I love bees and all that they do when it comes to pollination and making honey. However, getting unexpectedly stung by more than one bee is never a fun event.
For this article, we are going to explore stories from the newspaper archives involving people and deadly bee stings.
1. Beekeeper Fatally Stung
I have nothing but admiration for beekeepers, including the hobbyists. However, it is always best to wear protective gear when working with a hive, as we see in this news article from British Columbia, 1912.
“Two days after being nearly killed by bee stings, Fredericks Gunter is still lying unconscious in the general hospital, his condition being practically unchanged since he was received… on Friday night.
“Mr. Gunter was working among his bees in the garden of his home on Friday evening, when he was stung on the hands and face several times. Entering the house he asked his wife for a drink of water and collapsed. A doctor was called in and administered stimulants, but tetanus supervened and the unfortunate man’s life seems to be fast slipping away.” [Source]
2. Turned Over Hive
For the record, you cannot get tetanus from bee stings nor does a bee sting give you blood poisoning, unless you develop an infection after being stung.
For example, this Wisconsin woman in 1905 died a few days after being stung by a swarm of bees:
“Mrs. Ignatz Schwab, who resides on a farm…, is dead as the result of being stung by a swarm of honey bees. Blood poisoning set in and she died a few days later. Mrs. Schwab overturned a hive.” [Source]
3. Driver Stung By Bee
Not surprisingly, I found multiple articles about drivers stung by bees and crashing. For this article, I am only going to cover one of these stories from out of Massachusetts, 1936.
“Charles Duke…, with Miss Dorothy Smith, 19, and Miss Dorothy Kunkell, also 19, was enjoying an automobile ride Sunday until a bee buzzed into their car and stung him. The car rammed into a pole. Miss Smith was killed. The other girl was critically injured. Duke suffered minor injuries.” [Source]
4. Stung in Face
Now, let’s get back to beekeepers and check out this horrific Pennsylvania article from 1885:
“Thomas Fader… keeps several hives of bees in his garden. Yesterday forenoon he was at work among his bees. A man with whom he had some business dealings called at his house to see him. Mrs. Fader went out to call her husband into the house. As she approached the bee hives a number of bees flew into her face, and she was stung several times. One of the bees stung her in one of her nostrils, and another one stung her on the upper lip, at the base of the cartilage dividing the two nostrils. Mrs. Fader’s cries brought her husband to the spot. He extracted the stingers and applied wet earth to the wounds. He went with his wife back to the house and had no thought of any consequences resulting from the bee stings more serious than the swelling and pain. He left his wife in the kitchen applying ammonia to the wounds, and entered a front room where his visitor was. A few minutes later he heard a heavy fall in the kitchen. He ran out and found his wife lying in convulsions on the floor. Her nostrils were swollen shut, and her lips were twice their natural size, and had turned dark blue. She breathed short and quick through her mouth. Her face was so swollen that its identity was entirely lost. Mr. Fader hurried his visitor after a doctor, but before one arrived his wife died in her husband’s arms… Mrs. Fader was [only] 28 years old.” [Source]
5. From Tree to Hive
Finally, we are going to take a look at what happened to a West Virginia man when he attempted to move some bees from a tree to a hive he prepared for them in 1912.
“While attempting to transfer a swarm of bees from a bee tree which he had just chopped down, to a hive which he had prepared, Drury Badgley, aged 83, was so badly stung about the head and face that he died within an hour afterwards…
“During the morning Mr. Badgley had been out in the field hoeing corn and noticed a swarm of bees passing by. He followed it and found that it had gone to a tree on the farm and made plans to cut down the tree and secure the swarm… [After] the tree was felled, Mr. Badgley started to transfer the bees.
“Evidently the bees were angry for they attacked the old gentleman and stung him terribly. He went to his home where the common remedies were applied for bee stings. He was asked if he wanted a physician, but would not allow the members of the family to send for one.
“Within a short time after reaching the house he commenced to sink and it was soon apparent that his condition was serious. Death occurred in a very short time. His face and head were badly swollen and it is evident that the sting of the bees poisoned him.” [Source]
