Farmer Dies as 40,000 Killer Bees Sting Every Inch of His Body
A 62-year-old farmer has died after he was stung all over his body by a swarm of 40,000 killer bees.
Larry Goodwin, was attacked when he disturbed a hive of aggressive Africanised bees in Texas, USA.
Relatives said his entire body was covered in stings so that there was not one inch of skin left that had not been stung.
Mr. Goodwin was attacked as he drove a tractor to help clear scrub on a neighbour's land near Moody, 25 miles south of Waco.
He reportedly disturbed a hive of killer bees that had taken over an old chicken coop among a pile of old
wood and branches.
As
the swarm attacked, Mr. Goodwin ran to a nearby farmhouse and tried to
ward off the bees with a hose, according to McLennan County Chief
Sheriff’s Deputy Matt Cawthon.
But he collapsed and could not be saved by paramedics. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
A woman and her daughter who tried to help the victim were stung about 100 times between them.
Exterminator Allen Miller, who later destroyed the hive, estimated it contained about 40,000 Africanised bees.
He said: "You can’t believe how bad they are. They make me want to get out of this business.
"They
can get up under your clothes where no other insect can go. In a hive
of ordinary European bees, about 10 percent will attack if the hive is
threatened, but with African bees, all of them attack you."
Mr.
Goodwin's tearful daughter Tanya told a local TV station: "If anybody
has any brush or anything on their lands please clear it because they
don't want to go through this. Nobody needs to go through this."
African
bees were taken to Brazil in the 1950s. Some escaped and cross-bred
with European bees, first in Latin America and then the southern United
States.
