By Tim O’Meilia
Palm Beach Post (Florida)
Copyright 2006 The Palm Beach Newspapers, Inc.
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The state-of-the-art rescue equipment for battling so-called killer bees: firefighting chemical foam and a beekeeper’s suit, with its goofy pith helmet and mesh veil.
Best advice if you’re caught in a bee attack without your suit? Run and keep running. Enraged killer bees will give chase for about three football fields. Run farther.
“If you disturb a colony of bees, make sure you’re not the slowest person around,” said bee expert Bill Kern, a University of Florida professor of entomology and nematology based in Fort Lauderdale.
Firefighters from at least 15 Palm Beach County cities took Kern’s three-hour course Thursday in dealing with the latest apocalyptic scourge to threaten Florida: Africanized honeybees.
Africanized bees, though indistinguishable from the more docile European variety, are more aggressive, anger faster and attack in dozens instead of a handful.
They breed more often, though their colonies are smaller, spread faster in the wild and are not particular about where they set up camp: in a water meter box, in the rafters of a park pavilion, under a bench.
“They’re about the only ones who like school portables,” Kern said of the bees that nest beneath them.
The aggressive bees arrived a few years ago at Florida ports despite inspections and bee traps designed to stop them. “They’re going to become a big problem. They’re going to cover the state in the next five to 10 years,” Kern told the firefighter/paramedics.
Pahokee Fire-Rescue Chief Ken Burroughs said his community already is seeing more bee calls. A homeowner recently set his window air conditioner on fire while trying to eradicate a bee colony that had settled there.
Kern’s advice to paramedics: Don’t rush in to rescue a victim. Send in someone in a vehicle with the windows rolled up. No sirens or flashing lights, which anger the bees. Keep the fire engine at least 150 feet away and the rescue vehicle and paramedics 300 yards away.
Everyone on the truck should be outfitted in bee suits or normal bunker gear, with bee helmets and veils with all of the sleeves and collars taped closed.
“Think of it as a chemical spill. Every inch of your skin needs to be covered,” Kern said.
Spray the chemical foam around the attacking bees and the victim. The bees will die within a minute. Then the victim can be taken to the paramedics.
“Africanized bees are not the horror show the movie industry has tried to make them out to be,” Kern said.
Only 14 deaths in the United States have been attributed to the bees, with none in Florida.
“For most people, an encounter with an Africanized bee is five or six stings because (the victims) will run away,” he said. Their sting is no more venomous than a normal honeybee’s.
Humans can withstand about five to 10 stings per pound of body weight.
“An adult can survive 1,000 stings, but he’s not going to be very happy,” Kern said.
He advises homeowners to call a pest control firm that deals with Africanized bees rather than to try to handle a colony on their own. He also gives seminars for that industry.
“Within five to 10 years, they’ll dominate South Florida,” Kern told the firefighters. “We’ll get lots and lots of calls.”
If bees attack
— Run, run and run some more. Bees can follow for 300 yards.
— Get indoors or in a vehicle. The 10 bees that come inside with you are much less dangerous than the 3,000 outside.
— Do not jump into a pool or pond. The bees can outlast you.
— Cover your head and face, even if it’s just with a pulled-up shirt. The bees target the eyes, ears, nose and mouth.
— Don’t flail your arms or scream. That just makes the bees angrier.
— Seek medical attention if you have been stung more than 15 times, feel ill or believe you may be allergic to bee stings.
— Don’t try to eradicate the bees with wasp or hornet insecticide.
— Call a professional trained in removing Africanized honeybees. The county extension office: (561) 233-1700.
SOURCES: Florida Department of Agriculture, University of Florida