- [Voiceover] These aggressive killer bees have attacked and killed over 1,000 people in Latin America. Since their arrival in the United States, they've already killed two dozen people. - These bees will live in anything. I mean, literally-- - [Voiceover] Reed Booth
works as a professional killer bee removal expert in Arizona. It takes only a few seconds for thousands of angry, ferocious bees to launch an offensive attack. - This many bees and how insane they are would have killed us. - I'm an adrenaline junkie. - He's always taking risks. You just can't change
someone's personality. - Oh! Dammit. - [Voiceover] Reed's bee suit can't always protect him from getting stung. - All right, you little bastards, you're done for. - [Jim] Let's get 'em. - [Voiceover] Reed often works under dangerous conditions. He risks his life on
every job to keep us safe. (high energy pulse
pounding heavy rock music) - [Voiceover] As the sun rises in Arizona, it's the start of another busy day for Reed Booth. With his assistant, Jim, aboard, he heads off to go remove killer bees that are disrupting peoples' lives. Reed lives on the outskirts of Bisbee, a town nestled within the
Arizona Mule Mountains, a mere 15 miles from the Mexican border. This town used to be a
busy cooper mining town, but when the facilities closed down their operations 30 years ago, Bisbee became a haven
for artists and retirees. Today, the entire state of Arizona is saturated with killer bees. - [Reed] In the state of Arizona alone, they estimate there are between 400 and 500 million wild Africanised hive, with each hive containing an average of 40 to 60 thousand bees. So I can do the math. - [Voiceover] Reed's first job today is in the neighboring
town of Sierra Vista. - I can tell this is a big one. - [Voiceover] Reed and his assistant, Jim, put on their protective beesuits to avoid being stung. - My husband works around out in the barn and out there and he's noticed a bunch
of bees flying around. - Yeah. And then when he showed me the other day where they were, you can hear 'em, underneath. - [Reed] Oh really?
- [Woman] Yeah. - [Reed] Oh lord.
- [Woman] You can hear, so. - All right, we'll just
meet you over there. - [Woman] Okay.
- [Reed] All right, great. - Can't hear them right now. - Can't hear them but I tell you what, the day before yesterday, you could hear, oh yeah. You could really hear them buzzing. - I can see a couple
of them buzzing around so they gotta be under here somewhere. - Welp, there they are. I'm not getting any closer without my beesuit on. If you want to watch, pull a car up and sit in it.
- [Woman] No, I'll be far away. Don't worry, - [Reed] You're smarter--
- [Woman] I'll be way over there. - [Reed] You're smarter
than I am, my dear. - Yes. - So I'll go ahead and tie into it and we'll take care of it. And then I'll come and knock on the door when we get it wrapped. - [Woman] Okay. - [Voiceover] Reed never
knows how aggressive a hive is going to be until he actually starts to remove it. - [Reed] Crazy bunch of bees. Okay, bee-lee-lee-dees. Well, let's be sure to keep an eye out for snakes and centipedes and black widows and all the other friendlies. - Okay. - As opposed to the bees. - [Voiceover] First they have to remove these construction supplies
to find the bee hive. - [Reed] Oh, they're getting off the chain a little bit here. If you see any bees over there-- If you see any bees over there, skedaddle it. They're getting mean. Oh lord, here they are. They're attacking. Oh man, I can smell that venom. Woo! - [Voiceover] The strong smell of venom reminds Jim to make sure his suit is well-zipped up. - She's still standing over there. I don't think she should. (chuckles) - [Voiceover] While lifting
these sharp objects, they have to be extra careful
not to rip their suits or the killers bees could get in. - Wow, they are off the chain. - They are really unhappy
with us at this point. And of course, I can't scratch my nose. God dang it all. Oh, they're nuclear, dude. - They're not coming in, so... - No, no. You're good. - Can you see? I mean, I can see on your mask - [Jim] how they're like
- [Reed] I know-- trying to sting. - --I can smell that venom. - Yeah, I can smell the venom, big time. Actually, do this. (exhales) (exhales) - [Voiceover] Since Jim is new on the job, Reed explains to him how your breath attracts the bees to your face. - Oh, these guys are off the chain. Yeah, look at that. - They're pelting me. - What they do is they go for the CO2 coming out of your nose and mouth, Jim. - [Jim] Okay. Their whole thing about that is it's combined with why
they go for dark colors, It's because their
natural enemies are bears and bears are dark. - [Jim] Okay. - And then over the eons, they've learned that the most sensitive part on a bear, nose and mouth. CO2 comes out of the nose and mouth on all mammals. In fact, I've done an experiment where I'll have a tube going down my suit to my boot from my mouth, with a screen on the end. And they attack my boot because of the CO2. It kind of keeps them off the face but it's also cumbersome, so to the heck with it. - Uhh. - [Reed] Wow.
- [Jim] Wow. - [Voiceover] Amazingly enough, they're still looking for the hive. - Well, they're not under there. - Maybe they're in one of these. - I don't know where the heck they are. - Boy oh boy. - Wow, they are crazy. Oh, I think they're in here. - Oh, you could be right. That's why this was so heavy. - Yeah. Oh. There. - [Voiceover] They think
they've located the hive. - [Jim] Yep, there it is.
- [Reed] Ah! - Look at 'em come. Look at this, this is off the wall.
