHB News
6/14/06
SWARMS OF BEES ATTACKS COUPLE AT HOME
- LOS ANGELES, CA
A man and a woman were attacked by a swarm of bees Wednesday and barricaded themselves inside a house to escape, authorities said.
The bees chased the pair into a home at 158 W. 84th St. just before 11 a.m., according to Brian Ballton of the Los Angeles Fire Department.
They were eventually rescued by firefighters and taken to California Hospital Medical Center to be treated for bee stings. They were in good condition, Ballton said.
A dog that was chained up in front of the house was also stung, but was expected to recover, Ballton said.
A baby in the house was unharmed, Ballton said, adding that the bees may have come from a colony that firefighters discovered in the attic of a neighboring house.
Bee attacks are not uncommon in the Los Angeles area. City firefighters have already responded to several similar calls this year, Ballton said. (KNBC-TV NEWS 4, 6/14/06.)
5/31/05
BEES ATTACK BOY, GRANDMOTHER, FIREFIGHTER
- LONG BEACH, CA
A group of bees stung a 9-year-old boy, his grandmother and a firefighter Tuesday afternoon, but the three were not seriously hurt, a firefighter said.
It wasn't clear what set off the bees, or whether it was a whole swarm that attacked them shortly after 4 p.m. in the 1900 block of Pacific Avenue, said Long Beach Firefighter Paul Rodriguez. The attack came from a hive inside the exterior wall of a two-story apartment, he said.
The boy and the grandmother were only stung a few times, and the firefighter was stung once after he arrived on the scene. None of them needed to be hospitalized, Rodriguez said.
City vector control workers came to assess the situation, but they weren't able to exterminate the hive because it was on private property, Rodriguez said. The building's owner was advised to call a private exterminator, he said.
It wasn't clear whether the bees were Africanized, or "killer," bees, which are more likely to attack as a swarm without provocation. Bee attacks have become more ferocious in recent years as Africanized bees have spread across the Southland. A dog was killed Friday night after he was stung about 200 or 300 times in the 6400 block of Lewis Avenue, but Rodriguez said it wasn't known yet whether they were Africanized bees.
Rodriguez said that firefighters and city vector control workers will respond when bees attack, but that city workers can't exterminate the bees on private property after they've settled down. He said that property owners should call an exterminator if they find a permanent hive, and that people can avoid getting stung by using their heads.
"We always caution people to give (the bees) a wide berth, to be aware out there, and don't try to provoke them," Rodriguez said. (David Rogers, Long Beach Press Telegram, 5/31/05.)
4/12/05
BEES KEEP WORKERS BUZZING
- LOS ANGELES COUNTY, CA
Flying insects abound as weather gets warm
LOS ANGELES COUNTY, CA -- Most people are afraid of them. Many are allergic to them. Almost all outside the scientific or extermination professions are simply ignorant about them.
Other than acknowledging that the insects are reproductive go-betweens for various flowers and plants, or that they deliver a painful sting when angered, most people avoid them entirely.
Bees begin to swarm as the weather heats up, said Leon Luna, a vector control technician with the West Valley Mosquito and Vector Control District. And with temperatures in the Inland Valley reaching the mid-80s in recent weeks, business is picking up for Luna and vector control assistant Albert Pedregon.
One day last month, Leon and Pedregon answered three calls about bees in two cities within four hours.
One call took them to a senior citizens' center near Lemon and B streets (no joke) in Ontario just before 11 a.m.
"Bees in a tree," Luna said, referring to the call received at vector control headquarters. "That's the only description," he said as he scanned a parking lot full of trees.
Shortly after he arrived to help Luna, Pedregon spotted the culprits, thousands upon thousands of bees hanging in a ball-shaped hive off a branch.
To the uninitiated and uninformed, the sight of 40,000 bees clinging to each other on a branch could be terrifying.
But it's not unusual, Luna said.
"This is just natural bee behavior," he explained. "Usually swarms are pretty docile. They follow the queen. Bees are not aggressive; they're defensive. They don't go looking for trouble; they just react to threats."
Last month, a Rancho Cucamonga family found out just how defensive bees can get when protecting a hive, as a large group of bees killed a family pet and stung several household members before firefighters helped the family escape an upstairs bathroom.
