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Courtney Weatherburne reporting
At the first sight of a bee flying near, fear overcomes and the initial reaction is to either run or swat the bee away.

Bees are seen as dangerous creatures even more so as a swarm. the Africanize bees has a different behavior; you van never know what they will do, they are unpredictable.

But what causes the unpredictability in the behavior of the Africanized honey bees? And how did they even get to Belize?

Margarito Leiva, Extension Officer, Beekeeping
"These bees tend to swarm a lot. They tend to defend their colony and they migrate. Whenever there is no honey in the hive they would just abandoned their nest and leave to another area. We had the European type of bees. These bees they produce a lot of honey; to maintain a huge amount of honey inside the hive. They never leave the colony except the swarm which is one time a year. In times of scarcity, these bees they prefer to stay and die inside the colony. So today, most of the hive that we have in Belize are of Africanize decent; we call them Africanize honey bees. These are no killer bees. Killer bees is a movie title. 90% of what we consume of the fruits and vegetables, nuts that is produce and what we consume bees contribute to that through pollination. For instance, just in the US alone, bees contribute close to 50 billion dollars' worth in vegetables, fruits, nuts. Here in Belize if we take into consideration the citrus industry; 20% of the citrus production increase whenever bees are around."

While bees contribute to agricultural growth and as an extension of that the livelihood of Belizeans, these Africanized bees are also a community threat. They nest in homes and near populated areas - and one wrong move can provoke a swarm:

Clifford Martinez, Belize District Agriculture Coordinator
"We understand the situation. We also deal with approximately 8 bee cases per week, so we have to respond and yes while we are happy about the services, we also have to be aware of the threats that they posed. if you are ever under attack, this is what you should do."

Arden Edwards, Toledo
"You do not run in straight line. If you run in a straight line, it's easier for the bees to get a whole of you. Try to run in a zig-zag situation and if there is stream, the best situation is to find a stream if there is one around and then you go under water and then you try not to come up at least 5-10 minutes because they will be right there waiting for you."

But bee attack survivor, Guadalupe Coc, did not even need to dash away from the bees, his quick response and immunity, saved him.

Guadalupe Coc, Stann Creek
"And they and attack me. I have a smoker, but it didn't help because and if I go into my house they will go behind me. So what I did was start to back up and put my smoke like this and I reach further and further and eventually they leave me. Later on in the evening like I cannot get up again, all night I was feeling the pain, but after that everything went away."

So as the bee experts put it, bees are our friends but if not careful, they can be our worst enemies.

In the past 10 years, we've reported on six killer bee deaths. And though this most recent attack happened in May, the experts say that the bees are usually calmest between February and July when honey production is high, and they become more aggressive during the months of October and November.