Entomologist turns forensics investigator

Following the death of a Texan logger by hundreds of bee stings on Tuesday, an entomologist at Texas A&M University is trying to determine what kind of bees were responsible.

Paul Jackson, the state entomologist at Texas A&M University, said he plans to release his findings Friday afternoon. It’s unclear if the bees were Africanized honey bees or regular bees, and he said he might release a “best guess” because the nest was not found and he only got a partial sample of the bees.

“When bees sting, their whole abdomen comes out, so we ended up with torn-up bees that are hard to identify,” Jackson said Thursday.

UPDATE: The results are in: it seems to have been a hybrid mix of Africanized and European honeybees.

“Three of the bees were Africanized (honey bees) and two were European (domestic honey bees).”