Devine Firefighters responded to the scene of a family in panic after another vicious bee attack this past July 7, around 7:56 pm. It happened just outside Devine on CR 5710 just north of the intersection at CR 664 where the old Calame Store was.
“Even from 100 yards away, those bees were still swarming. These bees were really aggressive. Two males got attacked really bad. Swelling was visible all over their heads mainly. They were doing lawn work when the bees came out of the wall of a storage shed. We arrived on scene and got the two men to an ambulance, and found that there were at least two dogs in bad shape, which were also viciously attacked.”
The bees were dispatched for the safety of area residents.
Medina County has already seen one person lose his life due to a vicious bee attack this year, and we are grateful to the first responders like Devine VFD who put themselves in harm’s way to help others under attack by bees, or anything else for that matter.
Local Bee Keeper David Park, Sr. points out that not even bee keepers want to tango with aggressive Africanized bees that are attacking people.
“The Africanized Bee is kind of like a rattlesnake,” Park said. “You either got to eliminate them or stay far away from them, because they don’t give up. If you are running from Africanized bees, I hope you’re in good shape because they’ll chase you from Devine to Natalia.”
Furthermore, he explains “Honey bees are important in pollinating crops like cantaloupes, melons, cucumbers, for example. But if you run across a mean hive of bees, I always recommend you spray them and get rid of them. The honey bee population is declining but it is mostly due to the fact that all of the crops around here are sprayed with pesticides these days. Pesticides in agriculture are our biggest enemy when it comes to honey bee populations. That’s why every year I have to order 800 new bees to replenish my hives. I order honey bees from Hawaii because they do not use pesticides like farmers do here, and they do not have Africanized bees over there. The bees are nice and gentle. I had to start bringing in bees from Hawaii in 2007.”