- [Jim] Wow. - Look at this. - They're off the chain. - This is completely cuckoo. This is one of the worst I've seen. - Yeah, this is pretty bad. - This is one of the worst I've seen, this is unbelievable. - All right, you want me
to get a bucket, boss? - Yeah. Let's get a bucket and a-- amazing how calm I can remain-- let's get a bucket and a putty knife. - [Jim] Okay. - And bring the smoker over too so I can kinda calm these little sons of guns down a little bit. - [Voiceover] This is the bee hive. Reed normally tried to save the honey but these bees need to
be calmed down first. - Come on out, let's party. - [Voiceover] For a brief moment his nose touches his screen. - (screams) Dammit. Right on the nose. They want you dead, period. - [Reed] They don't not stop once they've driven you away. That's not enough, they want blood. They want blood and they get it. - Dammit that hurts. Right on the end of the nose is one of the worst spots you can get it and I got it good. You little monsters. Oh, gonna make my eyes water. That's one of the worst spots you can-- and now, of course, they are attacking that spot because of the venom. God bless it. Oh, that hurts. Right on the end of the damn nose. - [Jim] You all right, boss? - Have I still got a stinger in my nose? Right in the end? - No sir. - God, thank you. All right you old bastards, you're done for. That's it, it's over. History. (groans) I've had enough. - Let's get 'em. - Boy, that a way to piss me off. All right, smoke the hell out of 'em. - [Voiceover] Using smoke, Jim convinces the bees that their hive is on fire. Instinctively, they go back inside to salvage their food. As they gorge on the honey, the bees become lethargic
and less aggressive. - I think they're too far off the chain, to be honest with you. - Yeah, they are. - [Voiceover] After a few minutes, the throbbing pain of
the sting gets worse. - And it's bleeding. Yep. Those bastards. I'm going to look like
Bonzo the Clown probably by the end of the day here. It's really is amazing how much it hurts. The venom is very similar
to rattlesnake venom. And if I get stung right between the eyes in the forehead, both my eyes swell shut. And it feels literally
like a cigarette burn, like a burn. Like you're having a burn
wherever they sting you. It takes all your attention,
all you attention. You can't even think. This many bees and how insane they are would have killed us. We would have all been dead by now. And so, um, thank God for the bee suits. - (chuckles) - In my bee suit, I'm Superman. But without it, heh heh, I'm running right next to you. - [Voiceover] But the bees
aren't the only killers Reed and Jim have to deal with. They find a venomous centipede. - Look at how big he is. My god, These things are horrible. If you get stung in the
abdomen or the head, they'll kill you. They'll bite you, you know. Their venom is really horrible. Their bite is hundred times worse than a bee sting. Than an Africanised bee sting. It's really horrible. - [Voiceover] They also find a deadly black widow spider. - [Reed] Oh, it looks like she has three eggs sacks. They are just deadly. - [Voiceover] Reed won't
be able to save the honey, the bees are too wild. Because he doesn't like to use poison, Reed uses soapy water to drown the bees, which kills them instantly. - All right, you nasty bees, black widow, everybody's going down. - [Voiceover] We don't know how many stings it takes to kill a person. - There are people one sting kills 'em. Some people 10. Some people 40. Then there's the guy who took 3,700 stings and lived. - Oh, dear. So really bad, huh? - Oh my gosh. Nuclear. - Really? - I wouldn't go back
there for about a week. - Oh really. - Yeah. We killed almost all of them. There's still a few flying around. - Yeah, there's one right there. God, don't let him in. - [Woman] I know.
- [Reed] God darn them. They're just something else, I'll tell you right now. - [Woman] The last--
- [Reed] They were meaner - The last time I went out and I'm standing there and I heard one buzzing and it got in my hair. And I'm going like this and I ran in the house. And I'm sitting there and I'm going, something's in my hair. Finally, I went and got a comb. - [Woman] And I had one
- [Reed] Combed it out? - Yeah, it was dead. - [Reed] Oh really? - Oh, I whacked it. - [Reed] (laughs) I didn't get stung but I whacked it.
