Prisoners and guards attacked by bees

Monday, July 13, 2009

A swarm of bees attacked at least six guards and inmates at a women’s correctional facility in Pembroke Pines after an inmate stepped on a nest of bees.

Rescue workers arrived at the Broward Correctional Institution, about 7 p.m and took two guards and two inmates to nearby hospitals, said Mike Jachles, Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue spokesman. Others were stung, but did not require hospitalization.

”These guards were trying to rescue the victim with good intentions, but they became victims as well,” Jachles said.

The victims suffered allergic reactions to the beestings on their heads and hands. The rescue workers helped keep their airways open by using intravenous medicine and oxygen masks, Jachles said.

The two male guards were taken to Cleveland Clinic in Weston. Pembroke Pines Fire Rescue took the inmates to Memorial Hospital Miramar.

Although rescue workers are equipped with emergency bee gear such as nets and foam, they did not use it. The victims had been moved away from the bees by the time they arrived, Jachles said.

Assistant warden Abel Price said nothing like this had happened before, but ”everything is fine and everybody’s OK,” he said. ”It’s just like if you have bees near your house — you see them and you run and it’s over with,” Price said.

Jachles said he did not know what type of bees attacked, but that they did ”appear to be very aggressive.” He said they might have been Africanized honeybees.

Such bees has been spreading rapidly in Florida, according to the state’s Department of Agriculture.

Jachles said the prison would need to contact an exterminator to remove the bees. Fire Rescue removes nests only if ”they are a threat to life safety,” he said.

Miami Herald

Florida Bee Attack

Monday, Apr 20, 2009 @09:17am CST

(Fort Myers, FL) — A passing motorist may have saved the life of a Fort Myers, Florida man who was being attacked on Saturday by a swarm of bees near his back yard.
The victim says he was just mowing his lawn when he bumped into a hive.
Almost instantly, he says, he was being attacked by thousands of bees protecting their nest.
A passing driver saw the man flailing his arms and falling on the ground and stopped his car to get out and help.
Water from the garden hose scared off most of the bees but not before they stung the unidentified victim hundreds of times.
Experts have since removed the bees, but the homeowner says he’s reluctant to return to his back yard.
(Copyright 2009 by Newsroom Solutions)

* * * * * * * *

This is the type of thing that can happen with the encroachment of the Africanized Honey Bee (AHB) into Florida. We don’t know if this was in fact an AHB attack, but it sounds likely. What happened to this man was an accident, but it can happen if you try to destroy a known hive as well.

If you have a wild bee swarm on your property, call the Florida bee experts at (866) 263-WILD. Our trained technicians will determine whether the swarm is dangerous to you or your neighbors, and deal with the bee problem in a professional manner.

Sarasota - March 18, 2009

Yellow Jackets

 

We got a call here at Nuisance Wildlife Removal about a possible Yellow Jacket nest. The land owner was seeing them everywhere, but they seemed to get more aggressive when he walked or worked near the woods on his property.Yellow Jackets are actually wasps which tend to be medium sized and black with jagged bands of bright yellow and have a very short, narrow waist (the area where the thorax attaches to the abdomen).

Our bee man, Charlie went on the call, and quickly found where the culprits were originating. They
had nested in some dense foliage and debris at the base of a pine tree, and judging from the size of the nest, they had not been there for long.

Colonies, which are begun each spring by a single reproductive female, can reach populations of between 1,500 and 15,000 individuals, depending on the species. The wasps build a nest of paper made from fibers scraped from wood mixed with saliva. Its built as multiple tiers of vertical cells, similar to nests of paper wasps, but enclosed by a paper envelope around the outside that usually contains a single entrance hole.

Wasp stingers have no barbs and can be used repeatedly, especially when the wasp gets inside clothing. As with any stinging incident, it is best to leave the area of the nest site as quickly as possible if wasps start stinging. Charlie doesn’t give them the chance to sting. Donning his protective Bee Suit, he quickly used his
sub-terranean injection spray unit, which actually sprays the underground paper nest from the center, all at once. This dispatches the whole nest very quickly.

 

 

 

 

After that, all thats left is to dig out the nest to make sure its been saturated, and that all the
yellow jackets are dead.

Bradenton - March 11, 2009

We at Nuisance Wildlife Removal got a call about a bee swarm in an outdoor patio area, and sent our man Charlie right out to deal with it. What he found was fairly typical. A little used area with a small opening into a large space. The home owner said they almost sprayed them with pesticide, but thought better of it. Thank goodness they did’nt. What you can see visible is usually only about a quarter of the entire colony. Spraying would have agitated those bees into a frenzy, and it would have been a long time before you would be able to spray again.

 

 

 

Once Charlie opened the cabinet to see whats what, he quickly “dusted” the bees to prevent agitation and a chance of innocent bystanders being involved in a bee attack. The dust we use works pretty fast.

 

They did try to make a break for it after being dusted, and left a trail of bees from the cabinet, all the way to the pool.

The owner was instructed not to use their lanai for at least 24 hours, to make sure there were no late visitors returning home after the treatment.

 

If you run across a similar problem,
please call the experts at 941-729-2103