KILLER BEES! (a.k.a. Africanized Honey Bees, Apis mellifera scutellata)
11 Nov 2010 1 Comment
Yes, I’m posting another paper I did for school… I thought it was interesting. Maybe someone else will as well….
KILLER BEES! (a.k.a. Africanized Honey Bees, Apis mellifera scutellata)
I have a love/hate relationship with honey bees. Bees scare me as all buzzing insects do. The buzzing usually means they sting and stinging hurts. I was stung by as wasp at my parents’ wedding when I was 4 years old. It hurt like the Dickens and I have been scared of buzzing insects ever since. I am fully aware I am nearly 30 years old and this fear is completely irrational, but try telling me that the second I immobilize myself after hearing a buzzing sound anywhere near me. As much as I hate them, I do love them for pollinating flowering plants. If not for those pesky, buzzing, stinging insects, we wouldn’t have pretty flowers, food on our plates, or even trees. The world would be a barren and dreary place. I thank Bee Movie for teaching me this fact. Bee Movie failed to mention anything about Africanized Honey Bees. Sure, the movie made me feel all warm and fuzzy for bees, but they forgot to scare me half to death with the idea of killer bees.
Africanized Honey Bees are classified as Animalia arthropoda insecta hymenoptera apiade apis mellifera scutellata. They’re also known by the much simpler name of “Killer Bees”. Despite what their nickname suggest, they do not go out in search of prey to kill. This name comes from the aggressive nature in which they defend their colony. Killer Bees defend their colony up to ten feet further than native honey bees and a hive can remain agitated days after initial agitation. They attack in larger numbers than native honey bees and the attacks usually last longer. Victims of these attacks have been stung several hundred times with some victims being stung a few thousand times.
In 1956, Africanized Honey Bees were first imported from Africa into South America by scientists in Brazil in an effort to breed them with the more common European Honey Bee (our native honey bee) to increase honey production. Unfortunately, a number of these bees escaped and have been migrating north at a rate of roughly 100-200 miles per year. Africanized Honey Bees swarm as little as every 6 weeks unlike the European Honey Bees which swarm every 12 months. Africanized Honey Bees are also much less selective of where they will start their new colony. They like smaller spaces and will start a new hive just about anywhere. Their new hive could be in your mailbox, water meter box, a hole in the ground, the eave of your house or even an empty soda bottle.
These bees first introduced themselves into the United States via Texas in 1990. In 1993, they were found in Arizona and California in 1995. They have reached as far north as the middle of Nevada. As of 2009, colonies have been found all over the American Southwest as well as the southern tip of Florida.
Fortunately, these Killer Bees do not tolerate the cold as well as the native honey bees. I’m hoping these bees stay south and do not migrate up this way. I’m sorry they are anywhere, but I would like them to stay far, far away from me. There have been efforts by beekeepers to control the population by removing the Africanized queen (no relation to the Humphrey Bogart movie) and replacing it with a European queen (no relation to Queen Elizabeth II) as well as flooding hives with European drones. Both of these tactics are to basically breed out the Africanized Honey Bee. I was unable to find any research as to if this is working or not, but I most certainly hope it is because I don’t want to find this in my back yard… ever…
One Comment (+add yours?)