20-05-2025
Las Vegas beekeeper's death drives call for safety
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A Las Vegas beekeeper's death is causing his family to express caution about a bee that has put Nevada under quarantine.
On May 10, Scott Stromme, 62, was found lying on the floor of his home, allegedly stung to death after possibly knocking over a container of bees. His father, Phillip Stromme, said he discovered Scott only after several attempts at calling him.
'[I] went around the front door, opened that up, went in,' he said. 'And I knew right then he was in a place you don't want to be.'
His son was cold to the touch and not moving, allegedly welled up from possible bee stings. Phillip said he saw his son's beekeeping hat was set to the side around hundreds of dead bees.
'I have no idea, and had to put two and two together,' Phillip said.
Scott was a jack of all trades with a penchant for picking up a new talent at a quick pace and treating each job with an incredible amount of responsibility, according to Phillip.
'You have a job here, and a job there, and he started out working at the Rio in a shop there,' Phillip said. 'And he stood guard outside, but he looked like a guard at the palace in England with a tall hat.'
Friends still call Scott's phone according to Phillip who said his daughter has broken the news to several of Scott's acquaintances, pals, and clients.
'My daughter's been getting an awful lot of phone calls on his phone,' he said.
Phillip said it's heartbreaking what happened to his son and warned others should express caution when around certain types of bees.
The State of Nevada has been under a quarantine for the Africanized Honeybees, according to state law, but that hasn't stopped trained beekeepers from answering the calls from concerned homeowners.
'So that [quarantine] means that they're more aggressive,' Daniel Millett, operations manager for Bee Master of Las Vegas, said. 'They respond with more bees than our domiciled, domestic bees that we've trained for 1200 or 1500 years to be nice and produce a lot of honey.'
The Africanized Honeybees do not produce as much honey as their more well known and temperate counterparts, according to Millett.
'All these Africanized bees are buck wild,' he said. 'They think everything's a rhino or a hippo.'
Millett found out about what happened to Stromme and said the incident was awful but also allowed for a chance to remind residents about the danger of certain types of bees.
'When this poor fellow started to work with his bees, whatever gear he had on, they overwhelmed him,' he said. 'And it's a darn shame that it happened.'
Millett said residents with any concerns or issue with bees can find licensed beekeepers through the Nevada Department of Agriculture.
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