Working the Bugs Out

It’s been several years since Ventura County’s Africanized Honey Bee Task Force last met, but with migrating swarms of the so-called “killer bees” found recently in Los Angeles County, the group of emergency personnel and beekeepers figured Friday was a good time to reconvene.

“We all know where Los Angeles County sits in comparison to Ventura County and that’s why we’re here today,” Agricultural Commissioner Earl McPhail told about 40 representatives from area fire and police departments, beekeepers and pest-control experts.

In a 90-minute meeting in Santa Paula at the agricultural commissioner’s office, the task force discussed how Ventura County should respond to Africanized honeybee attacks and how to best educate residents about the unusually aggressive insects.

Leading off the meeting was a video reenactment of an attack in Texas. Several people in the crowd winced as a 20-year-old man was covered in a blanket of bees. The man whose story the video dramatized survived, even though he had been stung hundreds of times by bees that turned out to be the less-aggressive European variety. But for the task force, the video’s more important point was that emergency personnel lacked a procedure for dealing with bee attacks.

In upcoming meetings, the task force will determine which agencies should respond first to a bee attack and how responders can best approach the victim without being attacked. Training exercises, perhaps involving hives of European honeybees, will follow.

“We need to make sure all the first responders have the training,” McPhail said.

Most likely, if a bee attack is reported through 911, firefighters in protective suits would respond and spray soapy water to knock the bees to the ground. They would then remove the victim from the area.

“Whether it’s a dog or a cat or human being doesn’t make any difference,” McPhail said.

Meanwhile, police officers, sheriff’s deputies and CHP officers would keep other people and vehicles from the swarm.

Experts from the agricultural commission, beekeepers and private pest-control firms would then arrive to remove or destroy the bees and collect samples to determine their type.

“Any swarm that we expect to be Africanized will be destroyed,” McPhail said.

Africanized honeybees are not the task force’s only concern. Ventura County has between 25,000 and 30,000 European beehives for honey production and crop pollination. Though less irritable and less persistent if they attack, European bees are just as venomous as Africanized bees.

After setting an emergency procedure, the task force will shift its attention to alerting county schools and teachers. Information on what to do when bees attack has already been sent to the county superintendent of schools, McPhail said.

“It’s very important that these young people know what to do and what not to do,” he said.

The task force was formed in 1993, before Africanized honeybees had been found in California. Since then, swarms have turned up in Imperial, San Bernardino, Riverside and San Diego counties. Several swarms were found in Los Angeles County, in Lawndale, in November.

The area in Southern California considered to be territory for Africanized honeybees now encompasses 34,830 square miles.

“It has actually more than doubled in the last 12 months,” McPhail said.

And with the bees now turning up in nearby Los Angeles County, McPhail said a swarm in Ventura County is just as likely to turn up in a neighborhood in Port Hueneme as in a barn in Simi Valley.

“They hitchhike very well,” he said.

Piru beekeeper Red Bennett, a member of the task force, said that because California is now the fifth--and not the first--state to encounter Africanized honeybees, Ventura County will not be taken off guard by their imminent arrival.

“I think we’re more prepared than any other community has been at this point in time,” Bennett said.

But he added that residents should not exaggerate the danger the killer bees present.

“We’ll probably experience more yellow jackets than Africanized bees,” he said.

Bennett’s wife, Ann, suggested that after determining a “chain of command” for responding to attacks, the task force focus on telling the public how to deal with bees.

“The education has to happen because education helps to eliminate or subdue panic,” she said.