Africanized Honey Bees (AHB) -- also called Africanized bees or killer bees -- are descendants of southern African bees imported in 1956 by Brazilian scientists attempting to breed a honey bee better adapted to the South American tropics.
When some of these bees escaped quarantine in 1957, they began breeding with local Brazilian honey bees, quickly multiplying and extended their range throughout South and Central America at a rate greater than 200 miles per year. In the past decade, AHB began invading North America.
Africanized bees acquired the name killer bees because they will viciously attack people and animals who unwittingly stray into their territory, often resulting in serious injury or death.
It is not necessary to disturb the hive itself to initiate an AHB attack. In fact, Africanized bees have been know to respond viciously to mundane occurrences, including noises or even vibrations from vehicles, equipment and pedestrians.
Though their venom is no more potent than native honey bees, Africanized bees attack in far greater numbers and pursue perceived enemies for greater distances. Once disturbed, colonies may remain agitated for 24 hours, attacking people and animals within a range of a quarter mile from the hive.
Bee Invasion?
Africanized bees proliferate because they are less discriminating in their choice of nests than native bees, utilizing a variety of natural and man-made objects , including hollow trees, walls, porches, sheds, attics, utility boxes, garbage containers and abandoned vehicles. They also tend to swarm more often than other honey bees.
The first swarm of Africanized bees was detected in the U.S. in October, 1990 when they were captured in a baited trap at the border town of Hidalgo, Texas. AHB colonies were first reported in Arizona and New Mexico in 1993 and in California in October, 1994. Within a year, more than 8,000 square miles of Imperial, Riverside and northeastern San Diego counties were declared officially colonized by Africanized Bees.
To date, more than 100 counties in Texas, 6 in New Mexico, 14 in Arizona, 1 in Nevada, and 3 counties in California have reported Africanized honey bees. AHB continue the northward expansion of their territories by swarming, the process by which bee colonies replicate.
In May of 1991, Jesus Diaz became the first person to be attacked by AHB in the U.S. while mowing a lawn in the border city of Brownsville, Texas. Diaz suffered 18 stings and was treated at a local hospital.
On July 15, 1993, 82-year-old Lino Lopez became the first person to die in the U.S. from Africanized honey bee stings. He was stung more than 40 times while trying to remove a colony from a wall in an abandoned building on his ranch near Harlingen, Texas.
Arizona's first human fatality from Africanized Bees occurred in October, 1993 when 88-year-old Apache Junction woman disturbed a large Africanized honey bee colony in an abandoned building on her property and was stung numerous times.
Although such fatalities are alarming, Africanized Bees probably present the greatest danger in the U.S. to American beekeeping and American agriculture in general. AHBs often enter European colonies to mingle and mate with them. Such mating results in more hybrid bees having African genes and tendencies dominating over European ones. An entire colony may suddenly take on aggressive and short-tempered behavior.
Bee Safety
The best safety advice is to avoid an encounter with unfriendly Africanized Bees. Be alert for danger. Remember that AHB sting to defend their colony, so be on the look out for honey bee swarms and colonies.
Be alert for bees coming in and out of an opening such as a crack in a wall, or the hole in a utility box.
Listen for the hum of an active bee colony.
Look for bees in holes in the ground, holes in trees or cacti, and in sheds.
Be extra careful when moving junk that has been lying around.
Be alert for bees that are acting strangely. Quite often bees will display some preliminary defensive behavior before going into a full-fledged attack.
When you are outdoors, in a rural area, a park or wilderness reserve, be aware of your surroundings and keep an eye out for bees the way you would watch out for snakes and other natural dangers.
Don't panic at the sight of a few bees foraging in the flowers. Bees are generally very docile as they go about their normal activities.
Bee Prepared
As the number of Africanized bee colonies increases in an area, so, too, does the likelihood of human and animal encounters with them. Serious human injury can be avoided if the habits of Africanized bees are learned and precautions taken.
Wear light-colored clothing. Bees tend to attack dark things. Dark clothing, dark hair, any thing dark in color could draw the animus of AHB.
Bees are sensitive to odors, both pleasant and unpleasant. The smell of newly cut grass has been shown to disturb honey bees. Avoid wearing floral or citrus aftershaves or perfume.
Check your house and yard at least once a month to see if there are any signs of bees taking up residence. If you do find a swarm or colony, leave it be and keep family and pets away. Find a pest control company or a local beekeeper to solve the problem.
To help prevent honey bees from building a colony in your house or yard, fill all cracks and crevices in walls with steel wool and caulk. Remove piles of refuse, honey bees will nest in an old soda can or an overturned flower pot. Fill holes in the ground.
Bee Attack
Obviously, it is best to avoid contact with Africanized Honey Bees. But if contact becomes unavoidable, it is important to know what to do. Bees target the head, and nearly all those who suffer serious stinging incidents with Africanized Bees are overcome by stings to the head and face.
The best method of escaping a bee attack is to cover your head and run for shelter.
