Bee/Wasp calls

[NYSmokey]

How does your department respond to calls involving large swarms of bees/wasps and a person being stung repeatedly? I'm aware of the medical stuff. Just want to hear your tactics on rescuing the victim from the swarm. I probably should have asked this a few months ago but they're still out there!

[MetalMedic]

Believe it or not, there is a training video out just for this situation for firefighters. I will have to see if I can track down the name of it, but the basic advise given is that both water streams and CO-2 extinguishers do well at dispersing the insects. It also points out that if you are in full turn-out gear with SCBA, hood, etc, you have reasonable protection to remove a victim from a swarm. I would recommend using duct tape to close the cuffs and waiste for added protection.

Has anyone actually had to deal with an incident involving bees, yellow jackets, wasps, etc??

[lumpy649]

Never had it happen, never considered the possibility. I guess it would be full gear, grab, and leave the area quickly, preferably in a vehicle. Then go somewhere FAR AWAY and treat...

[Busterbar]

After doing what's all ready been said, I'd pretty much have the patient stripped, because I wouldn't want some rogue bees inside the patients clothes.....I don't think a bunch of angry bees in the back of an Ambulance would be too fun...

[eyecue]

The problem with CO2 is that they bees may loose mobility when they get cold but if they dont freeze then they can warm up and come back. I have read that Pheonix gets calls to killer bee victims and uses a soapy water (light water) mixture to drown them. Regular water just beads off them. A large fog stream would disperse them but they can come back.

[emsbrando]

We had this happen several years ago. A farmer ran over an old hollowed out log and there was a hive in it.

The crew arriving on scene was stung repeatedly, and one had to be sent home after treatment in the ER. A deputy sheriff remembered something he saw about how bees hate smoke. So we used dry chemcial fire extingushers to simulate smoke and it worked.

We had to empty about 6 fire extingushers in order to get everyone out and close the unit doors before they came back.

Ed Brando

[berger3447]

My dept has a bee response team that I, thankfully, am not on. I don't really even know all that much about tactics. I do know, or am told, that bees are often attracted to bunker gear, due to the smoke and carbon deposits in it. Out team uses bee suits. They use soapy water, or a class A foam mixture to neutralize the swarm when necessary. We operate kind of like a hazmat team would, protecting life and then preventing the swarm from spreading as best as possible. As long as no immediate life hazard exists, we have a call list of beekeepers that will be called to come out and mitigate the hazard.

[BFD196]

lol, we`ve never had any bee incidents like this, but I`m glad to read this here in case we ever do.

[Fire Eater 07]

Ive never had to use it but i have heard of what a couple of other posters have said...put some dawn, or ivory in the tank and flow the water at an easy psi....supposedly covers the bees so they cant fly....for how long i have no idea?
stay safe

[Dalmatian90]

Bees were big news over the last week in CT... http://www.ctnow.com/scripts/editori...e=&ck=&ver=3.0

Franklin firefighters used water to drive a swarm off a beekeeper, who was down in the cab of his pickup truck.

Over the course of the week,
-- Swarm wasn't Africanized, but were unusually aggresive wild honey bees that occupied one of his hives
-- Actual cause of death was a heart attack from pre-existing conditions aggravated by the excitement of the incident -- they determined most of the stings were post-mortem.

Can you say, Rig for Class A Foam?

=============
Also, last week several Norwich Firefighters got to visit the ER...at a fire the pump op managed to park the truck on top of a Yellowjacket Wasp nest. Yellowjackets where not happy having a pumper occupy their former home!

[Bowbreaker]

We have never had an agressive bee problem but last year we did test the soapy water and class A foam ideas on some hives that were being killed. The soapy water (Dawn dish washing soap) worked as well as class A foam solution (Silvex). I mixed a little soap and water in a pint hand spray bottle. It knocked the bees down instantly. They stay down - they die. I have never tried the idea on wasps but I will when I get a chance.

[MetalMedic]

Originally posted by eyecue:
The problem with CO2 is that they bees may loose mobility when they get cold but if they dont freeze then they can warm up and come back. I have read that Pheonix gets calls to killer bee victims and uses a soapy water (light water) mixture to drown them. Regular water just beads off them. A large fog stream would disperse them but they can come back.

I guess I should have added step #2 --- once you get the bees away from the patient, remove the patient. You obviously would not want to hang around where the bees are since there was some reason for them to be defending that area in the first place. From what I recall from the training we received from a honey bee expert at Ohio State University, soapy water does work best on honey bees since it clogs their breathing tubes. However, you are more likely to be confronted with yellow jackets, hornets and wasps which are not the same as a honey bee. Soapy water and plain water have about the same affect on these insects. So, don't hesitate to use plain water if no foam is readily available.

[NYSmokey]

Great responses everyone! I forgot about the killer bees. Luckily we haven't gotten them yet

[Chief 66]

We had this type of incident last summer. 2-3,000 or more bees attached themselves to the back of a vehicle in a major shopping center with a movie theater. Citizen spotted them as he came out of movies with his kids, in about 15 minutes, 2 more movies were letting out with about 2-300 more people coming into parking lot.

We zapped the bees with CO2 first, moved the car across the street to vacant park, then used water fog streams to clear the rest out.

One of our guys is a Terminex technician, he stated that turnout gear was not needed for the quick hit, but we used it on the remaining operations.

Here's the link with pictures.
Bee swarm in Lancaster Township

[MtnFire]

The post on foam hit it on the nose, and is the probably the best response for a fire department. Normal class A Foam will knock down the bees and kill them, but won't hurt people. The EPA has even given their approval for the use of firefighting class A foam in this manner. In regards to the swarm on the last post, usually a swarm is not very aggressive since they are following the queen looking for a new place to hive, so they do not have a hive or any territory to protect.