In last Friday's LOS ANGELES TIMES (Friday the 13th), the following
note appeared:

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13 IN SANTA ANA STUNG AS 120,000 BEES ATTACK.

-- It was pandemonium' after hives in a building's wall are disturbed --

    More than 120.000 bees laid siege to a Santa Ana neighborhood
Thursday afternoon, stinging residents, firefighters, and news
reporters, authorities said.

    After living relatively quietly in a wall of a two-story apartment
building in the 900 block of south Cypress Avenue for about two
years, the bees poured into the neighborhood when boys threw rocks at
the hives, fire officials said.

    Firefighters responded to calls from frantic neighbors shortly
after 2 p.m. and cordoned off a four-block area.  They then tried to
keep the bees at bay with streams of water until a professional
beekeeper arrived an hour later.

    "It was pandemonium," said Santa Ana fire Capt. Steve Horner.
    "Everywhere you looked, bees were attacking."

    A mother and daughter, who were both stung multiple times, were
treated for allergic reactions to the stings and taken to a hospital.

    An unlucky jogger was caught wearing only shorts.  Horner added.
In all, 13 people were stung, including seven fire fighters and two
reporters.

    The beekeeper disposed of most of the 120,000-plus bees by
subduing them with a chemical spray, then vacuuming them up.

    About 500 pounds of honey was discovered in the apartment walls,
Horner said.

    Fire officials said residents had used foam in [earlier attempts]
to plug holes used by the bees to enter the wall, but had never
reported the problem to authorities.

********

    Africanized honey bees were first noticed in the Los Angeles Basin
in about 1996, but remarkably few incidents have reached the press
since then.  The article provided no mention about whether the bees
were tested for lineage.

                                                        Adrian
--
Adrian M. Wenner                (805) 963-8508 (home office phone)
967 Garcia Road                 [log in to unmask]
Santa Barbara, CA  93103        www.beesource.com/pov/wenner/index.htm

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*    The most formidable weapon against errors of any kind
*    is reason.
*                               Thomas Paine, 1794
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