Firefighters answered a call March 10 about the beehive at a home in the 11000 block of Countryview Drive. They arrived to find thousands of bees outside the residence.
Don Osborn was alerted to the bees after hearing an anguished cry from the family dog, Roxxy, a 2 1/2-year-old dachshund-terrier mix. He discovered her covered in the insects after he looked out into the back yard.
Osborn initially tried to remove the bees by spraying them with a hose. When that failed, he donned long pants and long sleeves before dragging the small dog inside. The rescue was too late: Roxxy died a short time later.
Osborn suffered more than a dozen stings during the incident. A private extermination company was called to eradicate the hive shortly after vector control inspected the property, said Rancho Cucamonga Fire Battalion Chief Mike Costello.
Pedregon, recalling the event, disputed the theory that Africanized bees -- the so-called "killer bees" -- were responsible for the Rancho incident.
Any bee, be it a European honey bee or the Africanized bee, will attack if it is protecting a hive, he said.
Dogs like to snap at bees and catch them in their mouths, he explained. Roxxy may have killed one of the bees, releasing a pheromone signal that led other members of the hive to attack.
Back at the senior center, the large ball of bees decided to relocate to a sign at a tire store across the street shortly after being spotted. The air darkened with the insects as most of them took flight and landed a few hundred feet away, on the store's metal sign.
Luna advised an employee behind the counter to call a private extermination company if the bees hadn't moved on by the next day.
Bees swarm in spring and summer to find a suitable place to build a hive, he said. They aren't dangerous as they swarm because they have nothing to protect. But once they begin to build their hive, people and pets could be in danger if the bees perceive them as a threat, he said.
The next call took Luna and Pedregon to a quiet Chino Hills neighborhood. In the 15000 block of Live Oak Road, Luna spotted approximately 10,000 to 15,000 bees hanging in a tree next to a home.
An observer asked Pedregon if the bees would be tested to determine if they were the Africanized variety. They were not, Pedregon assured him.
Luna decided to use a vacuum to corral them. Their fate is sealed after that, he said.
"We vacuum them up in a container," Luna said. "We take them back to the office and make them go night-night."
"Night-night" means soaking the insects with a thick, slimy soap, which eventually suffocates them.
Neither he nor Pedregon enjoys killing bees. They are beneficial insects, Luna said. But with the migration of the more aggressive Africanized bees, the rules have changed.
"We used to be able to let bees go," Luna said. "But with the Africanized (bees) migrating over and mixing (with European honey bees), the Ag department frowns on that," he said, referring to the California Department of Food and Agriculture.
Humans and bees can co-exist, he said. People become frightened after they spot a swarm, but the swarms generally are not harmful unless they become agitated. In fact, bees usually move on within several hours of being spotted in trees or near structures, he said.
Luna advised people to not disturb large masses of bees by throwing things at them or otherwise agitating them. However, hives usually need to be eradicated if they are found on someone's property.
Pedregon criticized Luna's choice of the vacuum for the Live Oak call because the bees had settled high in one of the branches.
He smirked as Luna struggled to free the vacuum hose after it became stuck on the leaves.
"Something like that, I would spray them," he said, between drags on his cigarette. "I wouldn't vacuum them. It's too much work." (Jannise Johnson, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, 4/12/05.)
11/29/04
DOG ATTACKED BY SOME 20,000 BEES
- LAKEWOOD, CA
A dog apparently will survive an attack by some 20,000 bees who angrily started attacking the animal when he put his nose in old car tires in a backyard in Lakewood today, authorities said.
Firefighters and animal control officers were sent to 20318 S. Devlin Ave. in Lakewood at 2:13 p.m., a Los Angeles County fire dispatcher said.
The dog, a 4-year-old cocker spaniel named Pinto, was taken to a veterinarian, but was expected to survive, the dispatcher said.
Old tires which housed a bee colony estimated to contain four pounds of bees, or about 20,000 of the beasts was shown during broadcast reports. Bees become agitated in cold weather, animal control officials told the station.
Evangelina De La Torre said Pinto was sniffing around the tires, which had been in the backyard for at least a year, when suddenly thousands of bees filled the air. MO< Authorities located additional bees in three other backyards in the area, according to broadcast reports. (KABC-TV 7, Los Angeles, 11/29/04.)