Folks In The South: Be Careful Of The Honey Bees

[Okie Hog]

Africanized honey bees ( Killer Bees) are very dangerous.  My son lives northwest of Houston, TX.   His place has lots of big trees.  He knew that one tree had a colony of honey bees.  He did not know that the hive had become Africanized.  He was attacked and stung over 50 times while brushhogging the lot.  He would have died except for the screened in pool.  He drove the tractor to the pool and entered.  The bees could not get in.   One cold day my son burned that tree;  the honey burned for several days.

What are Africanized honey bees?

The major differences between Africanized and other Western bee types are:
Tends to swarm more frequently and go farther than other types of honey bees.
Is more likely to migrate as part of a seasonal response to lowered food supply.
Is more likely to "abscond"—the entire colony leaves the hive and relocates—in response to stress.
Has greater defensiveness when in a resting swarm, compared to other honey bee types.
Lives more often in ground cavities than the European types.
Guards the hive aggressively, with a larger alarm zone around the hive.
Has a higher proportion of "guard" bees within the hive.
Deploys in greater numbers for defense and pursues perceived threats over much longer distances from the hive.
Cannot survive extended periods of forage deprivation, preventing introduction into areas with harsh winters or extremely dry late summers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africanized_bee



Where are the Africanized bees?  

This map shows the extent of Africanized bees in the US as reported by the states.  

http://ars.usda.gov/Research/docs.htm?docid=11059&page=6



This Texas man was killed by Africanized honey bees while discing a field:

http://news.yahoo.com/texas-farmer-killed-swarm-bees-192602552.html

 

[Al-53]

Glad your son is ok..I seen some show on them bees on National Geo..viscious critters..thy have killed small animals also besides humans...the states that have the African bees ..must be scary when you see bees..you never know if they are killer bees....

I just seen a show on Killer Hornets in Japan...they are huge..as big as a humminbird...and they kill big time...they have hornet hunters in Japan who look for the hives to destroy them...and they are migrating now...China has reported big swarms of them now....

 

[Muley Hunter]

I was hanging around up at 11,000ft a couple of days ago, and I got stung in my neck right next to my adams apple. Pretty intense pain for about a minute. I can't imagine being stung by a whole hive.

Pretty crappy way to die.

 

[patocazador]

That map shows them on the border of my county. They must not like to colonize where rednecks live.
African bees and honey bees are the same except the common strain has been domesticated for over 2000 years.

My wife got attacked and stung over a dozen times by bald-faced hornets last year. They chased her to the house from over 100 yards away. They had their hive in an old yellow jacket hole that I burned out about 4 years before.

 

[hawgslayer1]

:Red tup:
Glad all is well falcon. I guess that's one good thing about our harsh winters. Keeps those guys out of here.

Ray................. :Scucks:

 

[patocazador]

If they're like honey bees, they can last through moderately cold weather like 15 deg. short periods if they have an 'insulated' place for their hive. We had one hive last the winter in Alabama in an old abandoned car. It got down to about 12 deg. or so several times that winter.

 

[Okie Hog]

Africanized honey bees cannot survive hard winters. They may adapt to colder weather.

How do hives become Africanized?

European honey bee hives are are invaded by Africanized bees that kill the queen. The Africanized bees then make their own queen.

The Africanized queen hatches a day or two before the European queen. The worker bees then kill the unhatched queens in their pupae cases.