The History of Killer Bees
Killer bees are hybrids of African and European honeybees. The scientific name for a killer bee is Apis mellifera scutellata, but it is also known as an Africanized honeybee (AHB), an Africanized bee or a Brazilian bee. On appearance alone, killer bees and the more docile European honeybees are almost identical, though the killer bee is slightly smaller. One of the main differences, and the main threat, is the killer bee's unusual aggressiveness.
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Creation of Killer Bees
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Killer bees were the creation of a laboratory project led by the government of Brazil. Brazil hired geneticist Dr. Warwick Kerr in 1956 to create a bee that could survive the tropics of South America, as European honeybees could not. The goal was to create a gentle yet hardy bee by breeding European and African honeybee varieties. This did not happen. In 1957, a few of the experimental—and aggressive—bees escaped and began colonies in the Brazilian forests. This "killer bee" species has been spreading ever since.
Spread of Killer Bees
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Killer bees have been gradually and consistently spreading at a rate of about 200 miles north every year, according to Colombia University. The species has established colonies throughout South America, Central America and eastern Mexico. In 1990 they were spotted in southern Texas. By 1993 killer bees were in Arizona, by 1995 they were in southern California, and by the mid-1990s New Mexico saw an invasion. Nevada recorded the establishment of killer bees in the late 1990s and Utah documented their appearance in around 2000. As they cannot survive cold weather, however, they are not expected to establish themselves in the northern states.
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Negative Effects
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Killer bees have killed humans and animals in every country in which they have established themselves. In all, there have been 1,000 recorded deaths from killer bee attacks. Killer bees are deadly because they sting 10 times more and react 10 times faster than European honeybees, following their prey for up to a quarter of a mile.
Killer bees often out-compete native and European bee species, so they may grow to be a particular problem in the southern United States, where the packaged bee and queen-rearing businesses are located—businesses the rest of the beekeeping industry relies upon. Several species of solitary and social bees are expected to become extinct once the killer bees enter the area, according to Columbia University.
Positive Effects
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Bees are responsible for at least one meal for every person every day, according to Colombia University, because of their role as pollinators of a wide variety of food sources. Killer bees are no different in this capacity: they, too, are important pollinators. In fact, killer bees directly influence 25 to 30 percent of tropical flora reproductive success.
Control Methods
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Since their introduction, various control methods have been attempted, and are still being developed. Drone flooding releases high numbers of confirmed European honeybees into areas with commercialized (European) honeybee queens to minimize the possibility of those queens' mating with Africanized varieties. Frequent re-queening of colonies to ensure that queens are European is also employed. Manual extermination of killer bee nests is used, and, according to the Center for Invasive Species Research, bee-breeding programs to curb some of the problems associated with killer bees may prove helpful.
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References
- Photo Credit Bee image by Tamas Majer from Fotolia.com
