A man was stung more than 300 times by a swarm of killer bees while walking his dog on Saturday evening.
Sixty-year-old John Fischer, who lost one of his legs to an infection around eight years ago, was riding his wheelchair exercise bike in Florence, Arizona, when the attack occurred, KPHO reported.
Following the seemingly unprovoked attack, Fischer was rushed to hospital, where doctors removed more than 300 stingers from his body. They told the man he had been stung by Africanized honey bees, known colloquially as “killer bees.”
Africanized honey bees are a hybrid species of the Western honey bee first discovered in the United Stated in the 1980s. They are now found in several parts of the country, including southern California, southern Nevada, Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, western Louisiana, southern Arkansas, and central and southern Florida.
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Western honey bees—the most common honey bee species worldwide—will rarely pursue a threat for long distances. But Africanized honeybees have been known to chase people for hundreds of feet, earning them the “killer bee” nickname.
Killer bee venom is no more dangerous than that of regular honey bees. However, Africanized honey bees have a tendency to attack in greater numbers, increasing the risk to their targets.
When Fischer was walking his dog, he thought he felt a fly land on him and swatted it away—the first sign of what was to come.
“Next thing I know, there were bees all over me and all over the dog,” Fischer told KPHO. “I tried to get across the street, but I couldn’t see because they were going towards my eyes, and they’re all over my face.”
Fischer decided to release his dog, telling him to go home and the canine took off. The man’s wheelchair then tipped over and he was left crawling on the floor trying to fight off the bees, unable to run away.
“I crawled my way for a period of time to try to get far away from where they were, but they just followed me,” he said. “I was kinda biting them and spitting them out.”
Moments later, fire and police crews arrived to help Fischer, but the bees began attacking the emergency responders as well. Eventually, firefighters were able to hose down the man. He was then placed on a stretcher and taken to the hospital.
Emergency responders estimated that there may have been roughly 2,000 bees flying around Fischer, with around 1,000 of those involved in the attack.
“I have never experienced anything like this. I had been stung many times before but nothing where it was more than 10 or 15 stings,” Fischer said.
After arriving at hospital, doctors administered morphine and removed the numerous stingers from his body.
Surprisingly, Fischer didn’t have a severe reaction to the large number of bee stings, and he is currently recovering well, although he has been left with several scrapes and sting marks.
His dog was also stung about 50 times in the attack and later received treatment at an animal hospital. The dog was later released, but its recovery appears to be slower than its owner’s.
“He’s sick. We’re trying to get him to drink. He is very sore and pretty lethargic,” Fischer said.
The man said his daughter is allergic to bees and would likely have died if she had been involved in the attack instead of him.
A single bee sting usually only results in mild symptoms. These may include a burning pain in the sting area, itchiness and slight swelling. These symptoms tend to subside in a few hours.
But in a small percentage of people—those who are hypersensitive to insect stings—anaphylaxis may occur, which is a severe and potentially life-threatening allergic reaction.
For people who don’t have an allergy, death can still occur if an individual is stung enough times in a single incident. An otherwise healthy adult would likely have to be stung more than 1,000 times to be at risk of death, according to the Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of California.