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Man killed by bees in Encinitas is identified:
Man killed by bees in Encinitas is identified
By Karen Kucher, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
Originally published June 17, 2010 at 10:36 a.m., updated June 17, 2010 at 10:51 a.m.
SAN DIEGO The county Medical Examiners Office has identified a 54-year-old man who died Wednesday after he was stung more than 500 times by swarming bees in Encinitas.
Marco Tulio Lazaro, who was an Encinitas resident, was running a backhoe and clearing brush with his nephew on property off Manchester Avenue near Pacific Ranch Road when he hit a nest of honeybees.
Neighbors described the victim as a longtime gardener, landscaper and maintenance man who lived on the property, called Wiegand Ranch.
Lazaro was allergic to bee stings, said David Kellum, county entomologist. He was pronounced dead at a hospital. He noticed a couple bees come back and sting him. He stopped, got off the tractor and there was a large swarm of bees all around. He started running and the bees pursued him, said Encinitas Deputy Fire Chief Scott Henry.
Lazaro ran about 200 yards to an outhouse and went inside to seek shelter from the attack, where he went into full cardiac arrest. His nephew, who was renting a house on the property, was in a dump truck when the bees attacked. Henry said the younger man was stung a couple of times.
The hive contained between 60,000 and 80,000 bees inside an abandoned vehicle. This is one of the larger hybrid hives Ive run into, said Bill Tanksley, of Pinpoint Pest Control, who exterminated the bees with pesticides.
Kellum said it was not immediately clear what type of bees were involved. He said about 80 percent of wild bees in San Diego County are Africanized honeybees. Sometimes called killer bees, they attack quickly and sting in larger numbers than their European honeybee cousins.
When the bees are disturbed, European or African, they will react in a similar manner, Kellum said.