It shouldn’t be too much of a surprise if you’ve seen a bee or two. But with that buzzing comes the seemingly routine deluge of Arizona headlines about stinging attacks, especially from the Africanized bee.
But what is an Africanized bee – and do they actually live up to their infamy?
The Africanized bee goes by many names: "Killer bee" is most famous. Even the Smithsonian calls them dangerous as they are more likely to attack people than the more docile European honeybees Americans were used to.
They began popping up in Texas then Arizona in the 1990s, after crossing thousands of miles – over decades – from their origin point of Brazil.
Adrian Fisher is a honeybee researcher with Arizona State University. He says a 1950s genetic experiment combined the more docile European honeybee with the more resilient African honeybee. The hope was to create a gentle hybrid, more immune to disease and that could take the Brazilian heat.
“The problem was that the hybrids he created inherited that very aggressive temperament of the African variety and shortly after making this new breed, they escaped," Fisher said.
And movies like 1978’s "The Swarm" helped the Africanized bee's mean reputation precede its arrival to the Southwest.
'Defensive' bees
But Fisher says “killer bee” is a misnomer. It's not false, but it's just not the whole picture.
“If you encounter an Africanized bee out foraging in a patch of flowers, it will not behave differently than a European bee. It’s only when you approach their hive and they perceive you as potentially being an invader that you would see a difference in their response," Fisher said.
Patrick Pynes, who’s part of the Northern Arizona Organic Beekeepers Association, agrees. And he’s been beekeeping since 1991.
“I understand why people are afraid of them, especially if they never met them or worked with them. They have a bad reputation," Pynes said.
For context, officials at Banner Health say Africanized bee attacks are common in Arizona. But multiple sting attacks are less common, and deaths are rare.
“Some of them can be pretty defensive, some people call that aggressive, I call it defensive. It’s a difference. They’re not inherently killer bees but some of them have the capacity to defend themselves to the degree that they can kill you. Sort of like a rattlesnake or a bison," Pynes said.
He says their level of defensiveness can vary from hive to hive.
"We put them on a chilly scale of like zero, which is totally docile, to 10, which is extremely defensive. And most of the South Africanized bees that I encounter in my work are around five,” Pynes said.
But Pynes also says the European honeybee is around zero to three, and may rely heavily on human intervention.
So why tolerate a bee that may be more defensive, or even sometimes deadly? Well at this point, Arizonans may not have a choice. They look nearly identical to their European counterparts.
”I can tell the difference now just by looking at them. But I think your non-beekeeper would not be able to tell the difference, and they are the same species, and they do breed together," Pynes said.
Pynes says now basically the whole wild population in Arizona are Africanized bees.
“There are no European honeybees still in the wild that are not interacting in a beekeeping situation with humans," Pynes said.
Commercial operations adapt
Beekeepers have had to adapt. Many who are commercial resist working with Africanized honeybees. Dennis Arp, owner of Mountain Top Honey, says they can be a liability or safety issue. But keeping colonies European and docile is hard.
It takes time, money and constant importing of new European queens.
“If we let them open-mate or do their mating thing just out in the wild, unless you saturate the area with good quality drones, you’re going to be influenced by what the feral population is," Arp said.
It just takes one unintentional mating with an Africanized bee. These bees develop faster and send out more swarms for mating.
But the constant re-queening has a big price tag. Arp says he spent over $12,000 this year to re-queen just some of his hives. And sometimes queens are rejected, which causes greater expense.
There are many pros and cons to taking on the Africanized population as a beekeeper.
And they are honey-making pollinators. But for the non-bee keepers, here's Fisher again from ASU:
“If you come across a tree hole or just an area where you’re seeing a lot of bees maybe enter some small space," Fisher said, "that could be the first signs that you’re approaching a hive, so an actual nest. And in which case it’s good to keep your distance and really get a better sense for what’s there."
-
The 1980 Groundwater Management Act established Arizona’s first four AMAs — Phoenix, Prescott, Tucson and Pinal. -
Despite residents’ best intentions, there remains widespread confusion about the do’s and don’ts in metro Phoenix cities. Here's a look at rules of recycling throughout the Valley. -
Did you know The Gorilla was born by accident? It started with a singing telegram that was supposed to be delivered to a fan at a Phoenix Suns game. -
Arizona had a massive flu season last fall and winter, with 75,000 cases — more than double what is typical in the state. Experts recommend getting a flu shot in October, before flu season peaks. -
Arizonans had been facing hurdles to getting COVID-19 shots amid regulatory confusion caused by shakeups at the CDC. But a state health department order has now cleared the way for broader access.
