Killer Bees Essay Example

1993 and California in October 1994.

Over 8,000 square miles of Imperial, Riverside, and northeastern San Diego counties were declared colonized by Africanized Bees within a year. Africanized honey bees have been reported in more than 100 counties in Texas, 6 in New Mexico, 14 in Arizona, 1 in Nevada, and 3 counties in California. The territories of AHB are expanding northward through swarming, the replication of bee colonies. The first reported attack on a person by AHB in the U.S. occurred when Jesus Diaz was attacked in May of 1991.

S. was stung 18 times while mowing a lawn in Brownsville, Texas and received medical treatment. On July 15, 1993, the first known death in the U.S. from Africanized honey bee stings occurred when 82-year-old Lino Lopez passed away.

Trying to remove a colony from an abandoned building on his ranch near Harlingen, Texas, he was stung more than 40 times. In Arizona, the first human fatality from Africanized Bees occurred in October 1993 when an 88-year-old Apache Junction woman disturbed a large Africanized honey bee colony in an abandoned building on her property and was stung numerous times. Although fatalities are alarming, the greatest danger Africanized Bees probably pose in the U.S. is to American beekeeping and agriculture in general. AHBs often mingle and mate with European colonies.

As a result of mating, the presence of African genes and tendencies in hybrid bees increases, which may cause the predominance of their behavior over European bees. This sudden change may lead to the entire colony exhibiting a short-tempered and aggressive demeanor.