Montana, USA: Unidentified insects kill horse

[Emily]

Stings of misfortune: Horse succumbs to bee attack
11:43 AM, Jun 23, 2012

[snip]
?We?re trying to get somebody to look at them because we?ve never seen them before. They look like flies. There wasn?t a hive, just a mass of them.?

A local beekeeper said they likely were wasps or hornets but were ?absolutely? not honey bees. A pest-management specialist thought the insects resembled European or Africanized honey bees.

McKee said he wanted to share the story so other people know what can happen.

?I?d hate to see this happen to another horse, or to a person or a little kid. If there?s trees or bushes, just look up for these things. Fury had this reaction so fast and he didn?t make it. Less than 15 hours later and he was done.?

 

[Emily]

Re: Montana, USA: Unidentified insects kill horse

Honey bees caused horse death

osted: Saturday, June 30, 2012 8:09 am

By TOM LOTSHAW/The Daily Inter Lake | 3 comments

A horse stung to death two weeks ago most likely was stung by feral honey bees and, like a small percentage of people, was hypersensitive to their venom, Montana?s state entomologist and apiarist said...