ADVANCE NEWS COLUMNIST ESCAPES TWO ATTACKS
By G. Romero Wendorf
If a time machine existed, maybe we could go back to the mid-1950s, Brazil, and make sure that Biologist Warwick Kerr quit his study of bees. Because if not for him, no doubt, countless people would still be alive today, including the poor 54-year-old San Benito man, Roy Zuniga, who was attacked and killed by a swarm of Africanized bees while he was plowing a fieldnear his home this past Sunday.
San Benito firefighterand emergency personnel later located a 25-foot underground pipe that was filledwith hundreds of Africanized (killer) bees and globs of honey. The sound of poor Zuniga’s tractor got them excited and angry, and as the aggressive bees are so prone to do, they attacked.
Back in the mid-50s, the biologist, Kerr, was down in Brazil trying to make a hybrid bee that would produce more honey, so he took the aggressive African bee and mated it with the more benign European bee. But in 1957, a visiting beekeeper accidentally released 26 swarms of the aggressive hybrid Africanized bees, and they’ve been moving steadily north ever since. They arrived in North America in 1985. Currently, they can be found in Texas, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Florida, California, Louisiana and Arkansas.
As a local angle to this story, The Advance News Journal’s religion columnist, Chris Voss, has been attacked not once, but twice by the Africanized (killer) bees. Both times happened near his residence near Mission. And in both instances, he was stung multiple times. The only thing that perhaps saved him was his ability to run.
In fact, according to one story about the killer bees published in 2013 by the LA Times, if attacked, one bee expert recommended that “people should run, as fast and as far as they can, and they can usually out distance the killer bees, which are limited to about a quarter of a mile from their hives.”
Those using heavy equipment in key areas, like Texas, advised the bee expert, should walk their property looking for bee infestations before using heavy machinery, whose low frequency vibrations are felt by the killer bees as an attack.
Unfortunately, for the RGV’s latest bee fatality, Roy Zuniga, who died near San Benito last Sunday, the bees were infesting an underground pipe. So even if he had walked the grounds, it’s unlikely he would have spotted them
In the two bee attacks involving Chris Voss, one occurred when he lifted a utility cover, which housed an irrigation valve, and the bees suddenly came swarming from it.
“I raced home,” he said, “with the bees following me the entire way, stinging me as I ran. They never gave up.”
Fortunately for Voss, a former marathon runner, he can cover a lot of ground in a short period of time. And in both instances, the attacks occurred no more than a quarter mile from his home.
Asked if he can still run an eight-minute mile, a common benchmark for runners, today, Voss, 65, says no.
“I can do about a 10-minute mile these days,” he says.
But when the bees went after him approximately three years ago?
“I’m guessing I was running a 7-minute pace.”
No doubt.
The second attack occurred approximately a year later when he was out in his subdivision, which he developed, doing some simple landscaping work. He thought he saw some trash in a bush, reached in, not knowing the killer bees had formed a huge hive, and here they came again. Same reaction: he raced home, thankful he still had fast legs.
He says now that he carries with him an EpiPen, so that if he’s ever stung again, he can inject himself with a quick dose of epinephrine to combat the chance of anaphylaxis shock.
“The second time I got stung, I was more swollen than the first time,” he said. “And the doctors told me that with every time you’re stung, your chances of an allergic reaction increase. So trust me, I’m careful with what I do, whether it’s lifting an irrigation cover or sticking my hand into some bushes.”