A Swarm Of 800,000 Bees Killed An Arizona Man And Critically Injured Another

We talk about bees around here quite a lot, and their nasty wasp brethren. Sometimes it is in a positive manner, noting how delicious their honey is, but other times it is far more menacing. This is one of those menacing times.

I mentioned the family in Borneo that was killed by a swarm of hornets back about a month ago. Now a different bee attack has led to death on our own soil. An Arizona landscaper is dead following the discovery of a 10-year-old bee hive in the attic of the house they were working on. From USA Today:

The aggressive bees came from a colony of an estimated 800,000 bees in a 3-by-8-foot nest in an attic.

The dead man and his injured co-worker were with the Douglas ARC, which finds jobs for people with developmental disabilities, said Fire Chief Mario Novoa. They were part of a four-man crew cutting grass and weeding for the 90-year-old homeowner, who was not stung…

It’s not clear what caused the bees to attack, Novoa said.

He also said it wasn’t clear whether the homeowner knew about the massive hive, which may have been accumulating for 10 years.

What a depressing story all around. Not only did this poor guy lose his life while just trying to do his job, all of the bees lost theirs after they decided to go ape sh*t on a crew of workers.

What I’d like to know is how you live in a house with 800,000 bees and not know it. Is he the bee king, with mind control powers that allow him to control the hive? A hive that 55-gallon drum following extermination, I might add.

This is the kind of incident that shows that you shouldn’t let bees accumulate on your house in a manner like this. They have to be dealt with or moved before something terrible like this happens. That or just relegate yourself to living in the yard, like Tom Jane in Hung. The house is yours now, bees. Be kind to it and please feed my cat.

(Via USA Today / CBS News / Gawker)

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