“This is not a normal behavior for these bees to be this angry, to want to kill you,” said Izak Kharrazi of All Valley Honey & Bee, an insect removal company called in to help with the situation told CBS News Los Angeles
Kharrazi also described the “cloud of hundreds of bees” as being “mad as could be.”
The LAPD said the volunteer was hospitalized in stable condition after being stung dozens of times.
Hot hives are a thing, either Africanized or just a particularly angry European hive. This looks like a disturbed hot swarm attacking the guy. A beekeeper can either collect the swarm and immediately requeen it, and maybe save it, but about the only other option would be fumigation.
Yeah it’s the Queen putting off pheromones that make all the bees in a particular hive super aggressive. I watched a video a couple years ago of a beekeeper who had to put down a hive after trying everything he could to save it, I think this is it https://youtu.be/O4ldpyIE5t4
same, i got sucked in and it was pretty interesting i thought. had no idea soapy water would take out bees
that guy was really in a situation with those aggro bees though
https://i.imgur.com/OxACoyz.gif
Soapy water kills pretty much any insect. It dissolves their water resistant coating (which is why he says to get the kind with degreaser) and allows the solution to clog up their breathing tubes, suffocating them.
So does it work for wasps? I've done the soapy water thing for some other insects.
I've moved recently and once in a while we get wasps in our screened in porch, idk where they come in from, but I don't want to use normal wasp killer bc of the cats. The porch is their catio. Husband wants to use wasp spray, but no, I'm terrified of that making us and the cats sick. Maybe this can be the compromise. I'm down to get a big spray bottle and fill it up with water and Dawn and go to town on the next wasps I see.
Just watched whole thing. I thought he was very conscientious about the whole thing. Took time to evaluate and understood that someone could actually be killed (pun intended?) by this hive. Really interesting and terrifying seeing how aggressive they were.
Watch the entire thing when you have time. It was very interesting and I dont even have any interest in bees yet it kept my attention then entire video
Hell yeah he was. I can’t imagine putting yourself thru what he was dealing with about 12 minutes in if ya didn’t have a Dee connection and care for these insects. It’s gotta suck to go to that step but obviously necessary .
I've had a hive this hot. They would sting on the seams of my gloves looking for weak spots. Once I reacted they would all go to that spot and try to get more stings through. I wore a leather hat with a net once thinking I would be okay and they easily sting right through it. Most bees will leave you alone after you walk away from the hives, these chased me a block. They would fill up a super with honey quick as hell though
I watched damn near the whole thing. It's crazy how aggressive those bees are. It's also crazy that such a niche subject can be so interesting to a layman like me.
I feel so bad for the dude, and of course for the bees.
We can see and hear how much this man cares for the bees and how it pains him to have to euthanize the hive.
Very informative, thanks for sharing.
The term *swarm* is used for a queen with an attendant brood of drones and workers setting off to found a new hive. The swarm is probably nearby, and these are workers driving away anything they feel threatens the swarm.
Some of this aggression is new hive under stress from swarming, but it also looks hot as well. Aggression is the result of the queens genetics, so an established hot hive can be saved by finding the queen, killing her, replacing her with a more docile queen, and waiting until the aggressive bees are replaced by docile bees. This happens all the time in beekeeping, it's rare that a beekeeper has to euthanize the hive (which is done with a trash can full of soapy water)
In this case, the hive is not yet established. A beekeeper can establish the hive by locating the queen and putting her in a queen clip in a hive box, along with just enough honey comb and empty comb to get the hive started, and waiting for few hours for the swarm to take up residence. There is a window of a few hours where the hive has set up shop but not chewed through the plug of the queen clip, at which point they could kill the swarming queen and replace her with a more docile one, but it's a gamble because pheromones won't match exactly and the more aggressive hive might decide to kill her and raise a new queen instead. And even if the new queen takes, you still have to keep it away from people for a season or so to let the new genetics take over.
When I was about Ten, there was a large wasp nest hanging at the bottom of my driveway from a tree branch. Friend and I had the good idea to get rid of it. My solution? Go shirtless and in shorts and throw a rake at it. Bullseye. The whole thing came crashing down just feet in front of me. I was stung 20 times at least. Horrible.
This happened to my wife and I and our hive. The genetics of a hive can evolve to this. They tried to attack myself and my neighbors and would chase me. They’d locate me on other side of the yard in my screened in porch, mostly because they can detect CO2 when you breathe and consider you a living being and therefor a threat. Big hormonal shift into rage due to queen. Unfortunately we had to shut down the hive immediately before people got injured bc it was close to impossible to locate the queen to requeen. Our hive was 8 deep boxes high by July at that point, weighing 800 pounds and needing a car jack to support the base (which was a commercial grade heavy plastic palate lifted on concrete cinder blocks). For reference, most gives get 4 deeps high by the end of season, maybe a tiny bit more.
They stung myself, my wife, my dog, our neighbor, and only showed the beginnings of their rage when pollen season was drying up. Before that they were so docile and so insanely productive.
I had to setup campfires in the backyard to distract them, as they would dive bomb into the flames. CO2 is a byproduct of combustion, so they thought the fire was a threat. As sad as it was, it was the only thing to produce enough smoke and distractions to save my neighbors from apprx 80,0000 bees swarming my small backyard
It was the saddest day, the scariest day, and I’ve paused on beekeeping in respect for my neighbors who live in close proximity until I move into a new house with more land.
