Giant bee horror for mum and son

10:53am Saturday 26th April 2008

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A MONSTER bee left a mother and son stung and shocked after repeatedly attacking them in a Dorchester street.

The ferocious insect also attacked a woman who went to their help.

Helene Marshall said she was terrified as the insect attacked her son Magnus and then herself by hurtling into their hair and trying to burrow into their heads.

The insect launched a total of six attacks, turning the sunny and peaceful afternoon into what she called a nightmare. Mrs Marshall said she believed the bee was a foreign species that was capable of repeated stinging, unlike native bees that sting once and then die.

She was decorating a hallway in a house in Mountain Ash Road with Magnus, six, sitting close by the open door and reading to her.

She said: "I heard him make this awful noise and run to me saying there was a fly in his hair. When I looked I could see this big insect like a big spider or something. I raked it out to throw it to the ground but it flew up high and then flew back at him again.

"It was trying to burrow into his head and buzzing and ferocious."

The bee next attacked her, hitting her head 'like a golf ball' and burrowing through her hair. Mrs Marshall said she ran up the street and asked a man to get it out of her hair, which he did and went on.

But the creature had not finished with them and flew up, circled and targeted them again, burrowing through her hair at the back of her head.

This time she ran for help to the only person she could see, a woman getting out of a car, who tried to help remove the insect.

The horror bee then attacked the woman's head though they managed to free it from her hair without either of them being stung. Eventually they beat it to the ground and killed it.

Mrs Marshall said: "I know it sounds like nothing to be attacked by a bee and only one bee, not a swarm. But I've never seen anything like it before and I've lived in California where they have horrible great bees and hornets.

"I think this must have been a foreign bee carried in on a warm breeze. I was terrified and I'm normally calm about things. Magnus was so distressed about it and by seeing me attacked. It was so frightening - the fact that I couldn't stop it and it was such a deliberate attack. Each time it seemed to circle, get its bearings and come back at us. It was so vicious."

Mrs Marshall, who lives in Alington Road, had one sting and Magnus had two. She said: "I just rushed off to get medical treatment but afterwards I thought I should have kept the bee's body to see if anyone knew what it was. I'm worried there will be more.

"A short while after our attack a lot of children would have been walking along that road. It was a horrible experience and I hope no-one else goes through it. It was nightmare stuff."

She said the creature had a velvety, strong bee-like body, but with meaty legs.

• BEE specialist Stuart Roberts, of the Bees, Wasps and Ants Recording Society, said there are 260 species of bee in Britain, of which about 200 are known in Dorset.

He added that it was a common misconception that most bees die when they sting and he said only worker honey bees did so.

Mr Roberts said: "Only female bees have a sting and they use it purely for defence. The bulk of bees are incredibly reluctant to sting and I handle them daily."

He said all the Dorset species are also found on the continent and he believes that the bee in the Dorchester incident might have been a queen bumblebee searching for a nest site which they do at this time of year.

Mr Roberts added: "Such bees do search for nests about now and often fly low and slowly over the ground.

"These queens can sting more than once and they would feel threatened if they were raked out of someone's hair."