Fact Sheet For The Consumer United States Department Of Agriculture

The Africanized honey bee. an aggressive hybrid that has spread over large areas of tropical South America, is a source of recent concern both to the public because of its stinging behavior and to the American beekeeping industry because of the belief that its unique movement patterns may alter the genetic-quality of domestic bee stocks which ensure American crop production. The bees, which were accidentally released from research hives in Brazil in 1956, have spread as far north as Venezuela. Researchers, monitoring this spread, arc studying the behavior and life cycles of the hybrid. Studies have already developed the technology and handling procedures for successfully-managing this bee.

The Africanized honey bees are descendants of 26 colonics of honey bees (Apis mellifera adansonii) from Africa. In 1956, a noted Brazilian geneticist brought the bees to his country to interbreed with European-type honey bees to produce a new type better suited to the South American tropics. The Africanized honey bees swarmed from experimental colonies near Sao Paulo. Brazil, and interbred naturally in the wild with the European-type honey bees of the region. These interbreedings resulted in hybrids that are high honey-producers. outproducing the original European strains. They pollinate crops as effectively as the European strains and thrive in tropical and semitropical climates. Over the last two decades, the hybrids have spread over most of Brazil and adjacent South American countries.

Although the Africanized honey bee is highly aggressive, its sting is no more venomous than that of our domestic honey bee and there is no evidence it causes more human fatalities than any other kind of bee. The Africanized honey bee chases would-be targets farther and in greater numbers. Like all honey bees, when it stings it loses its stinger, then dies. Some people are highly allergic to bee venom; however, most people-can absorb several stings with only itchy, uncomfortable swellings resulting.

Swarming is the means by which all bees form new colonics. The queen bee leaves with about half the bees in the colony to find a new home. The bees remaining in the hive choose a new queen. Thus, by swarming, the original colony divides itself in two. Africanized honey bees swarm much more often than domestic bees and thus spread their colonics much faster.

Africanized honey bees leave the colony completely to move to a new location. This trait is known as absconding. European types rarely do this. Africanized bees abscond on flights as long as 50 miles, a trail that has contributed to an average movement rate of 200 miles a year. This has taken them as far northward as Venezuela, westward into Peru and Bolivia, and southward into Uruguay and Argentina. Absconding was necessary for survival in Africa when areas were struck by dry spells and bees were forced to move to find food.

American beekeepers do not want this "absconding" trait bred into our domestic lines of bees. A tendency to readily abscond during shortages of nectar or pollen, or when being transported by truck, would be highly disruptive to our beekeeping system and disturb the vital pollination of U. S. crops.

Figure 2: SEA entomologists capture an Africanized honey bee swarm cluster on a tree branch in South America. Scientists will move these bees to a standard hive to study the bee's habit patterns. Africanized honey bees swarm frequently.

Figure 2: SEA entomologists capture an Africanized honey bee swarm cluster on a tree branch in South America. Scientists will move these bees to a standard hive to study the bee's habit patterns. Africanized honey bees swarm frequently.

Migration Factors

Researchers, supported by the Science and Education Administration (SEA), closely detailed the movement, spread, and habits of Africanized honey bees in South America at a research station in French Guiana. There, under a cooperative agreement with the University of Kansas, they conducted a 3-year study that collected valuable data on brood cycles, swarming and absconding patterns, migration distances, and such behavioral aspects of the Africanized honey bee as mating and stinging habits.

To accomplish this, the investigators in Guiana developed an 80-colony apiary of highly Africanized bees. Work with these colonies allowed them to develop a comprehensive understanding of the hybrids' behavior and the management techniques to handle them.

In 1978. the study site in French Guiana was moved to Venezuela where a bee-breeding laboratory was established. The northern and western front of the Africanized honey bee migration will be monitored from this location for 3 or more years.

Research conducted in Venezuela by SEA-supported scientists from the University of Kansas focuses on the migration distances and swarming and absconding traits of the hybrid bee. Other studies cover the mating and stinging behavioral aspects. Venezuelan agriculturists have been trained already in the bee handling and management practices that were developed through SEA research.

Investigators who studied the migratory habits of the Africanized bees noted that these bees act less aggressively and spread more slowly in the temperate climates of South America. Bees that moved southward from Sao Paulo to latitudes comparable with those of the lower United States have become somewhat milder in nature and easier to handle. Only bees that spread northward into tropical areas have maintained the aggressive characteristics that make the bees undesirable.

An SKA researcher in French Guiana holds up a frame honeycomb covered with Africanized honey bees. A 2 year study in that country, accomplished in cooperation with scientists from the University of Kansas, yielded valuable information on the behavior of the hybrid bee.

Figure 3: An SKA researcher in French Guiana holds up a frame honeycomb covered with Africanized honey bees. A 2-year study in that country, accomplished in cooperation with scientists from the University of Kansas, yielded valuable information on the behavior of the hybrid bee.