- [Reed] Ouch. - You're seeing the tip of the iceberg, all right? Do not go near them because an average hive has 40 to 60 thousand bees in it. - [Voiceover] The next
job is in the middle of a residential area where the bees are frightening people in neighboring homes. - Let's go take a peak in it, see how bad-- what the situation is. - Okay. - [Voiceover] Killer bees have a large attack range of several hundred yards. The owners of the house Reed has been called to are away, so it's up to him to investigate the problem on his own. - You know what we're gonna have to do? - [Jim] Huh? - [Reed] Smoke 'em. - [Jim] Those are mean already, let's go get the smoker. - [Voiceover] The problem is obvious. Reed notices the gap between the brick wall and the roof eves. This is the door to the bee hive so he needs to seal the bees' entrance. That neighbor is way too close. - [Reed] Ouch, dammit. Right on the nose again. - [Voiceover] Reed gets
stung again through his net. - I hate these little bastards. Maybe I can scrap it out. - [Voiceover] He pulls
the bee stinger out. (groans) - The Africanised bee was nicknamed a killer bee because of their tendency to defend the hive to the nth degree. They will attack with such verocity, and not just wound or
drive away intruders, they will kill them. And then keep stinging the corpse. Whether it's a dog or a horse or a person. - What we've done is entomb the bees inside of the wall because this is a brick wall. They're living in the bricks and there is no way to remove them without tearing the house down, and of course, people don't want to do that. So we seal them in and they die in the wall. Honey lasts forever. They've found honey in the tombs of Tutankhamen in Egypt. So it lasts forever, it's not going to go bad, it's not going to smell. The bees'll die, they're just little insects, they'll dry out, no biggie. - [Voiceover] Thinking
their job is almost over, Jim sets up a bee trap using a pheromone to attract and capture the remaining bees. But the bees coming back from the field keep accumulating. - [Reed] Yeah, they're all returning. - [Jim] Oh my god. We're gonna have to get bigger traps, 'bout 10 times this size. - [Voiceover] The trap Jim
placed is already full. Realizing the entrance
to their hive is blocked, the angry bees continue to attack Reed and Jim. Reed sprays liquid soap on the bees which covers their pores with a film that suffocates them immediately. - [Reed] Yeah, they're insane. Let's keep an eye out for pedestrians. - Okay. - [Reed] In a residential area like this, it's really bad. A bomb waiting to go off. These bees could have killed somebody. But the traps are working well. Wow, look at 'em attack. Oh, look at that. I've got one bee that's stung my glove. Her stinger is out and she's literally disembowling herself as she's trying to-- there she goes. She'll go die. - [Voiceover] The worker
bee stings his victim with his behind. The stinger has barbed hooks that allow it to anchor inside the victim's flesh. The bee then pumps the venom from it's poison gland. After stinging, the bee is held back by it's barbed hooks. Struggling to release itself, part of the bee's abdomen gets pulled out. - When a bee stings you, it's a kamikaze mission. She loses her life. - [Voiceover] Left behind are the stinger and the muscles controlling
the venom gland. These muscles continue to work autonomously to pump venom into the skin. An alarm pheromone is also released to mark the victim so that more bees can come and attack. - That pheromone travels very quickly through the air. And so all of the attacks bees then have a target. It's literally the target zone because somebody's planted a stinger, and boy, let's drive this guy off or kill him. - [Reed] These bees are really insane. All the bees this year have been completely insane. And they are wanting to kill me right now. Even though we've trapped them and soaked them. And they're not getting out so I don't know. So we're gonna get out
Mr. Soapy the compressor and just soak these guys down completely. This is horrible. - I have had instances where, when the bees are this insane, that we've had to get
the fire department out and the police department quaran off a four to six block radius. Go door-to-door and tell people to stay in their homes until we can get this under control. These bees are still
attacking even after being what would normally be defeated. But I can see them, they're all over the neighbors' houses and just flying all over the place. It's not good. But, of course, we've knocked their numbers down dramatically from what
they were initially. - [Voiceover] While most jobs only take about 30 minutes, Reed and Jim have been on this job for over three hours. They have to make sure the area's safe before they leave. - [Reed] We will take care of it, we will defeat them, it's just being a little
bit of a trial here. My god, we've filled up two traps of bees so far and that's just ridiculous. - [Voiceover] In the end, it takes three bee traps
to complete the job. - Well finally, we've defeated them. There comes a point where they're actually defeated. They know that they have lost and the remaining bees will not attack. They will bunch up together, usually in a corner or something, and just talk about that was the worst day we ever had. - Well, I'm very relieved right now that we have a fellow named Jim, that is Reed's assistant. We've been training him
for about three weeks and he's working out
really wonderfully so far. - It's hard to find someone because you have to be a little bit crazy. You have to be fearless. - The first job, it was-- it was incredible. They were attacking me like it was hail. And I looked at Reed and I said, I think I'm gonna run. And he said, just calm down, keep your heart rate down. Bees, apparently, feel the fear in a person. And the venom was just-- - - it was off the chain. And I was very scared. - And I looked over at him and he was standing in
