ALTUS - A Jackson County man who was stung 600 to 800 times Thursday afternoon by what are thought to be Africanized honeybees, or “killer bees,” expects to be out of the hospital in a couple days, thanks to the fast response of EMS personnel and a passerby.
“That's clearly within range of the lethal stage,” said Altus Police Chief Mike Patterson about the number of stings suffered by maintenance worker Clem Farley shortly after 2 p.m. at a vacant house he was working in at 2420 Cherokee Strip.
Farley swatted at the first couple of bees that were buzzing around him as he worked near a storage building, Patterson said, then was attacked en masse by the swarm, which had built their hive under the building - an indication, along with the bees' aggressiveness, that they were, in fact, Africanized bees.
As the swarm attacked, Farley tried to get a towel from his jeep but was not suc-cessful. Just in time, Carl Spencer, who was looking at houses in the area, saw Farley running down the street being swarmed by the bees. “He could not even see his face for the bees,” Patterson said, adding that Spencer told Farley to get on the tailgate of his truck, and he drove him down the street a couple blocks, all the while being followed by the swarm, which focused their attention on Farley.
Even the EMS personnel were fighting off the bees as they drove off with Farley to Jackson County Memorial Hospital, Patterson said.
According to Carol McGruder, Spencer's mother who lives in Lawton, Spencer told her of the incident around 3 p.m. Spencer, she said, told Farley to get on the back of his truck. At first, she said, Farley fell off because he lost his balance. Spencer saw a couple and asked them to call 911, she said, adding that he went to visit Farley this morning at the hospital.
Tipton beekeeper Gary Grose, who has eliminated upwards of a thousand feral colonies of bees in Tillman and Jackson counties since August 2004, arrived at the address to eliminate the aggressive colony.
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