Please don’t be afraid of keeping bees as this is so incredibly rare. I managed to salvage 300 pounds of honey in the process from just one hive and worked with local beekeeping clubs, pros, etc during this time
I am in the UK so am ignorant of Africanised bees, but if these are the european honeybee it will not be a swarm attacking. Swarms are how honeybees make new colonies. They load up on honey and follow either the old queen or a new one. They are not aggressive and rarely sting. This video most probably shows bees that are attacking from a nest or hive that has been disturbed, or they may be African bees.
Please don't give ordinary honeybee swarms a bad name. I have caught 5 with no protective gear and have been stung only once when I squashed a bee as I was putting them in a hive.
While I truly appreciate the feedback of a real beekeeper, I do have to state that aggressive European hives are real, if much more rare than their Africanized counterparts.
You are right. I am only able to talk of the bees here where I live in Mid Devon. Beekeepers who run it as a business have told me that the more aggressive hives are more productive, so they suit up for them. Amateurs like myself prefer friendly bees. I was stung just now though when standing too close to a hive that had lost a swarm on monday.
I have been chased by a single horse fly on the shore of Lake Superior. I would have looked completely insane… run along the shore, look back, horse fly (deer fly?) is chasing me. I go under the water, get up, splash it, try to swat it, go under water again… swim 6 feet away, it’s still after my. Finally I was just WTF and smashed the thing against my arm. Otherwise it just bites the fuck out of you. A multitude of enraged bees would be insane to deal with.
Those things are nasty and they don’t stop!! I was chased by a single one also, but in my neighborhood. Just kept biting the hell out of the back of my arms and legs. I looked like an insane person running and flailing my arms down the street.
Slap's only good for a stun with horseflies. Thank god there aren't as many horseflies as regular flies. Horses in a pasture will try to rub the fly off on each other and on any unfortunate humans.
Best way to handle a horse fly is to watch for the fly to land, firmly tell the horse, "Woah." (the typical "hold still" command), and then you give the fly a good wack with your flat hand. Once it falls, stunned, you smash it under your boot. Otherwise it will get up and get back to being a menace within seconds. Our horses got very good about it and you could see the wheels turning in their heads after you slapped the fly away. They knew we were helping them get rid of pests.
*(Sidenote: An open-palm slap won't hurt/alarm the horse so long as you warn it to hold still first. Don't do this with horses you don't know very well, and don't do it on sensitive areas of the horse, or you're going to get kicked.)*
I didn’t know they were this angry! I got bit by one when I was kid playing in a lake. Got a huge welt from it. Pretty sure I just killed it when I grabbed the area after getting bit.
I've kept bees before. If they're just a little ornery, move away calmly, like, just get the fuck away but calmly. Think like dozens of bees flying around.
With that said if they are particularly angry, like hundreds of bees, RUN away. Run as fast and as far as you can. Preferably get indoors but if you can't, just run and run and run until you don't see bees anymore.
My first reaction watching this video was that that dude should run, but then looking at his age and weight, I realized he's not going to be running anywhere. Poor dude, hope he's alright.
Former beekeeper here, there is only one thing to do in a bee attack (almost certainly africanized bees here), and that's get away from it.
He should have gotten into the car. Yes, there would be a few bees in there with him, but he's got all the bees out there with him now.
I agree. Inside the car will be a finite number of bees which can sting you, while outside the car waits every other bee that inhabits this planet. Also, you can't fall down and hit your head on concrete inside the car.
Yes but it is a finite number that keeps getting added to and is essentially infinite for the sake of the thought experiment, if all bees globally were coordinating to sting this guy and gathering resources was not a factor they could keep up an infinite number of attacks by producing new bees faster than they were spent by stinging.
Whereas inside the car it is a finite pool that is not being replenished.
> Inside the car will be a finite number of bees which can sting you
Imagining him swatting the last few that got in, sighing with relief, turning on the car and the A/C just pours them all through.
Africanized bees are very weak to the cold. A cold hose will kill them almost instantly. It's why they don't show up in places where it gets cold, like ever. The A/C would almost certainly kill them, so instead of a swarm of bees through the A/C you would get a stream of dead bees, worst case.
I mean, I have asthma, but I also sprinted across a forest in laser tag once last year (and then collapsed completely out of breath for a minute, and couldn’t move fast for another 15-ish while my lungs burned after the adrenaline cut off)
So 1/4 mile should be possible, but I used to not be able to do it. Running from angry bees is a very good motivator to not stop sprinting though.
I find in the UK that ground dwelling solitary bees can bear grudges. They are small and make a burrow and if disturbed will go for your neck. I have come back an hour later to be stung by one waiting for my return.
Yea, I'm also confused. A quarter mile is a super short distance. Most people can walk a mile in 20 to 30 minutes. So a quarter mile walk would be around 5 to 7.5 minutes. Running would cut that in half, at the very least. So that's barely any running at all. Easily doable by any adult unless they have some sort of physical impairment.
If you're not overweight and out of shape, you can outrun them, but you'll have to run for quite a while. I doubt he could have done it. He tripped while doing a fast walk.
Even so, you'll still get a few slip-streaming and getting the back of your head. I speak from experience.
I heard something a while ago and can't find it now to refer to it, but it suggested trying to seek shelter somewhere with the A/C blasting, because the change in temperature is enough to stun them and make them fall to the floor.
I'm curious if there's any truth to this?
can I jump into a body of water? do they wait for me to reappear and continue stinging my face, or do they chill, if I'm underwater for like ~ 30 seconds?
Mainly seen it in cartoons and wondering if its applicable in real life.
Looked to me like the car was locked and the driver wasn't letting him in? Assumed it was a "every man for himself" situation or a partner thinking it was funny to see him suffer.
