Bee Knowlegeable Answers: Africanized Bees

There are a lot of warnings, news stories, and now even scary movies about "Killer Bees". This is especially true here in Southern California where the Boojum Bees are located. It is a fact that "killer" bees, or Africanized honeybees, are present and likely to stay.

So let's learn about these honeybees this week and think about what kind of impact they are having on our environment. See if you can find answers for the following questions:

1) Where do Africanized bees come from? How did they get here? 
In the 1950s, the Brazilian Agriculture Ministry wanted to breed a honeybee that was better adapted to their climate. The gentle European honeybee, Apis mellifera, did not thrive in the tropical climate of South America.

Across the Atlantic in tropical Africa the people had been getting honey from their own very productive but aggressive native honeybees, Apis scutellata, for centuries. The African people had developed their own ways of dealing with the highly defensive native bees.

In 1956 Brazil asked a prominent geneticist if he could breed a honeybee that was adapted to the tropical climate like the African honeybees, but be gentler and less aggressive like European bees. The scientist agreed to try breeding a better suited honeybee for Brazil.

In 1957 the breeding experiment was underway. Twenty six African queen bees were being bred to European honeybees. Those queens and their colonies were accidentally released into the South American forest.

2) How do they differ from European honeybees?
The most obvious difference in the two species of honeybee is their level of defensiveness. African honeybees have more guard bees than European colonies, and many more African bees will respond when alarm pheromones are released.

There is also a difference in swarming and hive selection. African bees will swarm, or split their colony far more frequently than European honeybees.  While swarming, European bees will only travel a few miles to find a suitable location to build a hive, African bees will travel up to 60 miles before settling. This is how they traveled so quickly through South America to Mexico, and now into the United States.

African honeybees are also much less picky about hive location. They will settle and make a hive out of any rotten log and even in open air in trees. European honeybees are pickier and try to find the perfect quiet, dark, safe place to build their new home.

3) What makes these bees so dangerous? 
It’s not that their venom is any stronger. In fact, African honeybees are smaller than European honeybees and so have smaller venom sacs. They respond to threats in larger numbers and pursue the target much greater distances. They are more sensitive to what they perceive is a threat. After being disturbed, they will also stay in an agitated, attack mode longer than the more docile European species.

Consider that unless a person is allergic, it takes about 10 bee stings per pound of body weight before a bee attack is fatal. That would be about 1500 stings for a 150lb adult or 400 stings for a 40lb youth. European honeybees rarely if ever respond to threats in such numbers. With African honeybees, there is a greater chance of being stung that many times.

What is the environmental impact of Africanized honeybees, a new, introduced species?
When you consider the fact that these bees are voracious foragers and will make a home out of almost any available space, it is thought that these bees will push out vital native bee species by being too competitive.


 Check out this video from National Geographic: