30,000 Killer Bees Attack Texas Couple, Kill Two Horses and Five Hens

In an angry swarm, an estimated 30,000 bees attacked a couple in the Texas, leaving them with covered in bee stings and several animals on the property, including two miniature horses, dead.

Kristen Beauregard noticed the bees on her property in Pantego in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area weeks ago, but they did not truly become a problem until last Wednesday when Beauregard was exercising her two miniature horses.

The bees -- suspected to be Africanized or "killer" bees -- swarmed the 44-year-old woman and her Shetland pony, Trump.

"It got all dark, like it was nighttime there were so many bees," Beauregard told the Star-Telegram of Dallas, adding that she and Trump dove into her swimming pool to escape the stinging cloud of insects.

"We were trying to stand up in the water but every time we stuck our heads out for air, they would cover us and start stinging us. We were trying to breathe and they were stinging us in the face and in the nose."

Beauregard eventually escaped to the safety of her house, where from the window she and her boyfriend watched the bees overcome Trump and then attack another horse called Chip.

"It looked like they were moving because they were so covered in bees," Beauregard said. She called for help, but by the time emergency crews responded the horses were already incapacitated by countless bee stings. "It just looked like they were shimmering because the bees were on them and stinging them."

Chip died that Wednesday night and Trump died early Friday morning, the Star Telegram reported.

"He had so much swelling in his face, he must have kept his face above water to breathe. That's where all the bee stings concentrated," equine veterinarian Patricia Tersteeg said about Trump. "He was so overwhelmed by bites that his body could not handle it. That's way too much for any 250 pound mammal to survive."

Beauregard survived the ordeal, but said the only place she was not stung by the bees was her feet. She estimated about 200 bee stings on her and her boyfriend, who was unidentified, had about 50. Five hens were also stung to death, and Beauregard's dog was also stung several times.

Last month a man in Waco, Texas was attacked by a swarm of killer bees after he ran into a log where the bees had established a hive.

Though bees are not predatory, they will attack if provoked -- and sometimes an unwitting act is all it takes to provoke them. Using a lawn mower, or, in Beauregard's case, exercising a horse, is sometimes all it takes to agitate a hive and cause a swarm.

If attacked by bees, victims are advised to run quickly to the nearest enclosed space they can find. Some bees will follow in pursuit, but not all of them will make it inside, according to a LiveScience report.

Jumping into water is not advisable as the bees will wait at the surface for the target to emerge for air, LiveScience said, citing Texas A&M University.

According to the Waco Tribune, eight people have been killed by Africanized killer bees since the 1990s.