The Following article was in the Desert Dispatch today.  They describe
the hive as 100,000 bees. 2'x10'x1'.  They also say that DNA testing
is required to make certain the bees are africanized.

The Desert Dispatch is a daily newspaper serving the communities of
Barstow, Dagget, Fort Irwin, Hinkley, Lenwood, Newberry Springs and
Yermo.

http://www.desertdispatch.com/cgi-bin/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1093188974,18879,


Sunday, August 22, 2004
Killer bees hospitalize six
Swarm attacks at Horton Lake in Newberry Springs

By LEROY STANDISH/Staff Writer

NEWBERRY SPRINGS -- A swarm of Africanized honey bees living inside a
lakeside playhouse attacked 11 people -- six of them children -- on
Saturday afternoon, Newberry Springs Fire Department officials said.

Six people were taken to hospitals with multiple bee stings. One
4-year-old girl and her uncle were taken by helicopter to Loma Linda
University Medical Center where they remained Saturday night after
getting stung more than 100 times apiece.

Both were recovering and listed in good condition, according to
hospital officials.

"This little girl had them in her nose, her tongue, she had them in
her eyelids," said

Dr. John Horton, co-owner of the Horton Lake Water Ski School where
the attack occurred. "They estimated they had over 150 stinger bites."

The attack started when the 4-year-old girl and several of her friends
were playing along the shores of Horton Lake, a man-made lake in
Newberry Springs, on Saturday morning.

Gretchen Horton, who runs the ski school with her husband, John,
watched as two of the girls entered the playhouse in front of her
office window.

That's when the screaming started.

"The children went into the playhouse to play and there was a nest of
killer bees in the playhouse," Horton said. "One of the parents heard
the children scream, grabbed them and threw them in the lake to get
away."

Two employees of the ski school, Tony Wahl and Travis Hall, motored
their boat from the opposite side of the lake to rescue the two girls.
A man identified by John Horton as Butch Coley and two other
unidentified adults held the girls under the water as the bees swarmed
overhead and stung them repeatedly, said Steve Miller, assistant fire
chief of Newberry Springs Fire Department.

"They'd go in the water and the bees just hung on. They got in their
nose, their ears, their mouths and they just wouldn't let go. The bees
were everywhere," Gretchen Horton said Eventually Wahl and Hall
dragged the children and three adults out of the lake and took them.

Dr. Horton pulled the pulsing stingers out of the screaming children
and the little girl's uncle, who began to have trouble breathing, so
he was flown with his niece to Loma Linda.

The other victims were taken to Barstow Community Hospital where they
were treated and released as of 6 p.m. Saturday, according to hospital
spokesman John Rader.

None of the other victims were identified.

Miller has trained with the Newberry Springs Fire Department on how to
deal with bee infestations. He said he has handled numerous
Africanized bee colonies in the last three years because they have
made their presence known in the High Desert.

He said he was certain the bees that attacked the people at Horton
Lake yesterday morning were Africanized, popularly called "killer"
bees.

"I'm certain from their behavior," he said.

Officials with the San Bernardino County Vector Control Program said
it takes two-weeks and DNA testing to make positive identification.

Joan Mulcare, of the San Bernardino County Vector Control Program,
sent a member of her team to destroy the three hives infesting the
play house. Miller described one hive as 2 feet by 10 feet and a foot
thick. He estimated that there were more than 100,000 bees in the
hive.

Before anyone from the county's Vector control arrived, Miller said he
and his crew of firefighters broke into one of the hives and doused it
with flame retardant foam, killing the bees inside.

Miller said the Africanized honey bees have been in the High Desert
for at least three years. Miller said residents should periodically
check their back yards and homes for small holes. A hole the diameter
of a pencil can allow bees in to set up hives in attics or other
undisturbed places, he said.

"If they see bees congregating, dozens on one building, then they need
to call an exterminator," he said.

Mulcare said when bees attack, people should run, not jump into water.
She said getting into water is the worst thing the victim of a bee
attack can do.

"You should run in a straight line as fast as you can and they may
chase you for a quarter-mile," Mulcare said. "You should never jump in
the water, because you have to come up for air, which is unfortunately
what they did. If you can get in a place where you can close it up,
that is the best."

Staff Writer LeRoy Standish can be reached at [log in to unmask]
dom.com or 951-6277.

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