‘Angry’ bees kill KZN man

A 65-year-old man has died after being stung more than 200 times by a swarm of bees in Glenwood.

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Durban - A man has died after being stung more than 200 times by a swarm of bees in Glenwood. Two others, including a child, were also hurt.

Witness Brenton Mills, an estate agent, said he saw the 65-year-old tradesman, Monevel Chetty, stumble and fall after staggering more than 50m down a Glenwood road.

Chetty had been calling in to quote for a new roof at a house in Princess Alice Avenue when he was attacked by bees believed to be from a hive on the property.

Mills had been gathering marketing footage when he witnessed Chetty being stung, but was helpless as he watched the man fall and the bees swarm over him.

“I saw the neighbour’s dogs moaning and jumping around looking worried, and then I saw an Indian gentlemen swiping at the air and then he sat on the grass,” he recalled.

“I didn’t understand what was happening, so I stepped towards him and then I got stung in the eye and ran away towards the guard hut at the top of the road,” he said.

Mills said he was worried about Chetty and shouted for him to get up and run, but he seemed unresponsive.

Moments later a woman and her two children arrived in a small car. Again, Mills tried to draw their attention to the bees and called for them to stay in the car, but his cries were not heard.

One of the woman’s young children was stung too.

“I used to keep bees as a kid myself, so I have been stung as well in the past, but they were never that vicious unless they were wild bees,” he said.

Mills said the sting felt like a “punch in the face”.

He thought the bees that attacked the man were from the Pigeon Valley reserve across the road.

The Daily News spoke to several residents who saw the attacks, at about 3pm. Some said Chetty, who had more than 200 stings on his hands and face, was wearing long pants and a shirt.

 

Another resident, who declined to be named, said Chetty was being treated “for dear life” by two doctors, one of whom was wearing a beekeeper’s protective clothing and carrying a smoke device to ward off the bees.

The other doctor had apparently been cycling in the area and stopped to help.

The doctors tried to resuscitate Chetty to no avail. Neighbours said they overheard the doctors say he had a “very faint pulse”.

Chetty’s family and colleagues were summoned after witnesses had looked through his pockets to find contact details.

Another resident said:

“It’s just a shame, he was just doing his work.

“He’s a father, he has a wife and his own kids.”

According to a resident, the bees were removed on Wednesday morning from the high-walled property, where Chetty had called.

The homeowner was not at home when the Daily News called on Wednesday.

Residents complained that paramedics had been slow to arrive, despite the proximity of a public hospital and two private hospitals.

“If they were quicker, who knows, they could have saved his life because the doctors were treating and pumping without any equipment,” a neighbour said.

Provincial police spokesperson, Colonel Jay Naicker, said police had opened an inquest docket and confirmed the man had been stung.

Bee expert, Melvyn Dawson of aBeeC, said that at this time of the year beehives had reached capacity and bees were generally angrier as younger queens fought to replace the older queens.

“Once a young queen emerges it will fight with the old queen, so the hive, which can have more than 100 000 bees in it, is very angry which makes it easy to trigger,” he said.

On Chetty’s death, Dawson said he should have run into bush to evade the bees.

This would interrupt the bees’ flight path, but would not necessarily stop them stinging.

The best method of deterring bees in general was to light a fire and create smoke, he said.

Daily News