Staff Reports
CLIFTON — Quick action by Greenlee County Sheriff’s deputies and Clifton volunteer firefighters saved the lives of two men who found themselves engulfed by a ferocious swarm of killer bees Monday evening.
The incident happened just before 7 p.m. on April 27 along U.S. Highway 191 near mile marker 165 at the horseshoe turn. According to witnesses and first responders, the two pedestrians were completely covered head to toe in bees when deputies arrived.
Deputies managed to get one of the men into a patrol vehicle, but the bees quickly swarmed the car as well, stinging the officers multiple times. The second man was found crouched beside the road, unresponsive, drooling heavily, and barely able to speak.
Firefighters donned protective gear and went in to pull the second man to safety. Even after being suited up, some bees managed to get inside their gear and sting the rescuers on the head as they lifted the victim. Firefighters had to pick hundreds of bees off the man before they could get him inside the Morenci clinic.
With no ambulance immediately available, the fire crew transported one victim directly to the Morenci clinic in a fire truck running lights and sirens. Both men were treated and released from the clinic by 11 p.m. that night.
Two sheriff’s officers and three Clifton volunteer firefighters were stung during the rescue effort.
One of the victims, Gilbert Hilpert, later thanked the Greenlee County Sheriff’s Office and Clifton Fire Department for their fast response.
“As one of the guys who was being attacked, I’ve got to say thank you to Greenlee County Sheriff’s Office and Clifton Fire for saving my bacon. That was a seriously fast response,” Hilpert commented.
Officials returned to the scene the following day but found no hive, indicating it was a migrating swarm. This is the earliest in the year the Clifton Fire Department has seen Africanized bees this aggressive toward people. His crew has already responded to three bee attacks this year.
Africanized honey bees (AHBs), commonly known as “killer bees,” are a hybrid of African honey bees (Apis mellifera scutellata) and various European honey bee subspecies. They were originally created through breeding experiments in Brazil in the 1950s and have since spread across much of the Americas, including the southwestern U.S.
Key Behavioral Differences from European Honey Bees
Africanized bees look nearly identical to the more common European honey bees, and their individual stings are no more venomous or painful. The danger comes from their colony-level behavior:
- Heightened Defensiveness: AHBs are significantly more protective of their nest. When they perceive a threat (vibrations, loud noises, movement, or even approaching within 20–120 feet), they respond much faster and in far greater numbers—often sending out hundreds of guard bees compared to the 10–20 typical of European colonies. They will pursue intruders for much longer distances (up to a quarter mile or more) and remain agitated for hours or even days afterward.
- Mass Attack Response: A disturbed AHB colony can deliver hundreds to over a thousand stings in a short time because a larger proportion of the colony acts as guards. This sheer volume of venom is what makes attacks potentially life-threatening, especially for people who are allergic or unable to escape quickly. They do not randomly hunt humans; attacks almost always occur when a nest is disturbed.
- Larger Alarm Zone: The “trigger distance” is greater, and it reacts to smaller disturbances (like a lawnmower, a vehicle, or people walking nearby).
Swarming and Migration Behavior
This is especially relevant to incidents like the one in Greenlee County:
- Frequent Swarming: Africanized bees swarm (split off to form new colonies) much more often—sometimes 10 or more times per year, versus 1–3 times for European bees. Swarms in flight or temporarily clustered on a tree or bush are generally not aggressive, as they have no hive to defend yet.
- Migrating Swarms: They are more prone to absconding (the entire colony abandons the nest and relocates) in response to stress, disturbance, or seasonal food shortages. A migrating swarm can appear as a large, moving “black cloud” of hundreds of thousands of bees. These can be highly defensive even while traveling, especially if they feel threatened. In the desert Southwest, this behavior can show up earlier in the year and more aggressively than beekeepers are used to.
- Nesting Habits: They are less picky about nesting sites—often using ground cavities, abandoned equipment (like the jeep mentioned in the earlier story), walls, or other tight spaces. They also tend to build smaller colonies with less honey storage, which supports their rapid reproduction and movement.
Why the Aggression?
In their African origins, honey bee colonies faced intense predation by animals (such as honey badgers) that raid hives. The strong defensive response evolved as a survival strategy: overwhelm threats quickly with sheer numbers. That trait carried over strongly into the Africanized hybrids, giving them a competitive edge in warmer climates but creating challenges for humans and animals in the Americas.
Aggression can vary colony to colony—some are relatively calm, while others are extremely reactive. Over time, in areas like Arizona, many wild and feral colonies have a high percentage of Africanized genetics.