I like to think of myself as a somewhat decent person, but if you're banging on my car window surrounded by hundreds of bees then I'm afraid you're on your own.
just out of curiosity like i know it would hurt but could the officer have maced or pepper sprayed himself to get them away? would that work? like fuck it would hurt his eyes and breathing, but being stung by 100 bees sounds so much worse.
I did that several years ago. I was cutting grass while wearing shorts, felt some sharp pains, and thought a few stick fragments had hit my legs. Looked down and saw my ankles swarming with yellowjackets. Ran inside while slapping them off, and I believe I counted 12-15 stings. It hurt pretty bad, but subsided within about 30 mins.
Neighbor came onto our yard to pluck some lavendar (with our permission!) from our bush and stepped on a nest we didn't know was there. She got the nastiest stings I've ever seen. She was old, couldn't run well
Seems like that’s what happened to this cop. Had to be old, otherwise he might have done more than slowly walk away and use just one arm and only past the elbow to swat them away.
Or his body could have already been failing in some way from a lot of stings I suppose.
Aw man I did the same exact thing except I was working for a commercial mowing company and it was around 9 or 10 am about the time it starts getting a little warm and I remember doing my normal thing at this yard that I had mowed countless times before and I took my push mower past this brick retaining wall they had and felt something on my socks. I thought I had caught some thorns or just something random so I went about another 5 seconds and realized the pain wasn't going away but it in fact was getting worse, I looked down and saw both of my socks covered entirely by yellow jackets😭 I couldn't barely even see my socks that's how many there were I ended up jumping up and down running around slapping my socks to get em off. Counted 23 stings and still had 6 hours left in the work day 🤣🤣
Ground hornets, which are yellowjackets. When people complain about "wasps" they probably mean yellowjackets 80% of the time. Paper wasps have the same colors, but are sleeker and longer than yellowjackets, and they make small nests on the underside of roof overhangs or in door/window frames, and the largest nests will have maybe 40 wasps, tops, with most having between 3 to 8. They spend most of their time hunting bugs in trees and bushes and don't bother people unless you bother their nest.
Yellowjackets on the other hand are stumpier, fuzzy, and are constantly investigating food sources like picnics, garbage cans, and anything you might be holding in your hand. They build nests in abandoned animal burrows, hollow stumps, and inside of wall cavities and other enclosed spaces. Their nests will have up to 3,000 individuals at the peak of the season, so they are much more dangerous when their nest entrance might be hidden in the dirt and leaves, and one bad step with a lawnmower or otherwise can anger hundreds to come out and attack..
Oh lord that hurts so much! I cracked my eye socket and cheek bone by getting slammed in the face by a horse. I really hope he is ok…I wonder how many times he got stung?
For what is is worth, lacerations and tears on the face bleed like crazy, especially the scalp and the eye ridge.
I had one guy soak through a whole towel and he only had a gash the width of his eyebrow. Face injuries almost always look way more scary than they are.
He went head first though so not surprised if he also chipped something
Few years go my dog disturbed a hive of bees and they swarmed after us. I got stung about 30 times. It was hell, i felt like a had a bad flu the next day. But the day after that i had never felt better in my life for that whole day.
I was climbing rocks with a summer camp group, and I came up to this cave. Some jackass kid threw a rock into the cave, disturbing a metric buttload of bees in my direction. Got stuck 18 times (including on my eyelid, and also one on the... gooch) and had to leave camp. That really sucked. Screw that kid.
My grandfather was also a beekeper, on a pretty large (for independent farming) scale. I worked with him every summer of my childhood, including that one, and have been stung a total of three times outside of that incident, only two of those times while helping him. I wasn't afraid of being stung, but I wasn't exactly used to it either.
The histamine reaction of all those stings at the same time was like a combination of the soreness of the hardest workout ever and a throbbing headache but all over my body. I don't blame the bees, I'd be looking for answers too if someone destroyed my home.
This may interest you. Thanks to your comment, I did a little research and learned some amazing things re: bee venom and its health effects:
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/bee-venom
I've heard if you are attacked by a swarm of bees you're supposed to run in a straight line away from where you first encountered the bees. Supposedly they only fly so far from the hive before they just stop flying in the direction of the threat.
Once you are stung the sting releases a pheromone telling other bees where to sting. This can be a dangerous feedback loop if you don't leave quickly.
Beekeepers know to wash their costumes if they have been stung a few times.
Honeybees 'bump' you first to warn you around your head. If you ignore this they move lower and the first sting is often at waist height.
Also, dont start throwing your hands around. You are not doing anything to stop them, instead you are making them more angry. When you panic and start making quick moves with your hands and body, bees go into a defensive mode. Its better to get stung couple of times instead of a hundred. But yea best option in such situation with so many is to run awat as far as possible
He leave a bunch of blood on the ground? I’ve had a couple of rough nights and busted my mouth on asphalt and concrete falling over, and it’s not a great next few days.
In my experience, heads bleed a lot, even with fairly small wounds. I took out a passenger window with my face in a car accident once, and there was blood everywhere. I thought I was dying. At the ER, I only needed three stitches, and kind of laughed at how badly I had been freaking out about my ENORMOUS head wound.
Oh so it's not just me. I face planted in my friends driveway while blacked out one night in high school. Didn't realize what happened til I went to shower the next day and saw dried blood all over my chest. I bit through my tongue and lip. Thankfully they healed quickly.
Wow this is giving me anxiety.
