Texas Man Stung by 1000 Killer Bees, Survives

A swarm of 1,000 angry killer bees stung a Texas man while mowing a park lawn this past Thursday, and he miraculously survived the ordeal, reports say.

The unidentified victim, a street department worker in Wichita Falls, Texas, accidentally disturbed the hive, putting the bees in defense mode. The county worker is currently in good condition at a local hospital. Two of his co-workers tried to help and fight off the bees, but to no avail - one of them was also brought to the hospital.

The attackers are believed to be Africanized honeybees, more commonly known as "killer bees," according to the local fire department.

Bee Keeper John Bouchard, said the hive the bees came from was the size of a basketball. A hive of that size can hold around 50,000 bees, Wichita Falls' News Channel 6 reported.

Africanized honeybees may have a bad rep, but they are not as lethal as their name suggests. In order to be deadly, the bees would likely have had to sting the man several hundred more times, experts say. In addition, the victim seems not to have been allergic to the bees. If he were, he likely would have gone into anaphylactic shock - a severe allergic reaction.

The average adult can tolerate about 10 stings per pound of body weight, so an adult could withstand more than 1,100 stings, according to the US Department of Agriculture.

An estimated 40 people in the United States die every year from stings by hymenoptera species - a group of insects that includes some 150,000 species of bees, wasps, ants and other bugs.

"With honeybees, in particular, the venom isn't really designed to kill. It's designed to educate - basically, to drive away an enemy and make sure the enemy doesn't repeat the threat," May Berenbaum, head of the department of entomology at the University of Illinois, told Live Science.

Unfortunately, one killer bee victim was not so lucky as the Wichita Falls worker. Last year in Waco, Texas, an estimated 40,000 Africanized honeybees attacked - who else - a local farmer mowing the grass, ABC News reported. Larry Goodwin, 62, sustained more than 3,000 stings before he collapsed and died.

The tennis center where the bees were disturbed during this most recent incident, as well as a nearby golf course, have been closed off to the public until authorities can be sure the insects have moved on.

Africanized honey bees attack in great numbers and will chase someone up to a quarter mile, according to the Smithsonian Institution. Instead of swatting away the bees, experts recommend running indoors for shelter.