his bee suit like this with these tens of thousands of bees bouncing off of him and he just said, boss, is this how it's supposed to be? And I kind of chuckled. Yep, that's it. So we went back to work. - And I got stung about 20 times, 18 times, because the suit was sticking to my skin. - He didn't freak out. He felt like it but he didn't. - Those people who tell you not to take chances are missing out on what life is all about. And that is risk. And that is going out there and experiencing different things. I love adventure and I love danger. And this job is perfect for me. - [Voiceover] Reed's next job is at a tall patrol tower on the
Arizona-Mexico border. - [Reed] We're only six
miles from the border here so we've got a lot of traffic. - [Voiceover] Reed will
be escorted to the site by the border patrol agents. - Hi, I'm Reed. - Hi, Danny Robinson. - Good to meet you, Danny, good to meet ya. We'll go down and take care of dem bees. - Okay. - You wanna get up there with me? (chuckles) - [Reed] And I forgot my walkie talkies but I think we might have some around. But I can always yell at you. - I brought mine, I've got two. - [Reed] Oh good, okay. - [Voiceover] He meets
Chewy the crane operator. - Very good. - [Reed] Well, let's head on down and "git her dune." - Okay. - [Voiceover] There are often dangerous drug smugglers or illegal aliens trying to cross the border. - [Reed] This is an 80 footer, right? - [Man] My partner
decided to climb that day and he got up there-- - James? - --and he's been stung a few times. He got nervous, he come down pretty quick. - (laughs) Yeah, I betcha he did. It's a bee hive waiting to happen, Bill. I mean-- - You know what? - I've done like 10 of these towers. - When they put these up, they didn't think about bees. - Of course, nobody does. - Okay Chewy, I think we're ready to go up. - [Voiceover] Working 80
feet above the ground, they'll have little room to maneuver. If one of their protective
suits is compromised, they'll have nowhere to run and hide. - [Reed] Okay, you all zippered in good? - [Jim] Yes, sir. - [Voiceover] The bees
are starting to attack. - [Reed] You guys might want to get in, these bees are bad. - Yeah, yeah. He got stung, Randy's getting stung. - [Voiceover] Even
Chewy the crane operator has already been stung. - We have Benadryl and an epinephrine pen so if you start feeling weird, just let us know. - [Chewy] 10-4. - Ah, look at the views. There's old Mexico right there. - [Jim] Wow. - Ah, these bees are ridiculous. My lord. I cannot believe how many stingers I have in my hand. - [Voiceover] It's starting to rain. This tower could be a lightning rod. - [Jim] I just hope we don't get soaked 'cause our suits will stick to our skin. - [Reed] Oh? Then we'll get what, stung? - [Jim] (guffaws) - (chuckles) Gee, can you imagine climbing
up that ladder, Jim, and being stuck up there
with those damn things? - [Voiceover] Reed is
unable to use smoke up here to calm the bees because it's too windy. - [Reed] I have thousands
of stingers in here. This has got to be a big hive. just from the amount of protection that they're putting out, you know? - [Jim] Yep. - [Reed] We got about
another 15 feet to go, Chewy. - [Chewy] Yeah. - [Reed] Roger that. - [Voiceover] If Chewy
reacts badly to his stings, the guys could get stuck up there. - [Reed] These bees are insane. - [Jim] Yep. - [Chewy] How much
farther did I need to go? - About another five feet straight up and then we'll get a little
closer to the pole, Chewy. - [Chewy] 10-4. - Ha ha. Look at these guys. They're just all completely cuckoo now. Oh, this is insane. Oh, my lord. Could you give me-- ouch. Dammit, I got stung in the shoulder. Bastard. Just enough to piss me off. Could you give me an expanding foam? - [Jim] Yes, sir. - Thank you, sir. These guys are just insane. Probably have the whole
damn hive out already. - [Voiceover] This bee
entrance is too large to fill with his expanding foam so Reed packs the hole with a screen. This also keeps the birds
from poking holes in it. - I'm gonna make a little
screen sandwich here. Or should I call it a scream sandwich? - [Jim] (laughs) Heh, heh. - [Voiceover] With the bees
now sealed in the tower pole, Chewy brings them back to the ground. - Boy, they're still
attacking Chewy pretty good. I cannot believe all
these stingers in my hand, look at that. It's just hundreds and hundreds of them. Hey Chewy! - [Chewy] Uh-huh. - Nothing but fun, huh? - [Chewy] Lots of fun, yes, sir. Lots of fun. - How many times did you get stung? - Three times. - Three times. In the face? - Yeah, in the face and also in my ear here. - God darnit. We have some sting stuff
that we'll put on it. - Okay. - [Reed] It'll help.
- [Chewy] It will help? Yeah, I need it. - These things can kill you. - [Chewy] Oh yeah, they're killers, man. - [Voiceover] But killer
bees don't respect borders. It all started in faraway Brazil. - Africanised bees were actually created. It was an experiment that went wrong. In 1956, at the request of
the Brazilian government, a Dr. Warwick Kerr went to Africa to bring back 36 pure African queen bees because European bees
were not good producers and general conditions were very sickly. - [Voiceover] So he cross-breed these two types of bees. The result was a more productive but more aggressive bee. Unfortunately, they escaped into the wild. These killers bees soon colonized Brazil and the other surrounding countries. By 1980, the entire South American continent was saturated with killer bees. Five years later, the bees moved into Mexico. And by 1990, they had arrived in the US. Today, killer bees are prominent in 10 states in the southern US, and are moving more northward. - They have been found in Wisconsin. They killed a beekeeper in Connecticut. They've been found up in Seattle. So they've gone up the coast because it's more temperate. But I believe that probably
about half the states do have some Africanisation at this point. - [Voiceover] Reed has
received an emergency call. He needs to go to an abandoned house full of bees which are creating havoc with the neighbors. - Efren? I'm Reed. - Hi, Reed. Nice to meet you.