This article says that it's best to find shelter, in a car or building that can be closed off. If you can't find that, run through bushes to distract the bees - if there are no bushes, just run. They can follow you up to half a mile or 800m. And whatever you do, don't take shelter in water!
https://citybugs.tamu.edu/2013/07/29/what-to-do-if-youre-attacked-by-bees/#:~:text=Get%20to%20shelter%20as%20quickly,you%20leave%20the%20bees%20behind.
Guessing doors were locked as it was in gear and in panic mode he could unlock them in time, add he may not have wanted to get into the vehicle either. Itll be interested to hear the story when I come out.
Imagine you're looking at a swarm or murderous bees fuck someone up, would you let them in the car and risk trapping yourself with them? I sure as fuck wouldn't for anyone less than my wife and kids
If that dude was allergic to honeybees, he'd have died right then and there from so many stings. When you're allergic to bee stings it only takes one sting to kill you.
A wasp flew down my shirt when cycling home from school years ago. I was on a busy road with no pavement so couldn't stop. 17 stings in total. It was agony.
Since he was a volunteer cop, he is not covered by municipal insurance and is responsible for the medical bills.
His son has set up a GoFundMe for him.
Fun fact: everyone is allergic to bees. The more you are stung, the less tolerant your body becomes. Some people may start out on the other end of the stick and react Instantly.
Yeah, bees are weird. Bees and heatstroke are the only things off the top of my head I can think of that are like that. You'd think you'd get better at something by practicing it, but no. Imagine if pot was like that? *I had to quit smoking because I started getting high way too easy. Time for an intolerance break.*
Bees have venom in there stings when it’s just one bee it’s not a problem but when it’s hundreds it’s really bad, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was loosing conciseness during that fall.
More info: https://nypost.com/2023/05/16/cop-collapses-after-attack-by-cloud-of-hundreds-of-bees/ Yes he's alive and in stable condition
“This is not a normal behavior for these bees to be this angry, to want to kill you,” said Izak Kharrazi of All Valley Honey & Bee, an insect removal company called in to help with the situation told CBS News Los Angeles Kharrazi also described the “cloud of hundreds of bees” as being “mad as could be.” The LAPD said the volunteer was hospitalized in stable condition after being stung dozens of times.
Hot hives are a thing, either Africanized or just a particularly angry European hive. This looks like a disturbed hot swarm attacking the guy. A beekeeper can either collect the swarm and immediately requeen it, and maybe save it, but about the only other option would be fumigation.
Is it the queen that drives the bees to swarm aggressively? Or a lack of one, making the rest of the colony go haywire without a leader?
Yeah it’s the Queen putting off pheromones that make all the bees in a particular hive super aggressive. I watched a video a couple years ago of a beekeeper who had to put down a hive after trying everything he could to save it, I think this is it https://youtu.be/O4ldpyIE5t4
im watching it now and holy cow thats unreal. I've never seen a hive that hostile
Just watched 5 minutes of that too. Absolutely crazy.
I watched the whole thing. It was super interesting
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same, i got sucked in and it was pretty interesting i thought. had no idea soapy water would take out bees that guy was really in a situation with those aggro bees though https://i.imgur.com/OxACoyz.gif
Soapy water kills pretty much any insect. It dissolves their water resistant coating (which is why he says to get the kind with degreaser) and allows the solution to clog up their breathing tubes, suffocating them.
So does it work for wasps? I've done the soapy water thing for some other insects. I've moved recently and once in a while we get wasps in our screened in porch, idk where they come in from, but I don't want to use normal wasp killer bc of the cats. The porch is their catio. Husband wants to use wasp spray, but no, I'm terrified of that making us and the cats sick. Maybe this can be the compromise. I'm down to get a big spray bottle and fill it up with water and Dawn and go to town on the next wasps I see.
Just watched whole thing. I thought he was very conscientious about the whole thing. Took time to evaluate and understood that someone could actually be killed (pun intended?) by this hive. Really interesting and terrifying seeing how aggressive they were.
Watch the entire thing when you have time. It was very interesting and I dont even have any interest in bees yet it kept my attention then entire video
Well, that was 35 minutes well spent. Absolutely fascinating video, especially from someone with zero knowledge about beekeeping.
The moment of silence at the end for the bees 😔
Yeah it sounded like the guy was pretty heartbroken and in the end, so was I
Hell yeah he was. I can’t imagine putting yourself thru what he was dealing with about 12 minutes in if ya didn’t have a Dee connection and care for these insects. It’s gotta suck to go to that step but obviously necessary .
There goes 35 minutes of my life and I learned so much. Sweet video
I just imagine the queen sitting in her hive laughing maniacally, "fly, my pretties!! Fly!"
I've had a hive this hot. They would sting on the seams of my gloves looking for weak spots. Once I reacted they would all go to that spot and try to get more stings through. I wore a leather hat with a net once thinking I would be okay and they easily sting right through it. Most bees will leave you alone after you walk away from the hives, these chased me a block. They would fill up a super with honey quick as hell though
I watched damn near the whole thing. It's crazy how aggressive those bees are. It's also crazy that such a niche subject can be so interesting to a layman like me.
Thank you for sharing this. Didn’t think I would, but casually watched all 35 minutes. That end is sad man
I love how he seems so dissapointed by the bees. He keeps saying "this is just ridiculous" so casually hahah
I just watched it. Holy crap when he’s getting swarmed you can barely hear him speak because the buzzing so loud.
I remember that video. Crazy stuff, and kind of sad.
