Why would bees swarm a dead body?

[The Backlash Cometh]

An electrician living in a historic family home in Little Havana died after hitting his head in a freak fall while battling a swarm of angry bees, relatives said on Sunday.

Donald Mason, 49, had been patching up the old walls and cloth-covered wiring in the house at 129 NW 15th Ave. that his great-grandfather built. He had apparently tried to fog spray a hive in the wall of a bedroom, while patching a hole in the wall with tape.

"His heart was there, but the effort was too much for him," said brother Tim Mason. "But he loved this home."

Donald Mason's teenage daughter discovered her father's body, covered in bees, on Saturday evening.



http://www.orlandosentinel.com/mh-bee-death-20111106,0,2661128.story

[marmar]

1. Eerie.

nt

[Ian David]

2. I've seen bees attracted to someone who was huffing paint thinner.

I've also heard they can be attracted to diabetics.

[Cirque du So-What]

3. Perhaps the scent of stings (pheromones) kept them agitated

I had an unpleasant experience as a child, witnessing a local beekeeper get stung to death while tending to his hives without benefit of protective equipment. Even from a block away, his screams of agony and the sight of this poor man staggering into his front yard covered in bees was horrific (nightmares for years afterward). Yes, the bees kept stinging his lifeless body until driven away by the volunteer fire department's high-pressure hoses.

[pipi_k]

4. Maybe they just held a grudge longer than most other bees? n/t

[ThomWV]

5. First off the New-person misused the word "Swarm" as it applies to a bunch of bees

A swarm of bees is a large clump of bees, surrounding a queen, in the process of leaving their old hive and starting a new hive of their own. At the time of swarm the bunch of bees is actually very docile and are easily collected. That's why swarms of bees are much sought after, or once were, by bee keepers. You can simply put a paper bag over top of the clump of bees and they will move up into it as an example of how easily they can be handled. They rarely sting when they are swarming, mostly they are just waiting around for scouts to return with news of good hive sites.

[JayhawkSD]

6. Why would bees swarm a dead body?

Because they don't know it's dead. They don't care whether it's moving or not, as long as it's still warm, they see it as alive.

[Arkansas Granny]

7. The article doesn't say, but is there a chance these were Africanized bees?

[Occulus]

8. Another article on another thread about this said he was trying to

clear them out of the wall himself, and then tried to seal the hole he'd made with duct tape.

Apparently, it doesn't fix everything. Such as an angry swarm of bees.

[sarge43]

9. It's likely the hive was defending the queen.

If it senses HM is threaten, even the most docile hive will go to DefCon One.

[Javaman]

10. Zombie Bees. nt