| Killer Bees
Live Calmly in U.S. August, 1991 - By Thomas Ropp - The Arizona Republic |
| Insects came 30 years ago,
scientists say The killer bees are on a roll. They've invaded Texas and are poised to take over the Western Hemisphere. At least that's what killer-bee alarmists would like us to believe. The truth is that killer, or Africanized, bees have been living quietly in the United States for at least 30 years. They are descendants of the same group that's been flying north from South America, but these killer bees arrived a tad sooner, compliments of the mail and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. "It's common knowledge among larger commercial beekeepers," said Dee Lusby, president of the Arizona Beekeepers Association. "The USDA bee lab in Baton Rouge (La.) received Aficanized bee semen from Brazil 30 years ago and made the offspring available to beekeepers in this country and around the world." In fact, Africanized bees were mixing with common bees in the United States as early as the mid-1800s, according to a 1973 article in Bee World, citing bee breeders who brought them over from Africa to mix with domestic hives. Africanized bees are similar in appearance to regular honeybees but are thought to be superior honey producers because of their aggressiveness. Heightened attack response From the beginning, alarmists and beekeepers have been at odds over the issue of aggressiveness, but they have agreed that the venom of a killer bee is no more poisonous than that of the common European honeybee. Any increased risk from stinging comes from the Africanized bees' heightened attack response, which results in more stings than with most other types of bees. The Africanized bees sighted last October in southern Texas are reportedly descendants of bees that escaped in 1956 from the Brazilian laboratory of Warwick Estevan Kerr. They got their "killer" moniker from the reported deaths of people, livestock and domestic animals attributed to attacks by them in South America, Central America and Mexico. Government documents released to The Arizona Republic by the Arizona Beekeepers Association confirm that Africanized bee semen was shipped from 1959 to 1961 by Kerr in Brazil to Stephen Tabor of the USDA bee lab in Baton Rouge. "It was part of an ongoing program to breed superior honey-producing bees, just like Dr. Kerr's experiments in South America," Lusby said. Killer bees in Wisconsin Beekeeper Dave Miksa keeps more than 2,000 hives, moving them between Wisconsin and Florida with the season. But in the early 1960s, he was a 20-year-old research assistant at the USDA labs in Madison, Wis. Africanized queens as well as semen were sent to Madison from the Baton Rouge labs for pollination study, he said. "When word got out among beekeepers, the Africanized stock was doled out freely," Miksa said. Miksa has no doubt that some of the Africanized bees escaped the commercial hives. "At the very least there must be pockets of Africanized bees around the country," he said. Miksa and Lusby believe that the cooler northern climate and good bee management is the reason Africanized bees have not been the problem in this country that they have been in South America. "Our industry has bred through it," Lusby said. In 1985, Richard Nunamaker, a research entomologist stationed at the USDA Agricultural Research Service Labroatory in Laramie, Wyo., developed a method for identifying Africanized bees based on gene analysis. "At that time, we found low levels of Africanization in the United States, especially the southern United States," Nunamaker said. Breeding out aggressivness Lusby said aggressive bees such as the Africans become more docile as they breed with local varieties. The first crosses produce nasty-tempered offspring, but each subsequent generation mellows. The Africanized bees that escaped 35 years ago from Brazil have been defused through generations of cross-breeding and pose no particular threat, Lusby said. "I'd agree with that," Nunamaker said. He has charged some scientists with using fears and publicity about killer bees to obtain research money. "Back in '85, $2 million of the $6 million allotted to bee research in the U.S. was spent on Africanized bees," Nunamaker said. "I would imagine now it's even more." Lusby suspects that the USDA's low profile on Africanized-bee research also was tied to appropriations. Lusby and her organization are trying to stop the USDA from creating what she calls "doomsday weapons," such as poison baits, to eradicate feral colonies of Africanized honeybees. Lusby said the poison bait is taken back to the hives and contaminates the wax, bee bread, honey and all other bees. Could ruin the industry "You can imagine what would happen if this bait was ever used," she said. "Because it's non-select, any honeybee could get into it. This poison would ruin our industry and have dire consequences to agriculture in general." County Extension urban-garden specialists have been speculating for many years that pesticides are responsible for the decrease in urban bees, resulting in poor fruit set on melons, squash and other vine vegetables grown in backyard situations. The Carl Hayden Bee Research Center in Tucson is one of the USDA facilities participating in the poison-bait research. Director Eric Erickson said application is a long way off. "It's just an experimental effort to see if an approach like this would be feasible under limited kinds of circumstances," Erickson said. He also understands the beekeepers' concerns. "It's true there's no way of discriminating between desirable bees and undesirable ones," Erickson said. "So if it ever became a procedure that was allowed to be used, it would have very tight restrictions. |