Any covering for your body, especially for your head and face, will help you escape. A small handkerchief or mosquito net device that fits over the head could easily be carried in a pocket.
If you do not have these, grab a blanket, coat, towel, anything that will give you momentary relief while you look for an avenue of escape. If you have nothing else, pull your shirt up over your face. The stings you may get on your chest and abdomen are far less serious than those to the facial area.
Try to find shelter as soon as possible. Take refuge in a house, tent or a car with the windows and doors closed.
DO NOT JUMP INTO WATER! Bees will wait for you to come up for air.
Once you are away from the bees, evaluate the situation. If you have been stung more than 15 times, or if you are having any symptoms other than local pain and swelling, seek medical attention immediately.
If you see someone else being stung or think others are in danger, call 911 immediately.
Remove stingers as soon as possible to lessen the amount of venom entering the body. Scrape stingers off the skin with a blunt instrument or plastic card. Do not remove bee stingers with fingers or tweezers – this only forces toxins into the victim's body.
AHB Facts
Are slightly smaller than the European honey bee, but only an expert can tell them apart
Defend their hive more rapidly than the European honey bee
Usually sting in greater numbers
Are less selective about where they nest
Swarm more often than European honey bees
Do not have stronger venom than the European honey bee
Each bee can only sting one time – females die after stinging
Eat nectar and pollen and make honey
Are not native to the U.S.; they came from Africa
Reader's Comments
April 2008 Two days ago, my wife and I went out for a short hike near a cabin we were staying in near the West entrance to Joshua Tree National Park.
The wildflowers were in bloom and the weather was perfect at around 70 degrees. We headed for a rock outcropping and then began climbing up some large boulders. We got about thirty feet up and I heard a buzzing sound ahead. Then my wife noticed a bee buzzing around her head. Soon a swarm of hundreds of bees surrounded us, especially attacking our heads. My wife couldn't get them out of her hair. We did not have extra clothing to swat them with, only sunglasses and a camera. I don't know how we got down the boulders, but we did, trying to get away from the attacking bees. It seemed like the more we tried to fend them, the more that joined the swarm. I left my camera behind and we ran for the nearest house, about a hundred yards away. I saw a hose and turned on the water. Fortunately it worked, so I doused my wife and I with water. They were still swarming and crawling all over use, but I kept spraying us with water and for the next ten minutes had to shoot water in the air over us until they finally went away. We were stung 25 or 30 times each, but it would have been much worse if we had not found the hose.
We took most of the stingers out and called the local medical center but got little response, so we went to the drug store in Yucca Valley and the pharmacist recommended benadryl creme. We stopped by the ranger station yesterday on the way home and the ranger said that they were probably the Africanized "killer" bees (they were slightly smaller than normall honey bees). She did not seem to alarmed since we looked ok and they infrequently had attacked people over the past few years. We are now recovering, but from now on, we will stick to the trails.
Dale
July 2007
On the 13th of June my boyfriend and me where moving out of our old house in Arizona as my boyfriend went to get somethings from the back of the shed he noticed a couple of bees around him he thought they where just doing there on thing but as he picked up a box he was covered in bees there was a swarm in the box.
He screamed so I ran to se what was going on he was yelling and screaming trying to get the bees of him his whole head and face was covered in bees I was so scared I didn’t know what to do he brushed as many bees of his face as he could and said to me that they where on me as well that is when I looked at my legs and they where covered in bees.
Our neighbour saw what was going on and got his hose and tried to wash them off we ran inside and got in the shower and stay in there for at least 45 min we then looked out the window and my boyfriends box was covered in bees. We then called 911 they came over and we were taken away in a ambulance, we were still covered in stingers. One week later we moved still shocked about the incident thinking it could of been worse, but our neighbour saved the day.
Sam and Matisse
July 2007
We are in Bluffton, SC and I think my husband was stung by killer bees yesterday, July 3. He came in and shouted "I"ve been stung!" I immediately ran to get my tea tree oil and proceeded to pour it onto his legs and rub it on his bites. He had been trimming the grass, edging the house, and they were in a railroad tie we used as a border. He said he did not hear them or notice them because he was paying attention to the machine. When he did look down, they was a cloud of bees around his legs.
He ran quickly and got inside. He had over 30 bites, maybe as many as 50 or more. They are small bees and really quick. He said it seemed they were biting him over and over. Of course, that is becasue there were so many of them. He never took anything for pain or any benadryl or anything. He said it still stung some, but not bad. When he said that, I put some Mela-gel from Melaleuca, Inc. on too. It is a higher grade of tea tree oil. He did not go to the hospital or anything, but it is because we thought they were small yellow jackets. We have never seen killer bees, but they looked like the pics I have seen on the net today. Thanks,
Babs
ps
I have put the tea tree oil on other bee stings and it makes the pain go away. My husband says he still feels the stings some today. Is there something else he should do?
See a doctor.