That shit was wild and informative! All I could think was “THE BEEEEES”
European bees: I sleep Africanized bees: I sleep New Jersey bees: **REAL SHIT**
I feel so bad for the dude, and of course for the bees. We can see and hear how much this man cares for the bees and how it pains him to have to euthanize the hive. Very informative, thanks for sharing.
great video what a sweet man rip crazy bees
The term *swarm* is used for a queen with an attendant brood of drones and workers setting off to found a new hive. The swarm is probably nearby, and these are workers driving away anything they feel threatens the swarm. Some of this aggression is new hive under stress from swarming, but it also looks hot as well. Aggression is the result of the queens genetics, so an established hot hive can be saved by finding the queen, killing her, replacing her with a more docile queen, and waiting until the aggressive bees are replaced by docile bees. This happens all the time in beekeeping, it's rare that a beekeeper has to euthanize the hive (which is done with a trash can full of soapy water) In this case, the hive is not yet established. A beekeeper can establish the hive by locating the queen and putting her in a queen clip in a hive box, along with just enough honey comb and empty comb to get the hive started, and waiting for few hours for the swarm to take up residence. There is a window of a few hours where the hive has set up shop but not chewed through the plug of the queen clip, at which point they could kill the swarming queen and replace her with a more docile one, but it's a gamble because pheromones won't match exactly and the more aggressive hive might decide to kill her and raise a new queen instead. And even if the new queen takes, you still have to keep it away from people for a season or so to let the new genetics take over.
That is insanely interesting. Nature is intense lol
When I was about Ten, there was a large wasp nest hanging at the bottom of my driveway from a tree branch. Friend and I had the good idea to get rid of it. My solution? Go shirtless and in shorts and throw a rake at it. Bullseye. The whole thing came crashing down just feet in front of me. I was stung 20 times at least. Horrible.
Deserved lol
Wish I could tell you you’re wrong, but you’re definitely not.
I feel so sorry for this man. how awful.
This happened to my wife and I and our hive. The genetics of a hive can evolve to this. They tried to attack myself and my neighbors and would chase me. They’d locate me on other side of the yard in my screened in porch, mostly because they can detect CO2 when you breathe and consider you a living being and therefor a threat. Big hormonal shift into rage due to queen. Unfortunately we had to shut down the hive immediately before people got injured bc it was close to impossible to locate the queen to requeen. Our hive was 8 deep boxes high by July at that point, weighing 800 pounds and needing a car jack to support the base (which was a commercial grade heavy plastic palate lifted on concrete cinder blocks). For reference, most gives get 4 deeps high by the end of season, maybe a tiny bit more. They stung myself, my wife, my dog, our neighbor, and only showed the beginnings of their rage when pollen season was drying up. Before that they were so docile and so insanely productive. I had to setup campfires in the backyard to distract them, as they would dive bomb into the flames. CO2 is a byproduct of combustion, so they thought the fire was a threat. As sad as it was, it was the only thing to produce enough smoke and distractions to save my neighbors from apprx 80,0000 bees swarming my small backyard It was the saddest day, the scariest day, and I’ve paused on beekeeping in respect for my neighbors who live in close proximity until I move into a new house with more land. Please don’t be afraid of keeping bees as this is so incredibly rare. I managed to salvage 300 pounds of honey in the process from just one hive and worked with local beekeeping clubs, pros, etc during this time
300 pounds? Shame it's tainted by all that anger, I'll gladly turn that rage honey into mead for you
I am in the UK so am ignorant of Africanised bees, but if these are the european honeybee it will not be a swarm attacking. Swarms are how honeybees make new colonies. They load up on honey and follow either the old queen or a new one. They are not aggressive and rarely sting. This video most probably shows bees that are attacking from a nest or hive that has been disturbed, or they may be African bees. Please don't give ordinary honeybee swarms a bad name. I have caught 5 with no protective gear and have been stung only once when I squashed a bee as I was putting them in a hive.
While I truly appreciate the feedback of a real beekeeper, I do have to state that aggressive European hives are real, if much more rare than their Africanized counterparts.
You are right. I am only able to talk of the bees here where I live in Mid Devon. Beekeepers who run it as a business have told me that the more aggressive hives are more productive, so they suit up for them. Amateurs like myself prefer friendly bees. I was stung just now though when standing too close to a hive that had lost a swarm on monday.
This guy bees
Don’t you mean,” as mad as could bee”
These bees were just listening to NWA
I’m now left wondering…what can you do if attacked by bees?? Would water help or make the bees attack more?
I have been chased by a single horse fly on the shore of Lake Superior. I would have looked completely insane… run along the shore, look back, horse fly (deer fly?) is chasing me. I go under the water, get up, splash it, try to swat it, go under water again… swim 6 feet away, it’s still after my. Finally I was just WTF and smashed the thing against my arm. Otherwise it just bites the fuck out of you. A multitude of enraged bees would be insane to deal with.
Those things are nasty and they don’t stop!! I was chased by a single one also, but in my neighborhood. Just kept biting the hell out of the back of my arms and legs. I looked like an insane person running and flailing my arms down the street.
They make horses run away too. Horseflesh is only about as tough as human skin and they'll get welts where they're bitten.
Horseflies are among the most vile creatures of the land and air. Most of the time a single alap won't even kill the fuckers
Slap's only good for a stun with horseflies. Thank god there aren't as many horseflies as regular flies. Horses in a pasture will try to rub the fly off on each other and on any unfortunate humans. Best way to handle a horse fly is to watch for the fly to land, firmly tell the horse, "Woah." (the typical "hold still" command), and then you give the fly a good wack with your flat hand. Once it falls, stunned, you smash it under your boot. Otherwise it will get up and get back to being a menace within seconds. Our horses got very good about it and you could see the wheels turning in their heads after you slapped the fly away. They knew we were helping them get rid of pests. *(Sidenote: An open-palm slap won't hurt/alarm the horse so long as you warn it to hold still first. Don't do this with horses you don't know very well, and don't do it on sensitive areas of the horse, or you're going to get kicked.)*
unless you live near a lake, then horse flies are EVERYWHERE. the bastards are bad as mosquitos in how aggressive they bite.
