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What to do if attacked by Africanized honeybees (AHB)?

If, unfortunately, Africanized honeybees are encountered, particular measures should be taken in order to avoid critical consequences. First best thing always is to run away as fast as possible! You should try to cover your face and neck with any kind of cloth such as coat, towel or at least pull your shirt up over your face. If possible, get into a building or vehicle.

If it is impossible to get indoors, keep running. Healthy humans can usually outrun pursuing bees. Africanized honeybees can sometimes follow you for more than a quarter mile, so don’t stop running. Few new bees join the attack once the intruder leaves the immediate vicinity of the nest and the number of attacking bees drops off sharply with distance.

While running, try not to flail your arms if it is not really necessary – bees will get only madder if you do. On the other hand, do not try to fool the bees standing still and not running away – this will not work.

Bees are more likely to follow you if they can see you clearly, so retreating through shrubbery can be useful, but not if it slows your retreat. Thick brush itself does not offer protection, so don’t hide there– AHB will find you.

Do not dive into the water either - this only works in cartoons. Although it could seem like a good idea, but bees will wait for you to come back up for air, and will strike as soon as you do. Unless you can hold your breath for ten minutes, you're better off to just keep running.

Once you are away from the bees, evaluate the situation. If you are stung by one Africanized honeybee, it will be the same as a sting from the common European honey bee. The stings you may get on your chest and abdomen are far less serious than those to the facial area. Remove all stingers from your body quickly by scraping them with fingernail, dull side of a knife or credit card or with a help of sticky tape. After that, wash sting area with water and soap. Ice pack, over-the-counter cooling antihistamine spray or ointment may help relieve discomfort and swelling.

Immediately seek medical attention or call 911 if breathing is troubled, having symptoms other than pain and localized swelling (dizziness, swelling of the tongue and throat), if stung numerous times or if allergic to bee venom. The toxic dose (LD50) of bee venom is estimated to be 8.6 stings per pound of body weight. (For a 150 pound person, this would be 1,290 stings.) Healthy persons usually do not suffer lasting damage from bee stings.

If you see someone else who is being attacked by the AHB, do not go to their aid (unless you are in a beekeeper’s suit), as this is most likely to result in two victims needing help instead of just one. Better immediately call 911 - emergency response personnel will have the proper equipment and training for this kind of emergency.

It is worth mentioning that quite often bees will display some preliminary defensive behavior before going into attack. They would come up and deliberately head-butt or bump into you, which is a characteristic hive-protection behavior of Africanized honeybees. Bumping bees don’t initially sting; instead they are warning potential threats to stay away from their hives, for comfort both theirs and yours!

Should you survive an attack, you can take comfort in the fact that the bees can only sting once, and all of them will die after they sting you.