- [Reed] Hi bud. - I guess they're in that house since it's an abandoned house. - [Efren] Yes, sir. - [Reed] Where are they located? - [Efren] They're on the southwest window, the farthest to the back. - Oh, so they're right by your backyard. Oh good lord. Pets? You got-- - [Efren] I got my dog over here tied up, so she should be okay. - [Reed] She should be okay? If need be, can you take her in? - [Efren] Yes, sir. - [Reed] Have you been stung at all? - Yes, sir. I have. - God. - Me and my brother and my brother-in-law. We're in the backyard and-- - They went cuckoo on you, huh? - So we had to go in the house. - Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah. Oh boy. I'm not getting any
closer without my suit on. I'll bet you some rattlesnakes
in there too, huh? - Yeah. - I would recommend you watch
out through your window. - [Efrem] Yeah, that's
- [Reed] (laughs) what we've been doing. I'll be inside watching. - Okay, buddy. - [Voiceover] These kids
getting home from school are at risk. They don't realize that killer bees are about to be unleashed. Of course, Reed won't start 'til he makes sure they're gone. - Boy, look at this jungle. This is ridiculous. One major thing I'm looking for, of course, is snakes. This is like Snakeville. But we'll hear 'em rattle. Unless they're a Mojave, then they'll just probably strike. Watch these electrical wires. I don't know if they're hot or not so stay away from them. All right, no snakes. We're good to go. Oh, my lord. All right, there they are. All right, we're gonna need smoke. Because of the proximity to neighbors, how many people live in this neighborhood, we're gonna smoke 'em and really try to keep 'em from going completely insane on us. That's right, it's a big old emergency, guys. You know, they're mean anyway. Stirring them up's created that. - [Voiceover] Ironically, those these bees can kill him, Reed still loves them. - [Reed] (chuckles) Hi guys. How's dem bees, huh? Ouch. - [Voiceover] Reed gets stung again. - [Reed] Ah, that's right guys, worry about the smoke not me. This is too dangerous work for me. Whoa! Looks like we've got the
whole "fam-damly" here. And that is spectacular. That's right, guys. ♫ Your time has come ♫ - [Voiceover] This bee hive has between 40 and 60 thousand bees. - This is a worker bee being born. There's one there. There's another one there. And they should be popping
out here in a little bit. - [Reed] That is a bee
being born right there. She is chewing away the wax covering on her cell. There's a bee that was just born, now they're talking. She's just fresh out and just talking with the neighbors, with the other bees out. Yeah, you're a part of this hive? Let me help clean your wings. Yep, see there. Welcome to the world, little girl. They're born fully developed. They're born adults. Come here and look at this, Jim. Oh, oh, her head's almost out. Look at that. Oh! There's her eyes. - [Jim] Oh my gosh, that is amazing. - [Reed] Here she comes ♫ to save the day ♫ Bees are very neat creatures. They clean, clean, clean. They're all Virgos. Hi girls, what's up? Wanna party? Not exactly, huh. Beautiful comb. ♫ Honeycomb ♫ Won't you be my ♫ all right, there we go. Got it? - Oh, that's a beauty right there. - This is the rarest honey in the world, wild Africanised honeycomb. - [Fabrianne] Honey is fascinating stuff, it's a magical substance. It has all the nutritional things that are lacking in
vitamin pills sometimes. - [Voiceover] With the
honey Reed collects, he creates award-winning honey butters and honey mustards. - The wild Africanised honey around here is absolutely delicious. - [Voiceover] Reed and his wife Fabrianne have even opened up their own honey store in Bisbee. - [Reed] Honey bees are very important to not only our economy but our actual food source. About 40% of what we eat is because bees have pollinated something. Shoo you off of here. - Ooo. They're off the chain now. - Yeah. - [Voiceover] Reed and
Jim have to work fast. The neighbor's dog is tied up on the other side of the house and it could get stung. - Oh boy, just today, we're getting hundreds of pounds of honey, this is sweet. Try and brush a few bees off, if you can. - Oh yep. Off the chain you guys. Whoa, there's a-- - [Voiceover] Jim gets stung. - Ooo. They're pissed now. - Ooo, I can smell the venom. - [Jim] Yeah, oh yeah
- [Reed] Whoo! - They're pelting me like hail. - Yep. Hail yes. (laughs) - Oh, I got it right
through the dang glove. - [Voiceover] Though he loves his bees, the admiration is not mutual. - These mean hives like this are just kind of a pain. Oww, you little. - [Voiceover] He's already been stung eight times on this job alone. - [Reed] You know, these bees are so mean I think we're just
going to hose them down. This is ridiculous. When I do a killer bee removal, a big difference between myself and exterminators is that I do not use any poison. Soapy water kills bees and it does it very rapidly. But the honey then is fine. We do our best to save the honey. Successful once again. That's the thing about doing this work, you can't not be successful. You have to be successful every time. You gotta be 100% or you failed and someone will die. - [Jim] Okay Efren, don't open the door. Obviously, they're still
bouncing off of me. You saw that? - [Jim] That was just
- [Efrem] Oh yeah. off the chain, dude. - That's really something. I appreciate the help very much. - [Jim] All right, no problem. - You made this little place here a little bit safer. - [Voiceover] Driving with a beesuit on is dangerous but necessary when killer
bees get into the truck. - [Reed] We may as well
roll down the windows and get rid of these little monsters, huh? There they go. Go on, girls. Get out of here so we can
take our nets off, anyway. Go on, get out of here. These guys were aggressive. - [Jim] Get, shoo. - [Voiceover] So after a
busy day with killer bees, the boys want to seek out more thrills and head off to the local fair. - [Jim] I can smell
those farm animals, Reed. Reed's the coolest boss I've ever had. We'll go out and we'll work really hard, we'll do 3 or 4 or 5 jobs a day. But every day after work, we relax and enjoy life. And that's what it's all about. - Whoa! (laughs) I gotta get me one of them. I've just gotta get me one. - Whoo! (laughs) - Set her on down. I forgot my bee suit, dammit. (giggles) - Oh, that's awesome! - [Voiceover] This morning, Reed has an urgent job in the busy town of Tombstone. - [Reed] Well, I really
wish you'd come because - [Fabrianne] Mm-hmh. it's right at the Chamber of Commerce in the old bank building. And I'm sure we're gonna have to block off the street or have the marshall out because it's a tourist town, there'll be a lot of people around. So can you on come down? - Mm-hmh. - Okay, great. I did request that the marshall go over and put more tape up. - [Man] That's fine. - Just to make sure that no looky-loos, nobody gets stung, people get in the flight path, whatever. - [Man] All right. - Okay, buddy? And I'll be up there ASAP. We'll see you soon. - [Man] Okay, man. - Okay. - [Man] Goodbye.