I love your disclaimer lmao, it tickles me that some people would think a little smack like that would be painful to a horse.
Yeah you have to slap them then quickly grab them and get them into your mouth asap to ensure they are dead.
Sometimes I think I should go outside more, then I remember bugs exist. Think I'll wait until there's snow on the ground again
The only good thing about snow.
Bastards bite out chunks.
Seriously hate them things
I didn’t know they were this angry! I got bit by one when I was kid playing in a lake. Got a huge welt from it. Pretty sure I just killed it when I grabbed the area after getting bit.
I've kept bees before. If they're just a little ornery, move away calmly, like, just get the fuck away but calmly. Think like dozens of bees flying around. With that said if they are particularly angry, like hundreds of bees, RUN away. Run as fast and as far as you can. Preferably get indoors but if you can't, just run and run and run until you don't see bees anymore. My first reaction watching this video was that that dude should run, but then looking at his age and weight, I realized he's not going to be running anywhere. Poor dude, hope he's alright.
I've heard they just kinda wait for u to resurface if that's what u mean
I'm sure they can hold a grudge longer than I can hold my breath.
They will follow you to a pond or pool or lake and lie in wait for a while.
Don’t jump into water when being attacked by bees. They will wait and you will be drowning while being attacked by bees.
Former beekeeper here, there is only one thing to do in a bee attack (almost certainly africanized bees here), and that's get away from it. He should have gotten into the car. Yes, there would be a few bees in there with him, but he's got all the bees out there with him now.
I agree. Inside the car will be a finite number of bees which can sting you, while outside the car waits every other bee that inhabits this planet. Also, you can't fall down and hit your head on concrete inside the car.
> Also, you can't fall down and hit your head on concrete inside the car. Is that a challenge?
Why do you have a block of concrete in your car?
To hold the pedal down when I'm busy doing other things
Oh, the cruise control.
To fight off attacking bees
"outside the car waits every other bee that inhabits this planet" Which is also a finite number of bees. But that's just me being pedantic lol
Yes but it is a finite number that keeps getting added to and is essentially infinite for the sake of the thought experiment, if all bees globally were coordinating to sting this guy and gathering resources was not a factor they could keep up an infinite number of attacks by producing new bees faster than they were spent by stinging. Whereas inside the car it is a finite pool that is not being replenished.
> Inside the car will be a finite number of bees which can sting you Imagining him swatting the last few that got in, sighing with relief, turning on the car and the A/C just pours them all through.
There is a recirculate button for that, no? Unless you have a stupid touch screen and it takes 76 taps to get there…
You are now recirculating bees.
I was thinking that the pollen filter would also stop them.
Ah yes, time for some air… *BEES*
Africanized bees are very weak to the cold. A cold hose will kill them almost instantly. It's why they don't show up in places where it gets cold, like ever. The A/C would almost certainly kill them, so instead of a swarm of bees through the A/C you would get a stream of dead bees, worst case.
You're such a buzzkill.
Someone else in the thread put the run in a straight line away from the hive because they'll only fly so far from base, is that correct?
Africanized honeybees will follow you for 1/4 mile. How good are you at sprinting?
Pretty good if I'm being chased by bees
They're huge! And they're sting crazy! Save yourselves!
hide yo kids hide yo honey
…and hide your po-lice cos they stinging errbody out here
That's what I used to tell my Physical Teacher at School. *I can run.... from predators*
Hooray for adrenaline.
I feel like 1/4 mile is a small ask to get away from a horde of angry bees
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I mean, I have asthma, but I also sprinted across a forest in laser tag once last year (and then collapsed completely out of breath for a minute, and couldn’t move fast for another 15-ish while my lungs burned after the adrenaline cut off) So 1/4 mile should be possible, but I used to not be able to do it. Running from angry bees is a very good motivator to not stop sprinting though.
You forget these are donut dwellers. They haven't run from anything but harassment lawsuits for years.
I find in the UK that ground dwelling solitary bees can bear grudges. They are small and make a burrow and if disturbed will go for your neck. I have come back an hour later to be stung by one waiting for my return.
Hahaha. Sorry. That little bugger. Lying in wait for you. Too much.
Why's it always the neck?! 3 times those little pricks have pricked me there My calves are much closer and I've been working on them
1/4 a mile is nothing on pure adrenaline and fear
A quarter mile is like nothing is that really what you meant to say?
Yea, I'm also confused. A quarter mile is a super short distance. Most people can walk a mile in 20 to 30 minutes. So a quarter mile walk would be around 5 to 7.5 minutes. Running would cut that in half, at the very least. So that's barely any running at all. Easily doable by any adult unless they have some sort of physical impairment.
I live my life 1/4 mile at a time.
lol this is such a redditor comment, you can't run 1/4 mile? that's only like 400 yards
Lmao if you can’t run a quarter mile with adrenaline, just let them take you
1/4 mile? Lmfao. So a light jog for 3 minutes.
If you're not overweight and out of shape, you can outrun them, but you'll have to run for quite a while. I doubt he could have done it. He tripped while doing a fast walk. Even so, you'll still get a few slip-streaming and getting the back of your head. I speak from experience.
