BRECKENRIDGE, Texas — A Texas man mowing his lawn died after he was attacked by a swarm of “very aggressive” bees, authorities said.
Thomas Hicks, 70, of Breckenridge, died after going into cardiac arrest Monday, KTXS reported. A second patient, Hicks’ wife, Zoni Hicks, was taken to an area hospital for treatment and later released, the television station reported.
“Medics and firefighters entered (the) home through a swarm of bees and started emergency care of (a) patient that had suffered a heart episode,” the Breckenridge Fire Department said in a Facebook post.
Breckenridge Fire Department was dispatched to a Bee attack this afternoon on Water District road 214. Stephens County...
Posted by Breckenridge Fire Department on Monday, April 26, 2021
Zoni Hicks told KTAB that she had been out grocery shopping. When she returned, her husband was screaming and covered in bees, the television station reported.
“I said, ‘Honey, please don’t go back in the back area, because those bees are back there,’ and he said, ‘I won’t, I promise,” Zoni Hicks told the television station. “He was covered in like, I mean, you couldn’t even see his back and his whole head. He was just covered in killer bees.”“They were stinging him all in the yard. He was running in the backyard, the side yard, the front yard, trying to get them off of him, but they were relentless,” Zoni Hicks told KRBC. “They just wouldn’t stop. They were just everywhere, and they were stinging, and they clung to you.”
Joey Venekamp, a local beekeeper, was brought to the scene and successfully located the hive, which was located in a hollowed-out dead tree, KTAB reported. He removed the hive with hand tools and foam, KTXS reported.
“Once one of them stings it’s going to let off a pheromone and that’s like a red flag to the other ones,” Venekamp told KTAB. “The best thing to do is take cover.”
Cox Media Group