- [Reed] Later. All right, guys, let's go. We've got killer bees in Tombstone and we got to go up and take care of this right now. - [Voiceover] The Tombstone
Chamber of Commerce is downtown. There are people everywhere
who could be attacked if the killer bees get out of control. - I don't know. If we get too many looky-loos, I'm going to want to have the marshall down here to keep them away. I just don't want these bees to go cuckoo and sting somebody. Okay, thanks. - [Voiceover] Remember, the attack radius of killer bees is several hundred yards. But they can spread even further. - [Reed] If you can just keep the looky-loos away. - Yeah, I can just hang out. - Okay, cool. I appreciate it. - I realize that I want
a lot of smoke with this because if we're in a residential area and you never know when 400 tourists are gonna come by. Hey smokey! Yeah, we'll let her burn. Woo! That's hot, huh? Wee, there goes the hair. I think we're gonna have to seal up a lot. Bees are very landmark-oriented. So when they first move into a place, you can see 'em all along the length, looking around, because it all looks the same to 'em. You can see 'em looking all over. It's like, where's our zone? - [Fabrianne] The only
reason I still go on the removable jobs is I've been blessed by not being stung yet. And I can't say that-- I think it's a miracle. - Hopefully we can prevent a disaster. We use steel wool and fill in with the expanding foam, and then use that to seal up the entrance because nothing can poke through it. Birds, nothing. Oh boy, there are holes everywhere here. A lot of holes up here. Of course, I've got nice bare wires here. (chuckles) Hope that's not hot. Okay. Steel wool. Thank you. Be careful, you guys. I think we have more than one hive here. In fact, I'm sure of it. I really don't want them to be aggressive here in Tombstone. This is not good. - [Voiceover] They're job is done and the town is safe again. - [Reed] We're just doing
the final touches on it now. There were two hives up there and for now we're going to wrap up the sealant and put up the bee traps. At this point, they're not gonna be aggressive. - [Policeman] Okay. - [Voiceover] Reed first
became interested in bees in the late 80s when a friend who was working as a bee inspector at the Arizona
Department of Agriculture supplied him with some European bees to start beekeeping. - [Reed] What a fine meal. - [Catherine] Honey mustard deluxe. - [Reed] You bet, everything's got honey mustard on it. - If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't even be into bees. - Don't blame me. - You're the one that called, I'm blaming you. You're the one who called me up and said, I've got a bag of bees for ya. (laughs) - [Voiceover] When the
killer bees showed up in Arizona three years later, Catherine had a bad experience. - We opened this wild hive that was in a stack of tires or something out there, - by somebody's house.
- [Reed] They you go. Yep. - And I didn't zip my zipper and about 30 bees went up, really aggressively, inside my net. And I didn't know whether to take it off or keep it on. - I know, what do you do? It's so confusing.
- [Catherine] I know. - So I leaped in the back of the pickup and my partner drove down the road, bumpy, dirt road, as fast the bees would fly off me. And then they followed us. - [Reed] So you got 30 bee
stings just in the head? - I did, I had a pumpkin head. - [Reed] Oh lord, Cathy, oh. - [Voiceover] In 1988, Bisbee was the scene of the largest killer bee attack in the world. The bees attacked and stung 17 people, sending 8 to the hospital. It all started at this downtown building on Brewery Gulch Street. When it's owner, inexperienced with killer bees, sprayed Raid in the walls. - [Reed] The bees started coming out and so he just went back home. He didn't even get stung. But then he started hearing the screams because of course, the bees when they perceive a threat will come out their front door. - [Voiceover] The bees
immediately left the building and started attacking civilians. The bees' first victim was Deborah Strait who was driving her car with the window slightly open when a few bees entered her vehicle. - So I open the door so they could find their way out and a whole lot of them came in. And I decided, you want the car, take the car. So I got out of the car and hundreds descended on me. I was batting them away from my head and off my face. Then I realized that they were concentrating on my head. So I took my shirt off to cover my head. And then I realized what was happening, this was a killer bee attack. And if I got enough of these, I would die. - [Voiceover] The first
to respond to the scene was police officer David Gonzalez. - I got right to this point where I'm standing now and I saw this lady screaming. Running down, screaming. - I was screaming. Not out of fear so much, but I wanted some help and I wanted it right now. - And as soon as I opened my car door I got totally covered in bees. - [Voiceover] He
immediately ran up the hill to safety at his father's house. - He pretty much started swatting me with his fly swatter. - [Voiceover] With over
100 stings on his head and down his throat, he was rushed to the hospital. - So I quit calling for help and I walked to a friend's house right up the street. And used her garden hose to keep them off of my face while she called the police. - [Voiceover] Josie Mincher was the nurse treating the victims. - When I saw Debbie, it's like nothing I ever seen before. She had bites-- hundreds, thousands of them-- all over her face, her body, everywhere. And that's just what I could see. It looked like a cheap horror movie with little wax balls all over her face. - I spent a half hour just throwing up and throwing up and throwing up. And even before the pain set in, my legs would do this, would go into spasms. So I had a lot of venom. - There were stringers everywhere. In her ears, her nose, her mouth. - [Voiceover] The killer
bees soon spread from Brewery Gulch Street to the neighboring streets, attacking anyone in sight. (firetruck sirens) The first medic from the fire department to arrive was Mel Ray. - As soon as I got out of my rig to go around to get my gear on, I just got swarmed and I had about 200 bees land on my head and my neck. And I ended up getting
stung almost 200 times. - When I walked up, there was only one fireman standing here, hosing down the bees. And these bees were stinging birds flying overhead. They were stinging telephone poles, tires, it was complete mayhem. And it looked like a war scene, actually, with what I imagined a war scene to be. With cars parked, with doors open, running, lights on, police lights on. - There were people running
around naked up the street, taking their clothes off, just throwing them off every direction. - [Voiceover] For three hours, the frightened firefighters
sprayed the bees, the building and Reed as he worked under pressure
to seal off the bees. Deborah survived over 500 stings thanks to immediate medical care. - Well, I'm glad you're all right. Do you have any scars? - [David] Mentally.