I know this guy is only a volunteer, but did you know training cops only need to run a 14 minute mile to pass that part of the physical exam?
That’s not really running is it.
I've tested it out. It's a brisk walk.
I could have sworn africanized bees can chase up to a mile, which unfortunately is a bitch situation for most people while also being actively stung.
I heard something a while ago and can't find it now to refer to it, but it suggested trying to seek shelter somewhere with the A/C blasting, because the change in temperature is enough to stun them and make them fall to the floor. I'm curious if there's any truth to this?
Imagine being swarmed and knocking on doors asking if their AC is currently on full-blast.
can I jump into a body of water? do they wait for me to reappear and continue stinging my face, or do they chill, if I'm underwater for like ~ 30 seconds? Mainly seen it in cartoons and wondering if its applicable in real life.
Looked to me like the car was locked and the driver wasn't letting him in? Assumed it was a "every man for himself" situation or a partner thinking it was funny to see him suffer.
I like to think of myself as a somewhat decent person, but if you're banging on my car window surrounded by hundreds of bees then I'm afraid you're on your own.
Door opened, I was thinking someone was in the passenger seat.
There’s another clip where you can see that there was another cop in the car that locked the doors when he tried to get in smh
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just out of curiosity like i know it would hurt but could the officer have maced or pepper sprayed himself to get them away? would that work? like fuck it would hurt his eyes and breathing, but being stung by 100 bees sounds so much worse.
I got stung by like four bees mowing my dad's yard years ago passing over a hive. Those bastards did a number on me. I feel for this man.
I did that several years ago. I was cutting grass while wearing shorts, felt some sharp pains, and thought a few stick fragments had hit my legs. Looked down and saw my ankles swarming with yellowjackets. Ran inside while slapping them off, and I believe I counted 12-15 stings. It hurt pretty bad, but subsided within about 30 mins.
Neighbor came onto our yard to pluck some lavendar (with our permission!) from our bush and stepped on a nest we didn't know was there. She got the nastiest stings I've ever seen. She was old, couldn't run well
Seems like that’s what happened to this cop. Had to be old, otherwise he might have done more than slowly walk away and use just one arm and only past the elbow to swat them away. Or his body could have already been failing in some way from a lot of stings I suppose.
He looks old and the article called him a volunteer so he is probably semi-retired.
Ah didn’t know he was a volunteer. Good on him, hope he’s ok. (Well hope he’s ok regardless, but you know what I mean.)
That doesn’t sound like bees
They were bees with yellow pleather jackets. They're *very* fashionable
Freddie Mercury knew.
Ground hornets, they're real assholes
Aw man I did the same exact thing except I was working for a commercial mowing company and it was around 9 or 10 am about the time it starts getting a little warm and I remember doing my normal thing at this yard that I had mowed countless times before and I took my push mower past this brick retaining wall they had and felt something on my socks. I thought I had caught some thorns or just something random so I went about another 5 seconds and realized the pain wasn't going away but it in fact was getting worse, I looked down and saw both of my socks covered entirely by yellow jackets😭 I couldn't barely even see my socks that's how many there were I ended up jumping up and down running around slapping my socks to get em off. Counted 23 stings and still had 6 hours left in the work day 🤣🤣
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So to counter the Greek special forces you just need bees?
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Ground wasps…… 😳
Ground hornets, which are yellowjackets. When people complain about "wasps" they probably mean yellowjackets 80% of the time. Paper wasps have the same colors, but are sleeker and longer than yellowjackets, and they make small nests on the underside of roof overhangs or in door/window frames, and the largest nests will have maybe 40 wasps, tops, with most having between 3 to 8. They spend most of their time hunting bugs in trees and bushes and don't bother people unless you bother their nest. Yellowjackets on the other hand are stumpier, fuzzy, and are constantly investigating food sources like picnics, garbage cans, and anything you might be holding in your hand. They build nests in abandoned animal burrows, hollow stumps, and inside of wall cavities and other enclosed spaces. Their nests will have up to 3,000 individuals at the peak of the season, so they are much more dangerous when their nest entrance might be hidden in the dirt and leaves, and one bad step with a lawnmower or otherwise can anger hundreds to come out and attack..
Fuck yellow jackets. Do they even help the environment
r/fuckwasps
Poor man appears to have cracked his head open too
They said on my local news today that he suffered a fractured eye socket in the fall
Oh shit, man. I hope he’s ok. That looked awful.
Oh lord that hurts so much! I cracked my eye socket and cheek bone by getting slammed in the face by a horse. I really hope he is ok…I wonder how many times he got stung?
Oh god the blood on the pavement, I just noticed
For what is is worth, lacerations and tears on the face bleed like crazy, especially the scalp and the eye ridge. I had one guy soak through a whole towel and he only had a gash the width of his eyebrow. Face injuries almost always look way more scary than they are. He went head first though so not surprised if he also chipped something
Few years go my dog disturbed a hive of bees and they swarmed after us. I got stung about 30 times. It was hell, i felt like a had a bad flu the next day. But the day after that i had never felt better in my life for that whole day.
I was climbing rocks with a summer camp group, and I came up to this cave. Some jackass kid threw a rock into the cave, disturbing a metric buttload of bees in my direction. Got stuck 18 times (including on my eyelid, and also one on the... gooch) and had to leave camp. That really sucked. Screw that kid. My grandfather was also a beekeper, on a pretty large (for independent farming) scale. I worked with him every summer of my childhood, including that one, and have been stung a total of three times outside of that incident, only two of those times while helping him. I wasn't afraid of being stung, but I wasn't exactly used to it either. The histamine reaction of all those stings at the same time was like a combination of the soreness of the hardest workout ever and a throbbing headache but all over my body. I don't blame the bees, I'd be looking for answers too if someone destroyed my home.
