- LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The city of fires, earthquakes and mudslides has
a new woe to contend with: colonization by killer bees.
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- Los Angeles county's agriculture commissioner
announced Thursday that Africanized honeybees -- known as "killer
bees" because they have slain at least five people in the United States
-- have moved into the last killer bee-free zone in the sprawling 4,083-square
mile county.
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- Commissioner Cato Fiksdal said the bees
were recently found lurking under the eaves of a building in the suburb
of Palmdale, which previously had no killer bees.
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- "As a result of the recent detection
in Palmdale, we are officially declaring that the entire county of Los
Angeles is now colonized by the bees," Fiksdal said.
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- "This particular colony was suspect
and we sent the DNA to (be tested) and they confirmed it."
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- Killer bees are no more venomous than
normal bees but are considerably more aggressive and thus sting more readily.
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- Fiksdal said the declaration was made
to alert residents to the bees and "to let them know that they should
not try to remove or deal with a colony of feral bees on their own. They
should call for a professional."
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- The first swarms of Africanized honeybees
were discovered in Los Angeles county last December, Fiksdal said. Some
came via ship from Central America, while others migrated from other
parts of the country.
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- The surrounding Orange, San Diego, San
Bernardino, Riverside and Imperial counties have already been colonized.
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- The bees' last known victim was a 72-year-old
man in Casa Grande, Arizona, who was attacked and killed in his mobile
home in April 1997.
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- Fiksdal said anyone attacked by a swarm
of killer bees should cover his or her nose, mouth and eyes, get into an
enclosed area and call 911. Fiksdal advised against going underwater because,
he said, the bees wait for their victim to resurface.
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