- [Deborah] Oh. That's all, nothing. It didn't affect me. It's just something you'll never forget. It's something you'll never forget. - I've never seen anything like it again. It's probably once in a lifetime thing. And I hope it never happens again. - [Voiceover] Reed is off to a horse ranch that has 37 horses. Because there are numerous
hives on the site, he brings his wife
Fabrianne along to help. - They're not at all nice. Yeah. - [Fabrianne] We'll
address that today for you. - Yeah. - [Fabrianne] Get rid of
them once and for all. - Yeah. - You lived out here long? - Um, 18 years. - Mm. Yeah, I've been
down in Bisbee 'bout 21. - Wow. - Yep. - [Voiceover] The horses are uneasy. - Horses got stung down there? - Yeah. Down there they did. - Yeah. Boy oh boy oh boy. - And the horse fly spray, that's what attracts them. - You know, that's happened before. That's happened before. In fact, do you know the
Herschlees down there? - Yeah. - Jimmy and Norma? - Right. They lose a horse, you know, a few years ago 'cause they sprayed that fly stuff on him. And then put him out in
the lawn to mow the lawn, two horses, and these bees came out
of something like this. Norma said you couldn't
even see the horses, it was like clouds. - Yeesh. - Oh yeah. - Not, not good. - Killed one on the spot, should have killed the other one. - Yeah. - Chased the dog off, sent Jimmy to the hospital, stung up Norma. Well, you know. These things are really something else. - [Voiceover] The horse rancher
brings his dog to safety. In the last few months, Chad's been stung about
20 times in the head. They've got a lot of hives on this ranch. - Let's get rid of these bees. - All right. - We've got 37 horses around here, plus dogs and you know. - [Voiceover] Luckily the first hive turns out to be a small one. - My god, this thing must weigh-- - [Voiceover] Under this tire, Reed makes a fantastic discovery. - [Reed] Check this out. There's a skull. Looks like they're another one. These creatures tried to get in to steal honey. The bees killed them. And so if they can't move something out of the hive, they mummify it, literally. Another little skull. Totally mummified. Oh, that is so cool. Probably rats is what they are. Trying to get honey, of course. Oh wow. Looks like they killed a bull too. Didn't mummify it very well. (chuckles) - [Voiceover] The horses aren't safe yet. They can smell the danger in the air. Now it's time for the
big hive in the shop. - [Woman] At night, when you go in there, the whole building just roars. - [Fabrianne] You can hear them? You know, they're very busy. - [Fabrianne] Sounds like
they've been there awhile also. - Well, they've been there about a year. - [Fabrianne] Uh-huh. - [Reed] Oh, come on guys.
- [Jim] No, no. - [Reed] Come here, guys. Everybody go. - [Voiceover] This time, the dogs are kept in the house. - [?] I'll get Bud.
- [Reed] Thank you. - [Voiceover] Fabrianne's
primary role on these jobs is to keep the bees calm by smoking them. - Oh, beautiful. Wow. All right, um. All right, excuse me, honey. We're gonna move this this way. We're gonna try to. Is it screwed down? Got a screw down below? - [Jim] We might. - [Reed] All right, let's break it. - [Jim] Bring it all the way down. - [Reed] Bring her down. This should break pretty
clean right there. (chuckles) Oh my word. Now they're starting to attack. - [Reed] Hurry on into the house! Hurry on into the house! Look at all that beautiful comb. I am impressed. My god, there must be hundreds
of pounds of comb here. - [Voiceover] On this job, Reed is able to save a lot of honey. - These are all empty because they were ready for use, for storage. It's kind of like they
built all their cans, and then when they need to, they can actually fill them up with honey or babies or whatever and then slap the lids on. This turns into work, man. I don't need to go to the gym, you know. (grunts) Oh lordy. That is a heavy one. This is a big old hive. There's like 150,000 bees in here. Look at that, beautiful. - [Voiceover] Reed is happy. The bees were calm
enough for him to collect a massive amount of honey comb. - I would say don't be doing
anything until sunset today. - Oh, okay. - [Voiceover] A successful job. The ranchers and the horses are safe. (guitar playing) ♫ Walking on the water is the same as this ♫ No need to distingush mist ♫ You see the light and you swish the dead ♫ No need to ♫ - I've personally have
had thousands of stings over the 20 years I've been doing this. - Apparently as the more you get stung, the less resistant you
are to the bee venom. So therefore, it can come a day when one sting and you could die. ♫ You see it coming and you see it go ♫ When time is up then you will know ♫ That black is white ♫ - My wife, my friends, they definitely worry about me. They'll call me and say, are you okay? Whatya do today? - I think the overheating
is our primary concern. - I suffered a heart attack and it had been a very,
very busy bee season. I had been in the suit every day. - Reed is just a very passionate person. And I believe he's always taking risks. You just can't change
someone's personality. ♫ Walking on the water,
walking on the water ♫ Walking on the water,
walking on the water ♫ - [Voiceover] Reed gets
a call to get rid of a swarm of bees in a backyard. - [Reed] One of your dogs got stung, is that correct? - [Woman] Mm-hmh. - But he's all right? - Yep. - Okay. If they get stung too much, you can give them Benadryl, same thing we would take-- - Okay. - --as humans. Yep, look at those things. Right over here. A swarm of bees. We're gonna need a ladder-- - [Jim] Okay. - --and a bucket. We don't need to smoke 'em 'cause they're not in that mode. - There's only like two or
three in the house total. - Ah, okay, okay. And they'll go to the windows. - [Woman] So.
