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Bees attack, kill 78-year-old Paris man

By Josh Edwards
The Paris News

July 08, 2005 - SULPHUR SPRINGS ·A 78-year-old Paris man died Thursday morning after being attacked by a swarm of bees in northern Hopkins County. Charles Malone was working with former Delta County Commissioner Micky Goforth at what is known as the old Dunham Ranch north of Sulphur Bluff when he was attacked, said Justice of the Peace Ronny Glossup, who pronounced Malone dead. "It's just a very tragic accident. My heart goes out to the family,·Glossup said.

Goforth and Malone were doing bulldozer work, clearing parts of the ranch, which was recently sold, the justice of the peace explained. "He was running a dozer and pushing some timber and hit an old, dead tree,·Andy Chester, an investigator with Hopkins County Sheriff's Office, said. "He got swarmed by bees ·we are not sure what kind, but we just know they are black bees. They say they run into them all the time." The investigator said Malone was stung at least 20 times on his face and head.

The justice of the peace said he attributed the cause of death to bee stings and ordered an autopsy to determine if the bees were Africanized. "He did order an autopsy. We don't know exactly what kind of bees these are", Glossup said, adding that he believed they were domesticated or European bees.

Officials at Hopkins County Cooperative Extension Agency said the bees would be gathered today and sent to the Department of Entomology at Texas A&M University for analysis.

"We'd sort of like to know what this is,·Glossup said. ·... We're just taking precautionary measures."
Because Africanized honey bees are nearly identical in appearance to domesticated honey bees, identification requires sophisticated equipment and a computer. At least 10 to 20 bees from a colony must be submitted to accurately test whether the colony is Africanized, according to Texas A&M University's honey bee Web site, http://honeybee.tamu.edu.

This isn't the first bee attack at the private ranch. "I was told this morning that his (Malone's) brother, who is out there from time to time, was stung before and taken to the emergency room here in Sulphur Springs,·Glossup said.

Funeral arrangements are pending with Bright-Holland Funeral Home.

(Kerry Craig of The Sulphur Springs News-Telegram contributed to this report.)

Bee stings believed cause of death

Dozer operator stung multiple times

Kerry Craig | News-Telegram Assistant Editor
July 7, 2005 - An attack by bees is being blamed as the cause of death of a bulldozer operator working in northern Hopkins County Thursday morning. Justice of the Peace Ronny Glossup identified the man as Charles Malone, 78, of Paris.

Malone was working on what is known as the old Dunham Ranch, north of Sulphur Bluff, when he was swarmed by bees, according to Investigator Andy Chester with the Hopkins County Sheriff’s Office. “He was running a dozer and pushing some timber and hit an old dead tree,” Chester said. “He got swarmed by bees -- we are not sure what kind, but we just know they are black bees. They say they run into them all the time.”

The investigator said the man was stung multiple times, with at least 20 of the stings on his head. Chester said the man was able to get off his bulldozer and walk more than a quarter-mile to his pickup, get in and start the air conditioning. “His partner, former Delta County Commissioner Micky Goforth, thought he pushed a dead tree down and [bees] swarmed out of it,” Judge Glossup said. “They just swarmed him.”

Glossup said the attack was not the first for the area, but the first to result in a death. “Those guys running those dozers, they are into that stuff all the time,” Glossup said. The judge said the attack occurred in a remote location that was more than five miles from the end of paved roadways and near the intersection of Hopkins, Delta and Franklin county lines.

Stings from bees, wasps, yellow jackets, hornets and ants account for more deaths in the United States than any other venomous creatures, according to information from emedicine.com. Most deaths are from allergic reactions, some are from the toxicity of the venom. In about half of the fatalities, death occurs within 30 minutes of the sting, and 75 percent within four hours.

In a preliminary ruling, Glossup attributed the death to the large number of bee stings. He said he was going to order an autopsy, however, to determine the exact cause of death.

Tapp Funeral Home was called to the scene and is in charge of local arrangements.