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4B Daily News – Tuesday, July 26, 2011 'Killer bees' attack isolated, officials say MODESTO — African honey bees attacked a 70-year-old man walking his dogs near Modesto in the first known documented "killer bees" assault north of Madera. Agricultural officials believe African bees have not colonized north of Tulare County and suspect that the July 5 attack, though savage, was isolated. "It felt like my head was on fire," said Jack McBride on Saturday, a day after learning that a state laboratory confirmed the identity of the aggressive insects that stung him more than 50 times. "They zeroed in on my head," McBride said. "I couldn't see anything but bees. I was spit- ting them out, then gritted my teeth so they wouldn't get in. I was afraid they were going to kill me." McBride was stung inside his nose and on his eyelids, face, neck, armpits and torso. He fell, lost his glasses, tried rolling and finally ran, half-blinded, about one-eighth of a mile to take shelter in a house — bees chasing him the whole way. European honey bees, crucial for pollinating many California crops, "just don't overdo it like that," said Eric Mussen, a University of California at Davis apiculturist, or bee expert. He published a report on African honey bees in March, noting that the aggressive species invaded California in 1994, but had never moved north of Tulare County. Mussen and Gary Caseri, Stanislaus County's agriculture commissioner, said African bees likely swarmed, or escaped a hive to repopulate elsewhere, after being trucked in to pol- linate almonds around Modesto. Central Valley growers pay beekeepers to bring in millions of bees every spring. It's unlikely that African bees moved that far north on their own without confrontations reported in other counties such as Fresno and Merced, Mussen said. African bees are similar to their European cousins in size, venom and honey production, but are much more defensive of territory, sending many more attackers and chasing victims up to a quarter-mile. They edge out less aggressive species and can't get along with people, making it difficult to work in fields, Mussen said. A swarm in October killed a 73-year-old man clearing brush with a bulldozer in Georgia, stinging him more than 100 times. A 55-year-old landscaper in northern San Diego County disturbed a nest while operating a backhoe in June 2010, sought refuge in a nearby outhouse but was pronounced dead shortly after being rushed to a hospital. McBride routinely walks for exercise and had noticed plenty of buzzing in flowering trees in a backyard along a private road. One of his three dogs stirred up a nest at the base of a retaining wall, he said. "It was like something out of a horror movie," he said. Although McBride was wearing shorts, the bees focused on his head, he said, and did not sting him below the waist. A housekeeper let him in and called for help while a neighbor corralled his dogs. Ambu- lance workers administered antihistamine and an IV before rushing him to the hospital, where he was given morphine for pain. "I was bitten so many times. It felt like the worst sunburn you've ever had," he said. He felt better in about 24 hours and eventually retrieved his glasses. One of his dogs was stung in the eye and another vomited, so he took both to a veteri- narian. They seemed to recover more quickly, McBride said. The property owner hired an exterminator who destroyed four nests, using a crane to reach some in trees. Laboratory tests of dead bees determined they were "Africanized," or hybrids descended from swarms moving north from Brazil since scientists brought African bees to breed in the late 1950s. "We don't have an infestation," Caseri said Saturday. "My strong feeling is it's isolated. They were probably brought in by a beekeeper, got out and started their own nest. But they're not established; if they were, there would be more swarms here and there." It's wise, however, to take precautions and know what to do if stung by more than one bee, Caseri said _ get into a closed vehicle or inside as soon as possible. Jumping into water doesn't work because bees wait for victims to come up for air, experts say. McBride, still scratching welts 18 days after, says he's grateful things didn't turn out worse. "But when I hear a fly buzzing," he said, "it spooks me." 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