AUSTIN — AUSTIN -- An Austin woman is recovering after a swarm of bees attacked her outside her home. It happened in Central Austin yesterday evening on 53 ½ Street.
Camille Howard said she was stung at least 20 times Monday while reading in her front yard.
"Got up. Got dog food,” she said. “Walked toward my dog and there was a bee and then the next thing I knew there were hundreds of bees on me."
She describes how she felt in that moment.
"The sound, the horrible sound of these raging bees,” said Howard.
And it was not just her. Howard's dog was also attacked and went into anaphylactic shock and remains at the vet.
Before emergency crews took Howard to the hospital, she thought, “Oh no, not again.”
Two weeks ago, she and her neighbor were stung by a swarm.
"They were moving some wood and they heard some like, buzzing,” Howard said. “They turned around and the bee swarm was coming out of the hole in a 75-year-old pecan tree.”
Bee removals are Walter Schumacher's specialty.
“There's a lot of bees this year,” he said.
He suspects we are seeing more because they were displaced by hurricanes last year. If you see a large amount of bees, Schumacher said to first shield your eyes.
“Then get in an enclosure,” he said. “Bees target motion. But you want to at a brisk clip.”
And if there is an unwanted colony on your property, call a beekeeper. Howard said she already has.
"I don't really know what I'm going to do,” she said. “Except live in fear until they get the bees out of here."
That is her only option, because the City does not provide any removal services. She wants that to change.
"The City of Austin has no kinds of programs to help their citizens out who could be dead in the front yard,” said Howard.