Earlier this week, two people on a residential street in Los Angeles were hospitalized after hundreds of aggressive bees chased and stung them. Like something out of a dystopian low-budget thriller, a voice over a speaker could eerily be heard shouting, "Get back in your car! Get back in your car!" while a police volunteer was caught on video walking down a sidewalk, trying to swat the bees away. He ended up falling to the ground with dozens of stings and was later hospitalized (see clip below, posted by Philip Lewis).
It is believed that the bees came from a hive attached to a nearby home that someone had disturbed, reports NPR, who gives advice for anyone who becomes a target of a bee swarm:
[UC San Diego Professor] Nieh has several pieces of advice for people under siege from bees. Run away as fast as you can. Don't cover your face, because you won't be able to see where you're going. And don't play dead, because bees are attracted to the alarm pheromone left by other bees' stingers and may continue to sting you anyway.
"You can actually outrun them — especially if you're motivated — when you're being stung," he said. "You cannot play dead and escape bees. That's actually the worst thing to do."
Bees are attracted to dark areas such as hair, Nieh said, which is why they'll sting you around your head and why beekeepers wear white suits and footwear.
He emphasized that the best way to get out of being attacked by a group of bees is to simply buzz off.
Fortunately, the volunteer is in stable condition, but the condition of the second man is unknown, according to CBS.
Front page thumbnail image: Bo1982 / Shutterstock.com
