Africanized bees suspected in Boulder City attack

After a swarm of bees attacked two dogs in their Boulder City backyard about 10:20 a.m. Saturday, exterminators in protective suits killed the insects.

One dog died, and the other remains under a veterinarian's care. Africanized bees are suspected in the attacks. Each animal received more than 100 stings.

For Tom Smigel, area manager for the Nevada Division of Agriculture, the only way to confirm the attack is the work of Africanized bees, popularly known as "killer bees," is dissecting and measuring about 100 of them.

Sterling Pest Control Company of Boulder City is expected to deliver the sample of bees killed by foamy spray.

No one can tell an Africanized bee from a more docile European variety, Smigel said. The dissected bees will be compared to Africanized body parts by computer.

Agricultural experts note that attacks and stings by the more aggressive bees are not more potent. But the Africanized variety have killed more than 1,000 people in South America, Central America and Mexico since a colony escaped from a laboratory in Brazil in 1956.

Smigel noted that Africanized bees are easily provoked and tend to nest in places European honeybees wouldn't go, such as near the ground.

Any colony of bees outside of registered hives are fair targets for extermination and testing, Smigel said.

The state is collecting bees, identifying them, then telling people where the Africanized variety has spread before next spring. Swarms have been found as far as Pahrump, 60 miles west of Las Vegas.

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