No Killer Bees in All-Out Attack at Fullerton Duplex

A swarm of bees that killed a dog and attacked a pest exterminator and four firefighters recently in Fullerton was so aggressive that officials took the unusual step of testing the insects’ DNA, certain they’d prove to be Africanized honeybees.

But state agriculture officials who concluded the tests in Sacramento on Thursday said they were not so-called “killer bees,” which were first sighted in Southern California in 1998. And Orange County had not yet recorded its first stinging incident by the Africanized bees after all.

“I’m surprised,” said Jim Francisco, who oversees the bee program for the county’s Vector Control District. “The way these bees acted, and from everything we saw, I was sure we had our first [Africanized honeybee] attack.”

Marsha Bryant, whose bee removal company found and disposed of the hidden hive in the 100 block of South Orange Avenue last week, called the test results a blessing, given the swarm’s hyper-defensive behavior.

“If these had been Africanized bees, someone would be dead--no question,” said Bryant, who has owned a Laguna Niguel company with her husband for 13 years.

The attack happened at a duplex on June 7 when an exterminator climbed a ladder to the second floor and sprayed something into an exposed pipe, neighbors said. The man wore protective bee clothing, including a helmet and mask, said Terry Prado, who owns a garage directly behind the building.

Suddenly the air was filled with what Prado thought were flies.

“They just poured out of that house like a tornado,” she said. “They just started swirling around, and this swarm just got bigger and bigger.”

Within seconds, Prado said she and the customer she’d been helping realized the insects were bees.

“You know in the cartoons how bees will fly in a big ‘V’? Well, that’s what happened. They made this big, black ‘V’ and swarmed over the hedge toward us. That’s when I started running.”

As Prado, 41, dashed into the office of her garage, the customer and her chief mechanic both jumped into nearby trucks and slammed the doors shut. From inside the garage office, Prado said she watched in disbelief as the insects hurled themselves against the glass door and window. Surprisingly, neither Prado nor the other two men were stung.

But while the bees swarmed over the duplex and through her garage bays, Prado said she could hear the yelping of a dog that had been tied beside the apartment house.

“The yelps just got quieter and quieter and then they stopped.”

Fullerton Fire Capt. Glen Banks said his paramedic unit arrived to find the exterminator standing in the front yard, having been stung through his protective gear. As they began to examine him, Banks said a swarm of bees flew over the house from the backyard and attacked them too. One firefighter was stung on the shoulder and behind his neck, and two others were stung on their arms.

“I’ve never seen bees this aggressive,” said Banks, who was stung on the top of his head. “They just came right on you and wouldn’t get away. You couldn’t swat them away.”

Tenants said their bee troubles began more than two months ago when the insects began appearing in their bathroom. At first it was just a handful, but eventually family members started swatting as many as 20 bees at a time, only to return to the room an hour later and find 20 more.

“It was a nightmare,” said Ana Pena, who was stung three times. “For two months we had to kill and kill and kill.”

What the tenants later learned was that an enormous colony of bees had taken up residence under the floorboards of the second floor right below the family’s bathtub. Bryant’s team of exterminators made the discovery when they removed a 2-by-3-foot section of bathroom flooring to expose a vast honeycomb.

“They filled six trash bags full,” Pena said.

While such aggressive behavior by European honeybees is unusual, officials said they too can be overly defensive of their hives, particularly if they have been provoked repeatedly. It is unclear whether residents had been trying to exterminate the bees themselves prior to the attack or whether the bees reacted so strongly to protect the extensive hive they’d been building for weeks beneath the floors.

“There’s a lot of variation in the temperament of hives, and they can go from one extreme to another. Some can be very aggressive,” Bryant said.

Bee-related complaints have doubled in the past year since Orange County officials declared Africanized honeybees to be on the move and frightened residents began reporting “anything that buzzes” to the Vector Control District, Francisco said. In 1999, more than 2,800 calls were received.

Africanized bees look almost identical to their European counterparts, and both will die after they lose their stingers. The “killer bee” moniker refers to the Africanized variety’s temper; generally they are more easily provoked, attack in large numbers and have been known to pursue people up to half a mile.

And while their venom is nearly identical, victims of Africanized honeybees are generally exposed to a much higher dose, because they are stung repeatedly. Last summer, a Long Beach beekeeper died two weeks after he was stung more than 50 times while mowing his lawn.

“Africanized honeybees do not like noise, and they do not like vibration,” Francisco said, noting that it takes less than three seconds to anger a killer bee, compared to 19 seconds for a domestic bee. “So you have to be careful when you’re doing yard work, or house work if you are banging around outside and there are bees around. You have to assume every bee is Africanized or you’re taking a big risk.”

Since 1995, there have been 33 confirmed Africanized honeybee stings in the state, all of which occurred within six counties, Francisco said. Officials first declared Orange County to be “colonized” by the bees a year ago, although they were first spotted in Southern California in 1998. The term means the bees are considered permanent residents, ending any hopes of eradication. Within a few years, officials say the Africanized bees are likely to replace ordinary European honeybees throughout the region.

“We may have escaped them this time, but we won’t get away from them forever,” Francisco said. “We’ve been too lucky. It’s just a matter of when.”

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Times staff writer David Haldane contributed to this report.