- [Reed] Yeah. - [Reed] All right. You go ahead and get
your puppy around front. - Okay. - And then we'll attack these guys, okay? - Okay. - [Reed] Here we have a swarm of bees which is nature's way of propagating the area with bees. You have a hive, an established hive. And certain times of the year, 10%, 20%, 30% of the bees will take off with the old queen that's already mated and go form a ball of bees in a tree to rest and shop for a new home. They're actually looking
for a new place to live. You know, something that size will have 7 to 10 thousand bees in it. Amazing, isn't it? We don't need to smoker for this. Come to daddy, here we go. Good girls. - [Voiceover] Reed drops the
whole swarm in to a bucket. - [Reed] And this is the
most docile state for bees. Although I still wear a suit. I used to be able to do this without a suit on with the Africanised, but not anymore. These bees we're going
to release into the wild. They're beneficial, of course, to nature and we don't want to hurt them. And it's okay if they
live out in the wild. You don't want 'em underneath your house. - [Voiceover] Golfers on this course have been attacked by killer bees. There's a hive here in a dead oak tree. It's lying in tall,
rattlesnake infested grass. - Beware of rattlesnakes. Crossing the fence you're gonna-- - Tap everything. - --tap everything. Pretty good. And when it comes time to run, you'll have a pretty good
jump right over that. - [Reed] Right. - [Voiceover] The tree
is too old to remove so Reed blocks off the bees' entrances to their hive. - [Reed] They're coming out right there. Not anymore they're not. - A lot of people under
the same amount of stress that he has on the job
would completely freak out. - [Voiceover] The next
job is a kid's treehouse that's practically falling down. - Let's get buzzed. - Priscilla? Stay in the house. - Thank you. - Here they come. - [Voiceover] Reed finds the
entrance to one of the hives. The guard bees are getting ready to attack so he gets the smoker ready. The cherry picker doesn't work. That means these guys will have to go up there on a ladder and the tree house is very unstable. Climbing ladders with bee suits on is a clumsy and dangerous task. - [Reed] Can't be afraid
of anything doing this job, that's for sure. We could have three hives here. Now we're gonna put the
ladder up against the roof so we can actually get
a handle on the wood and pull the wood off and expose the hive. At the same time, I'd really like to have
someone in the room, Jim smoking the bees, at the same time that
we pull that thing off. See it? (grunts) Hold up, hold up. Wow! Oh my lord. Yee-haw! Let the games begin. - [Jim] Huge! - [Reed] Maybe this part
we can get from the inside. - [Voiceover] The smoke
worked well on these bees to calm them down. - [Reed] If there was a child up here, say with her friends, and they accidentally
poked a hole in the wall or if they just simply
bumped against the wall, and the bees started coming and attacking them through the window. They would have died. They would have had to crawl down the stairs somehow. It's very unnerving when you're attacked. All right, honey and brood and everything. Look at that. The next step here
since we remove the comb is to save as many bees as possible and hope we get the queen. We're gonna just take
handfuls of bees now. All right, come on girls. That's right, good girls. - [Voiceover] Because
the bees are now docile, he can gather handfuls and will be able to
release them in the wild for fruit pollination. Since killer bees are the only honey bees left in Arizona, they are necessary for farming. - Now we have another hive over here. These are meaner bees. Hope they're stinging. Oh boy, here they come. Look at 'em pour out of there. You got another bucket? This one's a bad one. - [Voiceover] The bees are attacking. The smoker didn't work
as well on this hive. - Stop it, you guys, Ouch, stop it. Oh my gosh! - [Jim] Look at 'em coming out. - [Voiceover] It turns out this other hive is much bigger than they expected. - Guys have been here for years. They had to be here for years. I'm surprised no one died. Ow, dammit. Right in the finger. Ahh, you little bastards. I total about eight feet of comb. I cannot believe this, I haven't seen this kind
of comb for a long time. Wow, this is a huge hive. There has to be 100,000 or more bees in here. Dammit, I got stung in the little finger. Right through the glove. I hate when that happens. Wash the bees. These people are good to go. They can tear that thing down and be safe. You see, they're dead already. Very humane way to do it because they die immediately. That's a wrap. We did it. Big one. Good man. - As the bees move north and into more populated
areas of the United States, people are going to need to be educated about what not to do and what to do with these bees. - [Reed] If you get attacked, immediately cover your head and head for cover. That's the only advice I
can really give about it. Run as fast as you can, straight line. None of that zig-zag stuff. - [Voiceover] After 20
years of dangerous work, Reed still loves it. - I think I like taking
risks because life is short and that's where the flavor comes from. You know? (high energy pulse
pounding heavy rock music)
This made my skin crawl in all the best ways, if that makes sense.
very interesting. I watched the whole thing. Had one of those on my house in texas. Got a lady to come and take it away.
Thanks for the video
i wanted to watch but its blocked in Canada.
The balls it takes to do this kind of work...
I just watched the whole fucking thing. Really great. Bees are vitally important to our existence, and honey kicks ass.