A bee expert says a northern California neighborhood overtaken by a swarm of aggressive bees, which are suspected of killing two dogs and stinging several people, is considerably safer after the insects made it back to their cluster.
“These bees are a little off the wall. We’ve been having Africanized bees moving into California for quite a few years up from South America,” Norm Lott, of the Mount Diablo Beekeepers Association, told local KGO News.
Lott told the East Bay Times he was called to the Concord neighborhood after an amateur beekeeper got rid of a hive, leaving the swarm of bees homeless and wandering the neighborhood. The amateur then tried to kill the bees with a poison spray, which apparently only aggravated the swarm.
“By the time I got to the guy’s door, I was inundated,” Lott told the paper. He wore a bee suit to the resident’s home but was stung through the zipper. “I’m stung all the time. It’s not a big deal.”
Lott said Sunday very few bees were left flying around Saturday night.
The bees are blamed for killing two dachshunds. They also stung a child, a postal worker, news reporters and Lott. “I feel like my whole head was buzzing. They were all over my hair,” resident Maryia Piatraets told the local ABC affiliate. “I had to get out my hairband and shake it out. They were covering my hair.”
Concord police Capt Chris Blakely said the problem was first reported Friday when an amateur beekeeper went to check on his backyard hives and bees attacked him. “It’s OK to drive through the area with your windows up,” Blakely had told SFGate on Saturday. “But we are telling people on foot to stay out of the area. The bees are swarming all around.”
Beekeepers said they could use pheromones to calm the bees and try to lure them back to their cluster at night, when they are naturally less aggressive and usually retreat to a colony.
The swarm may have invaded a more peaceful hive, bred with its queen and then killed her, Lott said.
The Associated Press contributed reporting
