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Man stung by Africanised bees succumbs
Rawle Singh, the man who was attacked two Tuesdays ago by a swarm of Africanised bees at Phase
Dead: Rawle Singh
Two, Tuschen, East Bank Essequibo, has succumbed.
The 30-year-old man died around 19:00 hrs on Tuesday at the West Demerara Regional Hospital after he was rushed there by his mother, Rajmattie Etwaroo.
Singh was badly stung in the face and upper body while walking along a roadway, near some trees in which the swarm had nested.
Yesterday, his mother said that the West Demerara Hospital discharged her son while his face was still swollen and he was in a lot of pain.
“We are poor people and I couldn’t afford to take him to a private doctor so we were pleading with the public for help,” a teary Etwaroo said while adding that her son didn’t eat for eight days because of the attack.
The woman recalled that her son started vomiting blood and crying out for severe pain, forcing her to rush him back to the hospital on Tuesday where he eventually succumbed.
Last Saturday, Singh in an interview had said, “They were all over my face and head. When me brushing dem, dey not coming off.”
He said that he then dived into a drain to flee the bees but they followed him. He was rescued by a neighbour who was clad in a coat. He was hospitalized for two days.
At the time of the interview, Singh pointed out that, “All my face and eyes still swell, and I am not seeing out of my left eye.”
To the relief of residents, the swarm was removed after well-known bee-keeper Ernest Younge visited the area. Younge lit tyres and destroyed the hive. He confirmed that the swarm comprised Africanised bees.
Younge has had many an encounter with the insects, and has seen how lethal they can be. He’s one of the individuals that officials from the Ministry of Agriculture’s Guyana Livestock Developmental Authority (GLDA) contact when the deadly swarms are in an area.
The Africanised bees came about in the late fifties in Brazil, when someone decided to mix the African honey bee with the Italian species.
Research indicates that their venom is no more lethal than that of other honey bees. What makes them much more dangerous is their aggression and the numbers in which they attack. When a few Africanised bees launch an attack, they release a scent that brings out hundreds more, which can pick up the scent from great distances.
Younge is convinced that man is now paying a hefty price for mixing the two species and ‘tampering’ with nature.
“They are dangerous. They don’t like people. Nature has a way of fighting back when you mix it. I have seen these bees kill cows, donkeys, horses and people. I go on operations where the people were crying out for mercy (after being stung),” Younge lamented.
Anyone willing to assist Rawle Singh’s family with funeral expenses can contact his mother Rajmattie Etwaroo on 691-5388.
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