TUCSON, May 27 (UPI) -- Africanized bees, the hybrids known as "killer bees," made their presence known in the Tucson area this week.
The Arizona Daily Star reports a swarm of the bees stung at least six people in the Foothills neighborhood Thursday. On the same day, pest-control workers began the task of removing a colony of bees from an elementary school.
The swarm in Foothills came from a hive taken over by the aggressive Africanized bees. The hive owner disturbed them as he harvested honey, and they swarmed through the neighborhood.
Jon Hoyt, a neighborhood resident, initially saw one bee and joked to a visitor that it was an "attack bee," he told the newspaper. Hoyt, his guest and her children ended up locked in the house attempting to deal with 20 bees that had gotten inside.
The bees also stung two men working on a house next door.
The bees are a hybrid created when an African bee was introduced in South America in an attempt to create an improved honey bee.
