More than 20 people stung in bee attack at southern Arizona school

More than 20 students at Valley Union High were attacked by a swarm of bees on Monday.

The “Killer Bee Guys” who eradicated the swarm on Monday, came back to make sure the job was done Friday and sure enough, there were still a few bees lingering.

“The number of people attacked. They’ve killed three people in this county this summer, that we know of, just in Cochise County. They are sending people to the hospital every day in this county. It used to be five or six a year, and now they are super aggressive, we don’t know why,” said Reed Booth, The Killer Bee Guy.

Booth went on to say that they encountered over 100,000 Africanized honey bees, or as they call them killer bees at the school.

The high schoolers were not the only ones affected, as many staff members also got stung, including the principal of Elfrida Elementary.

“I could see the kids were running, and somebody was yelling bees and so I stopped and I backed up, and I stayed what I thought was a safe distance back, and then all of a sudden one of the bees took after me,” said Justin Price, Elfrida Elementary principal.

Elfrida Elementary and Valley Union High are right next to each other, but Price said none of the elementary school kids were stung. The school was able to immediately shut down and evacuated both schools to ensure no one else got hurt.

Price said none of the people stung has to go to the hospital.

However, at the direction of The Killer Bee Guys, those who were stung were advised to stay home because they said after you get stung, you have a higher likelihood of getting stung again.

The Killer Bee Guys have noticed a rampant uptick in calls, especially this summer, and they’re not entirely sure why that is.

“This year we’re seeing a lot of aggression. Very very big hives. Very aggressive bees. And that’s been consistent this entire season,” said Hosh Sedam, a Killer Bee Guy.

With The Killer Bee Guys wrapped up at the Elfrida schools, Booth said that students are safe to return to school on Tuesday.