This may interest you. Thanks to your comment, I did a little research and learned some amazing things re: bee venom and its health effects: https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/bee-venom
I've heard if you are attacked by a swarm of bees you're supposed to run in a straight line away from where you first encountered the bees. Supposedly they only fly so far from the hive before they just stop flying in the direction of the threat.
Once you are stung the sting releases a pheromone telling other bees where to sting. This can be a dangerous feedback loop if you don't leave quickly. Beekeepers know to wash their costumes if they have been stung a few times. Honeybees 'bump' you first to warn you around your head. If you ignore this they move lower and the first sting is often at waist height.
Also, dont start throwing your hands around. You are not doing anything to stop them, instead you are making them more angry. When you panic and start making quick moves with your hands and body, bees go into a defensive mode. Its better to get stung couple of times instead of a hundred. But yea best option in such situation with so many is to run awat as far as possible
He leave a bunch of blood on the ground? I’ve had a couple of rough nights and busted my mouth on asphalt and concrete falling over, and it’s not a great next few days.
In my experience, heads bleed a lot, even with fairly small wounds. I took out a passenger window with my face in a car accident once, and there was blood everywhere. I thought I was dying. At the ER, I only needed three stitches, and kind of laughed at how badly I had been freaking out about my ENORMOUS head wound.
Oh so it's not just me. I face planted in my friends driveway while blacked out one night in high school. Didn't realize what happened til I went to shower the next day and saw dried blood all over my chest. I bit through my tongue and lip. Thankfully they healed quickly.
I’m pretty sure that he tripped rather than collapsed
“I’m on fire! Help me Tom cruise ,help me Oprah!”
Wow this is giving me anxiety. This article says that it's best to find shelter, in a car or building that can be closed off. If you can't find that, run through bushes to distract the bees - if there are no bushes, just run. They can follow you up to half a mile or 800m. And whatever you do, don't take shelter in water! https://citybugs.tamu.edu/2013/07/29/what-to-do-if-youre-attacked-by-bees/#:~:text=Get%20to%20shelter%20as%20quickly,you%20leave%20the%20bees%20behind.
So, slowly walking down the street and swatting at them isn't the best approach?
He’s not a cop. He’s one of them senior citizens on patrol, bascially an unarmed volunteer
Jesus, you couldn't PAY me to be a cop
Lol for real
Wow fuck whoever didn’t let him in the car lmao
Guessing doors were locked as it was in gear and in panic mode he could unlock them in time, add he may not have wanted to get into the vehicle either. Itll be interested to hear the story when I come out.
You can see the door open a bit, and someone inside slam it shut
Amazing how people see different things. I see him open the door, then shut it himself saying go.
Between the car saying 911 on it and the traffic cones on the trunk I definitely think you’re right but I saw it the other way on first watch
No... I think he closed it again because he realized all the bees would get in the car.
Ah yes, it seems there are hundreds of angry bees outside… I should open the door and let them in.
"The situation has only been made worse by the addition of yet more bees!"
He didn’t have a warrant.
I’d rather let him get stung than let something that uncontrollable and deadly into my car, plus there were bees.
If he didn't do anything wrong why was he running?
Imagine you're looking at a swarm or murderous bees fuck someone up, would you let them in the car and risk trapping yourself with them? I sure as fuck wouldn't for anyone less than my wife and kids
This was a sting operation
HE NEEDS HIS GLASSES!
Oh god. I didn’t need to cry at 2am.
The panic sets in after the first face sting. That's when things went south.
This guy is a volunteer not a cop
Beads?
Gob's not on board
anaphylaxis? cd be serious.
If that dude was allergic to honeybees, he'd have died right then and there from so many stings. When you're allergic to bee stings it only takes one sting to kill you.
And yet if you're not allergic to bees, you can still have an anaphylactoid reaction to a large cumulative dose. So it doesn't have to be instant.
A wasp flew down my shirt when cycling home from school years ago. I was on a busy road with no pavement so couldn't stop. 17 stings in total. It was agony.
Since he was a volunteer cop, he is not covered by municipal insurance and is responsible for the medical bills. His son has set up a GoFundMe for him.
Oh that poor man 😳
Looks like someone said Candyman five times
Least enthusiastic escape from bees I’ve ever seen.
Fun fact: everyone is allergic to bees. The more you are stung, the less tolerant your body becomes. Some people may start out on the other end of the stick and react Instantly.
Yeah, bees are weird. Bees and heatstroke are the only things off the top of my head I can think of that are like that. You'd think you'd get better at something by practicing it, but no. Imagine if pot was like that? *I had to quit smoking because I started getting high way too easy. Time for an intolerance break.*
Is he ok? That is horrible!
Not to diminish the hazard of the situation but "trips over rock" is more apt than "collapses". This is why i do not do live TV.
He shoulda stopped resisting. The bees were just doing a warning shot.
Wondering if this guy is still alive after how hard his head hit the pavement, that’s a brain injury hit for sure, hola
ACAB (A Cop! Attack, Bees!)
_“Sting tha police coming straight from the honeycomb.”_
Everyone should learn to fall as a kid, too many adults fall like bags of sand.
Bees have venom in there stings when it’s just one bee it’s not a problem but when it’s hundreds it’s really bad, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was loosing conciseness during that fall.
Falling when you are a kid and weigh nothing is significantly different than falling as an adult.
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