I am writing this piece because we have experienced a rash of bee attacks here in the desert recently. But before going into details, maybe I should explain a little why this is going on. Our bees here didn’t used to be so aggressive. They were just ordinary bees, which, for the most part, would mind their own business when interacting with humans. But something happened years ago that changed all that.

Let’s go back to 1957, to São Paulo, Brazil. There, a biologist had interbred honeybees from Europe and southern Africa. He observed that the hives containing those queens were particularly defensive. All this scientist wanted to do was produce a strain of bees that would produce more honey and be better adapted to tropical conditions. Well, long story short, the bees were accidentally released, the Africanized queens and drones mated with domesticated local non-Africanized queens and drones, and their descendants  began a slow but steady movement northward. It took a lot of years, but by 1990 these bees had reached southern Texas, and kept on moving northward into the USA. These Africanized colonies would essentially take over other wild bee colonies – they would interbreed with them and the resulting colonies would then have the traits of the Africanized bees. They were agressive enough that people started calling them “killer bees”

My personal experience with these bees has been that they are less patient around humans, less tolerant of humans getting close to them. I have had a number of run-ins with them, a few of which I will relate here.

Once in mid- March, I was climbing a small mountain south of Tucson. As I stepped on to the summit, I was attacked by two bees. They were very aggressive and they both stung me on the arm. I hadn’t seen bees that aggressive for a long time.

Another time, in early May, I was doing some climbing east of the Table Top Mountains in Arizona. During the day, I encountered three bee colonies. I heard the first one before I saw it. They were flying in and out of a crevice in the rock, just below a summit. I gave them a wide berth and there was no incident. Later the same day, I encountered another hive, also in a crevice and also just below a summit. I didn’t detect them in advance, so I ended up stepping right in front of the hive entrance. The bees just flew around me and I quickly left the area – I was lucky that they were not aggressive. Still later the same day, I was just stepping on to another summit when I was attacked by two bees. They would not leave me alone, and despite all of my efforts they both stung me on the face just below my left eye. I was more annoyed with myself than I was mad at the bees. I never did see where their hive was, but I am sure that it too was in a crevice in the rock somewhere nearby.

Beehive Peak – the name alone conjures up trouble, doesn’t it? That is the official name on the USGS topo map. It sits on the south side of Tucson, surrounded by homes. One time I went there early in the morning before the bees became too active. Andy Martin had talked our mutual friend Andy Bates into leading a roped climb up this thing. Up we went, and we summitted okay, but on the descent things went south on us. I remember being in a precarious position, roped up, and watching bees fly in and out of a crack in the rock – the problem was that they were flying between my legs! Their patience ran out, I guess. One of them got under my helmet and that really freaked me out. I got stung twice, but, in retrospect, I guess we were asking for it.

Many years ago, I used to keep bees. One trick I learned was that if you are stung, try to carefully push the little poison sack to the side with your fingernail or anything else available and dislodge it from your skin. Do not squeeze the sack in any way because all the rest of the bee venom will be injected into you and you will end up suffering more. So that is what I did that day when I was stung below the eye – I used the signaling mirror on my compass to see where they had stung me, and found a little twig and pushed out the stingers from the side.

Here in Arizona, we have had these Africanized bees (“killer bees”) for several years. A few people have died after being stung many times by them. Many others have been attacked and have suffered lesser consequences. Whenever I have been attacked by these bees, I have been really impressed by how aggressive they were. Once they have decided to sting you, no matter what you do to protect yourself, you will be stung. They will not stop until they have stung you. It is hard to kill a bee by swatting it. If you swat it in midair, it doesn’t hurt the bee and it will only become more angry. Even if it lands on you and you swat it, you will probably only daze it and it will come back even madder. Bees are hard to kill unless you spray them with some poison. And when they do sting you, it is done with unbelievable speed.

I am lucky that I do not react too strongly to bee venom. I was once stung 15 times, years ago, and did not suffer too badly. However, when those two stung me under my eye, it was in a bad spot, and the side of my face swelled up pretty badly – enough that vision out of my left eye was somewhat impaired.

I guess what I am trying to say is that some people react strongly to bee venom, much more so than others. And just imagine if you were in an awkward spot on a mountain and you could not move away quickly from the bees. In any case, the best thing to do is run as fast as you can and keep going, while trying to cover your face. And don’t jump into a pond – the bees will just wait for you to surface, and can fly into your throat and sting you.

Imagine if you were stung 50 or 100 times, or even more! It happens fairly frequently here, where someone will disturb a hive hidden in a building. Even a pretty tough person who doesn’t react too badly to bee venom will find their system rather challenged by that many stings. I have become more concerned about these bee encounters.  I spoke to my doctor, who prescribed for me an Epipen, which I always carry in my pack when climbing. I will gladly jab it into my thigh if I am stung a lot of times, but hope I never need to use it. It delivers a dose of pure epinephrine into your bloodstream, to reduce the chance of going into anaphylactic shock – it can save your life.

Our local newspaper often runs stories of people having been attacked by bees and stung many times, resulting in hospitalization or even death. A few weeks ago, a group of five hikers on a well-used trail on the edge of the city was attacked by bees. They said the bees “came out of nowhere”. One of the party was a six-year-old boy who was stung more than 100 times. The other four men received a total of more than 150 stings. Two of the men, as well as the boy, were hospitalized. Rescuers said that the bees were so aggressive that it was hard to approach the hikers, so much so that a medical helicopter had to hover overhead for 45 minutes to help keep the bees at bay while the rescuers helped those who had been stung.

Another incident was headline news here recently. “Horrifying bee attack killed rappeller dangling from cliff”. Here’s what happened. When a fellow didn’t show up for work on Monday, after having gone out to check out new rock-climbing routes the previous day, his friends went out looking for him. He was found suspended on a cliff. It appeared that he had rappelled partway down a vertical face when he was attacked by bees. His rope was hanging within a few feet of a beehive in the rock face. This 55-year-old man was found suspended from anchors on the face and had been stung hundreds of times. He died as a result of mass envenomation. Rescuers found his small dog nearby, which had also been killed by bee stings – they buried it on the mountain.

This was tragic and shocking, and I can’t imagine a more horrifying way to die. The man was a well-known and loved climber here in local circles. The incident has me looking over my shoulder now, more than ever, when I am out in the mountains, watching and listening for bees.

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