The Africanized bee, also known as the Africanized honey bee and known colloquially as the "killer bee", is a hybrid of the western honey bee (Apis mellifera), produced originally by crossbreeding of the East African lowland honey bee (A. m. scutellata) with various European honey bee subspecies such as the Italian honey bee (A. m. ligustica) and the Iberian honey bee (A. m. iberiensis).
The East African lowland honey bee was first introduced to Brazil in 1956 in an effort to increase honey production, but 26 swarms escaped quarantine in 1957. Since then, the hybrid has spread throughout South America and arrived in North America in 1985. Hives were found in south Texas in the United Statesin 1990.[1][2]
Africanized honey bees are typically much more defensive than other varieties of honey bees, and react to disturbances faster than European honey bees. They can chase a person a quarter of a mile (400 m); they have killed some 1,000 humans, with victims receiving 10 times more stings than from European honey bees.[1] They have also killed horses and other animals.[3][4]
Africanized honey bees are considered an invasive species in the Americas. As of 2002, the Africanized honey bees had spread from Brazil south to northern Argentina and north to Central America, Trinidad (the West Indies), Mexico, Texas, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Florida, and southern California. In June 2005, it was discovered that the bees had spread into southwest Arkansas. Their expansion stopped for a time at eastern Texas, possibly due to the large population of European honey bee hives in the area. However, discoveries of the Africanized honey bees in southern Louisianashow that they have gotten past this barrier,[11]or have come as a swarm aboard a ship.
On 11 September 2007, Commissioner Bob Odom of the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry said that Africanized honey bees had established themselves in the New Orleans area.[12] In February 2009, Africanized honey bees were found in southern Utah.[13][14] The bees had spread into eight counties in Utah, as far north as Grand and Emery Counties by May 2017.[15]
In October 2010, a 73-year-old man was killed by a swarm of Africanized honey bees while clearing brush on his south Georgia property, as determined by Georgia's Department of Agriculture. In 2012, Tennessee state officials reported that a colony was found for the first time in a beekeeper's colony in Monroe Countyin the eastern part of the state.[16] In June 2013, 62-year-old Larry Goodwin of Moody, Texas, was killed by a swarm of Africanized honey bees.[17]
In May 2014, Colorado State Universityconfirmed that bees from a swarm which had aggressively attacked an orchardist near Palisade, in west-central Colorado, were from an Africanized honey bee hive. The hive was subsequently destroyed.[18]
In tropical climates they effectively out-compete European honey bees and, at their peak rate of expansion, they spread north at almost two kilometers (about one mile) a day. There were discussions about slowing the spread by placing large numbers of docile European-strain hives in strategic locations, particularly at the Isthmus of Panama, but various national and international agricultural departments could not prevent the bees' expansion. Current knowledge of the genetics of these bees suggests that such a strategy, had it been tried, would not have been successful.[19]
As the Africanized honey bee migrates further north, colonies continue to interbreed with European honey bees. In a study conducted in Arizona in 2004 it was observed that swarms of Africanized honey bees could take over weakened European honey bee hives by invading the hive, then killing the European queen and establishing their own queen.[20]There are now relatively stable geographic zones in which either Africanized honey bees dominate, a mix of Africanized and European honey bees is present, or only non-Africanized honey bees are found, as in the southern portions of South America or northern North America.
African honey bees abscond (abandon the hive and any food store to start over in a new location) more readily than European honeybees. This is not necessarily a severe loss in tropical climates where plants bloom all year, but in more temperate climates it can leave the colony with not enough stores to survive the winter. Thus Africanized honey bees are expected to be a hazard mostly in the southern states of the United States, reaching as far north as the Chesapeake Bay in the east. The cold-weather limits of the Africanized honey bee have driven some professional bee breeders from Southern California into the harsher wintering locales of the northern Sierra Nevada and southern Cascade Range. This is a more difficult area to prepare bees for early pollination placement in, such as is required for the production of almonds. The reduced available winter forage in northern California means that bees must be fed for early spring buildup.
