Part Three

The Rest of the Story

What happened after Tammy was taken to the hospital, what remained inside the colony, and how one terrible day became the beginning of Honey Bee Awareness.

This is Part Three in a continuing story. For the events leading up to this point, begin with Our Story and Tammy’s Story. Then continue to Truth and Consequences.

Killer Bee Attack — Part 3: The Rest of the Story
Narrated, compiled, and edited by Gary Rankin
© 2026 Gary and Tammy Rankin / HoneyBeeAwareness.org

Trouble viewing the embedded video? Watch Part Three directly on YouTube.

Where the Colony Was Living

The colony occupied a concealed cavity behind the electrical-cord compartment of the RV beside the house. The entrance was small, but the space above and behind it held far more bees and comb than could be seen from outside.

When firefighters arrived, one responder remained with Tammy while the others worked at the RV with help from a neighboring beekeeper. They removed the comb they could reach, located the queen, and used foam and soapy water on the exposed bees. Because of the narrow opening, part of the colony and comb remained farther inside the cavity.

The gate Tammy used for the dogs beside the RV where the colony was living — The gate Tammy used for the dogs and the colony entrance in the neighboring RV.

Bees filling the small electrical-cord compartment opening on the RV — The small electrical-cord opening concealed a much larger colony inside the RV wall.

Dead bees scattered across the bathroom floor and bath mat — Bees covered the bathroom floor and the bath mat Tammy used while trying to wash them from herself and the dogs.

Comb and dead bees remaining inside the concealed RV cavity — Comb and dead bees remained inside the concealed cavity after the initial emergency response.

The RV cavity after the remaining bees and comb were removed — The cavity after the remaining colony and comb were removed five days later.

Six Hours Later

Approximately six hours after the attack, Gary picked Tammy up from the hospital and returned with her to the house. One dog was still missing, and Summer was being cared for by a neighbor. Inside, dead bees covered portions of the floors and collected near windows where they had tried to escape. The bees inside the house had not been reached by the soapy water used at the RV.

Gary used the equipment available to treat the bees still gathered around the RV opening, but he was not equipped to reach everything concealed above it. Tammy then said Summer needed veterinary care. After the hour-long drive to the clinic, Summer’s condition continued to deteriorate and she was euthanized to prevent further suffering.

While they were there, the veterinarian told Gary the clinic sees an average of about 100 bee-attack animal cases in a year. That was one veterinary clinic—and most incidents never become news reports or entries in an official public record.

Five Days Later

Gary returned with a full bee suit, tools, and enough soapy water to complete the work. He removed the remaining comb, eliminated the bees still occupying the cavity, and used his phone to inspect the space above the small exterior opening.

The hidden cavity was larger than a five-gallon bucket. A mature colony can contain many thousands of bees, and a highly defensive colony can send large numbers out at once when it perceives a continuing threat. The size of the opening outside gave no indication of the number of bees concealed inside.

The colony was gone. The larger problem was not.

Why This Became a Mission

Gary has worked commercially with honey bees for more than twelve years and began performing removals in 2014. He had encountered dangerously defensive colonies before, but the April 9 attack brought the consequences into his own family and made the scale of the larger problem impossible to ignore.

Many people now entering beekeeping were born after Africanized honey bees had already become established in the United States. Others began keeping bees after the public warnings of the 1990s had faded. They may have no personal memory of how differently manageable honey bees can behave, and they may have been taught to accept extreme defensiveness as normal.

Saving the Right Bees

Honey Bee Awareness is not a campaign against honey bees or beekeeping. Honey bees support agriculture, food production, livelihoods, and ecosystems. Responsible beekeeping deserves protection.

Protecting honey bees and protecting people and animals are not opposing goals. Both depend on recognizing the difference between manageable, productive colonies and behavior that creates an unacceptable danger to the surrounding community.

The purpose of this story is not to condemn people who were never shown that difference. It is to make the difference visible, document what highly defensive behavior can do, and give beekeepers, families, responders, researchers, and public officials a place to begin working from the same facts.

That battle was finally over. The mission had just begun.

Continue the Story

Continue with Truth and Consequences to see how this story connects to honey bee movement, swarming, public safety, aggressive genetics, and the larger issue of genetic biosecurity. Meanwhile, learn the warning signs, review the documented incidents, and help strengthen the public record.

Watch Truth and Consequences Review the Safety Guide Explore Incident Reports Explore Research Goals Submit an Incident