Bee swarm in central Austin injures two

AUSTIN (KXAN) — On Friday afternoon, authorities responded to calls of a bee swarm in central Austin that injured two people.

Austin-Travis County EMS were sent to the 4900 block of Lynndale Drive near Woodrow Avenue at 2:48 p.m. after a report of a bee swarm.

ATCEMS confirmed a man and a woman were injured and taken to Dell Seton Medical Center with serious but non-life-threatening injuries. Both patients received treatment for allergic/anaphylactic symptoms.

Earlier this year, KXAN reported on the state of bees in Texas, which explained that due to the decline in numbers of pollinators — bees, flies and butterflies — bills were being filed in the Texas legislature to protect them.

According to the University of Texas’ Texas Bee ID guide, there are at least 13 main types of bees that are native to central Texas, including honey bees, bumble bees and carpenter bees.

Honey bees are described as amber to black with stripes on their abdomens. According to UT, they are highly social and females build wax honeycombs to nest in large colonies. They have one queen bee who lays eggs.

Carpenter bees — who true to their name like to nest in wood — are shiny black/dark blue on their abdomen and are very large. They nest alone and can be territorial.

Among some of the most well-known bees, Bumble bees medium to very large with black and yellow bands around their hairy bodies. The bees are social and largely nest on the ground.