Posted 7/24/2004 02:32:00 PM by Douglas

When bees attack. The only thing this story is missing is John Belushi in a bee suit.

An estimated 60,000 bees died Thursday and at least one woman suffered multiple bee stings during a commotion surrounding removal of a bee hive.

About 3 p.m., a resident at the complex drove up during the bee removal operation and started walking to her second-floor apartment. The bees began to buzz around her, Kroeger said.

He advised her to go the other direction at a run, which typically would leave the bees behind. Instead, she made a beeline for her apartment, right next to the hive, he said.

A perfect time not to make a beeline to your apartment? When a guy wearing four layers of protective gear tells you to run the other way.

She reached her apartment with numerous stings and called 911, which dispatched paramedics, Kroeger said.

The paramedics initially could not approach the apartment because thousands of agitated bees were in the area and bent on defending their hive, Kroeger said.

I'd love to have been a bee on the wall of the conversation that went on in the cab of the ambulance. "Which apartment are we looking for. . . 203? Is that the one surrounded by that swarm of fucking bees? What's the call? A woman stung by bees? Well no shit. Let's wait this one out, Tony."

But the real question is yet to be answered. Were these aggressive bees. . . . the dreaded killer bees?

As to whether the bees might be an "Africanized" strain, Kroeger said there's no way to know unless the city chooses to send a sample to the state beekeeper in College Station for examination.

"I will just say that they were more aggressive than average honeybees. There's no way to tell by looking except by looking under a microscope," he said. "They act like they may have some Africanized genetic material."

First off, I thought use of the term "Africanized" when describing killer bees was deemed un-politically correct. And just what is Africanized genetic material pertaining to bees? Do Africanized bees have larger, um, pollen collectors?