Do Killer Bees Really Exist?
In 1956, a doctor at a medical school in Sao Paulo brought 175 queen bees to Brazil from Africa. He hoped to breed the fierce African bees with the tamer Brazilian bees and produce bees that would give more honey. But about two dozen of the African bees escaped. They began to breed with the native Brazilian bees on their own. Be
A. Yes – up to a point. The real name for the so-called killer bee is the Africanised bee. The folklore of the killer bee started with such films as The Swarm, where great clouds of angry bees attack cities and sting hundreds of people to death. This is not going to happen. Q. So where has this legend started? A. Ancestors of the Africanised bee live throughout Africa, south of the Sahara Desert. African bees were accidentally introduced into the wild in South and North America in 1956. Brazilian scientists were attempting to create a new hybrid bee in the hopes of creating improved honey production. The Africanised bee (apis mellifera scutellata) escaped and began to dominate the honeybee, spreading through the country at 200 miles a year. Q. It’s a nasty piece of work? A. Yes. It’s aggressive and easily agitated. The first Africanised bee was found in the United States in October, 1990, in southern Texas. At the moment, it can’t survive cold winters, but entomologists believe it will
