Cherie Linnemeyer still get chills recalling the image of thousands of bees blanketing two horses from ear tip to hoof on a Southern California ranch.
One horse, overwhelmed by bee venom, died within 20 minutes of the attack. The other horse lasted until 4 a.m., throwing himself down and thrashing every time a veterinarian’s painkillers started to wear off.
“Their skin literally looked like cottage cheese,” said Linnemeyer, 50, recalling the early evening ordeal June 21 near the city of Menifee. “It was just welts upon welts.”
The horses were victims of the notoriously aggressive Africanized strain of honey bees, which are increasingly common throughout Southern California.
Since Africanized honeybees arrived in California in 1994, they have been breeding with their much tamer European honeybee cousins that once dominated the state. They have created hybrid bees prone to attack and kill.
Experts say the bees tend to be easily agitated, sting en masse and pursue anyone who comes within 15 metres of their hive.
This year, vector control agencies in Riverside and San Bernardino counties are seeing a slight uptick in bee complaints over past years. Typical calls are for a beehive in an inconvenient spot or a swarm. When bees overpopulate a hive, a swarm will break off, complete with its own queen bee, in search of a new nest.
Experts say bees, which are typically active in the spring and fall, probably are still abuzz because of lingering balmy weather and a wet winter that fostered lots of flowers. The insects continue feeding and flying as long as temperatures range from 18C to 32C, said Kirk Visscher, an entomology professor at the University of California at Riverside.
But vector control experts do not know whether a rise in run-ins between bees and humans stem from a growing bee population or because bees are becoming more aggressive.
Africanized bees are faring much better against diseases that are decimating their domesticated European counterparts. Visscher believes that’s because as beekeepers try to save and coax along sick European bee populations, in the wild only the disease-resistant bees survive to breed.
For four years now, European honeybees across the U.S. and Canada — insects that farmers rely on to pollinate their crops — have been disappearing.
Beekeepers are also struggling to keep their hives free of the surly Africanized strain, Visscher said.
In other countries, where only Africanized bees remain, beekeepers have had no choice but to adapt.
“The beekeeping industry in Brazil was in shambles for a while as beekeepers adapted to managing Africanized bees,” Visscher said. Swarms of Africanized bees, originally from Africa, accidentally were released there in the 1950s. “Now the newest generation of beekeepers (in Brazil) doesn’t know anything different.”
Managing Africanized bees is no simple feat. The insects feel threatened by anyone walking within 15 metres of their hive. If agitated, they can pursue a perceived intruder en masse for up to 400 metres. Swarms have killed cattle, horses, dogs and people in California since arriving 16 years ago.
A lethal dose of bee sting poison averages about nine stings per 45 grams, he added. It would take about 1,350 stings to poison a 70-kg (150-pound) adult.
A handful of people have died from bee stings in California. Most have been elderly or allergic to bees, Visscher said.
From the Riverside, Calif., Press-Enterprise.