NICARAGUA NEWS — At least 10 people were hospitalized after deadly Africanized bees attacked some 60 visitors to St. Francis of Assisi Cemetery, in Esteli. The Fire Department said that 50 others were also attacked by the bees also known as killer bees, but they did not require hospital treatment.
The Africanized bees attack happened on Saturday, the Dia de Muertos (Day of the Dead) when workers and family and cleaned the graves of the cemetery about 140 kilometres north of Managua.
Members of the Nicaraguan Red Cross and General Fire Brigade who came to help were also stung by the bees, according to authorities.
A source at the Fire Department on Sunday said that the majority of those hospitalized were discharged hours after the attack, were once served by allergic skin reactions due to bites.
The first victims of the attack of Africanized bees performing work in the cemetery ready to leave the graves of their loved ones on Sunday, when the Day of the Dead is celebrated.
The St. Francis of Assisi Cemetery was visited by thousands of families this morning without a new attack occurred, local media reported.
Last March, the religious of Spanish origin Jose Perez Diaz died in an attack by a swarm of Africanized bees in a community Spa Casares, in the Nicaraguan town of Jinotepe department (province) of Carazo.
Africanized bees attacked Diaz, devoted brother, 66 years after insecticide sprayed a hive hanging from a tree in the center of the parish of Santa Cruz de Casares.
Africanized honey bees known colloquially as “killer bees”, are a hybrid of the Western honey bee species, (Apis mellifera), produced originally by cross-breeding of the African honey bee A. m. scutellata, with various European honey bees such as the Italian bee A. m. ligustica and the Iberian bee A. m. iberiensis.
The African honey bee was first introduced to Brazil in the 1950s in an effort to increase honey production, but in 1957, 26 swarms accidentally escaped quarantine and since then have spread throughout South and Central America and arrived in North America in 1985.
Source: El Nuevo Diario
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