A MAN from Texas is currently recovering after spending three days in intensive care after he was stung by some 600 bees outside his home.

Vern Roberts, was mowing his lawn in Wallis, Texas, when he was set upon by hundreds of Africanised honey bees – also known as killer bees.

He said: “I tried to get away. I tried to ‘stop, drop and roll,’ did all kinds of ‘protect me things’.

“But it kept overwhelming and basically knocking me down. I would stagger and fall and flop around, all sorts of things.”

Vern’s wife, Mary Roberts, also suffered more than 40 stings while trying to help.

Mary, who called for paramedics and wound up hospitalised herself, has been sharing updates on Facebook.

She posted: “After about 500 to 600 bee stings on Vern and only 42 stings on me.

“Long three days. We are in amazement that God chose to rescue us from certain death.

“He must have a plan to use us more yet! For God’s glory!

“We don’t look like ourselves. Great to be home!”

The couple said once paramedics arrived, Roberts had to walk out of the house and back into the swarm of bees to get to the ambulance.

Despite their "killer bee" nickname, Africanised honey bees are actually smaller than European honey bees and carry less venom.

Nevertheless, their stings are still potentially lethal if their victims have an allergic reaction - or when they attack in numbers.

And they are known to be more aggressive than their European cousins, which perhaps explains why they are considered responsible for the deaths of several hundred people in the last 50 years, BBC reports.

They “respond to colony disturbance more quickly, in greater numbers, and with more stinging,” researchers wrote in 1982.