June 2007
I’m a truck driver and get my exercise by walking / hiking around and exploring the areas I stop in. I’ve always been a nature / wildlife nut and probably watch more Animal Planet than anyone else. Anyways I was in Shreveport, Louisiana this week at the Pilot Truck stop and had 12 hours to kill. I decided to go for a hike and look for snakes or other reptiles. At the corner of Westport and 70th streets I found a trail going into the woods and about a mile into the woods I did find my snake a nice 6 footer, but shortly after that I started getting hit in the head by a bug.
I swatted at it a few times but never made contact then it landed on my head and I knocked it off and realized it was a bee. I ran into the woods a bit to get out of the area and when I stop I started getting hit in the chest by another one that kept bumping into my chest and coming back, right about then another one came in and started bouncing off my arm.
It was then that I realized what was going on they were killer bees warning me to keep away. I ran out of there and when I got back to my truck I got on the internet and sure enough it was one of the 3 counties (parishes) in Louisiana with killer bees. If it wasn’t for watching specials about them on the discovery channel I surely would’ve induced a full attack.
Ken
I got on your site to learn more about Killer Bees. This past Saturday, Oct. 14, I was quail hunting 30 miles north of Wickenburg, Arizona with my 12 year old grandson.
One bee attacked my left ear. I swatted it away not even thinking it was a bee. Two steps later we were swarmed by hundreds of bees. We ran to my truck which was about 100 yards away and got into the truck with about 200 bees. I dropped my keys outside the truck and could not start the truck. We were trapped inside fighting for our lives killing bees. This went on for about 30 minutes and we were near exhaustion from the heat and the stings.
A man saw our fix and bailed out of his truck, scooped up my keys, I opened the door letting in another 50 to 75 bees. Got the truck started and started to the hospital in Wickenburg. I am 61 and I did not think I was going to make it and my grandson was in shock. We got treated in the emergency room. I was very short of breath and did not think I would make it. They picked the bee stingers out with tweezers and I got very ill shortly thereafter. Got some oxygen on and recovered pretty quickly.
They took 67 stingers out of my arms and face, unknown amount of stings on my head. My grandson had 47 stings not counting his head. I drove us home OK but still feel a little shaky today.
I have never seen an animal or insect attack with such determination to kill its prey. I have hunted all of my life in the desert and high country and still do not believe what happened to us. We almost died out there. Pass this on to anyone who doubts how dangerous these bees are.
Tom - Peoria, Arizona
May 2007
I am a landscape contractor in the houston texas area, while mowing a yard on 5/23/2007 one of my crew encountered a hive of Africanized Honey Bees while mowing. he thought he ran over a nest before he knew what was going on he had been stung 10 or more times. We had to leave the lawn equipment behind going to the local store to get raid wasp and bee spray, upon returning we found our mower covered with hundreds of bees as soon as we were approx 30 ft from the mower they started swarming us again. We received 20 or more new stings but were able to spray and kill instantly what was holding our mower hostage. we left and confirmed with a local agency that they were AHB'S and had to take several vicodin as well as topical numbing agents that night for the pain.... ice helps with the swelling, thanks , James Berger
May 2007 Killer Bees in the desert (Blythe, CA area)
My boyfriend and I went on one of our weekend rock hounding trips the weekend of May 27th, 2007. We went to a BLM wilderness area in the Palen Mountains near Blythe CA looking for Quartz. We had our small 4X4 SUV and made it out there no problem. We got to the site around 9am and proceeded to pull out our shovels, rock picks, screens, and a wash bucket with water to clean our specimens. It was probably about 80 degrees at this point but we had a nice breeze being on top of the mountain.
As we started digging on the mountain we started getting bothered by one or two bees every few minutes flying around our heads and ankles. We didn’t think anything of it at first, after all we were in the desert and bees are to be expected from time to time. We swatted them away and eventually we were left alone for a few more minutes. So we continued on digging for about an hour when I turned around and looked over to our SUV. I noticed a couple hundred bees flying around it. I called out to my boyfriend and told him that the bees were inside the vehicle and there was no way we were going to get in there and leave with that many inside. We didn’t think it would be a bad idea to leave the windows and doors open. We also didn’t know what they wanted so badly in our car.
We did have a cooler full of cold water and a few iced tea drinks but all were sealed. As we tried to get some of our stuff out of the vehicle my boyfriend got stung. Luckily he is not allergic and only got stung once but the others were trying to get on the both of us. We spent about 2 hours trying to keep the bees away from each other. If we didn’t continuously move we would’ve been attacked on a much higher scale for sure. This constant fight left us exhausted, sunburned, and confused on what to do at this point in time. We decided to gather up some wood and make a fire on the side of the vehicle to smoke them out. The fire did not work.
We did notice that we had left our Starbucks coffee’s in the vehicle. Both coffees were half full. The bees were trying to get into the cups! So my boyfriend grabbed some of his clothes from the vehicle with his shovel handle so he could bundle himself up. He stuck on long pants, a sweatshirt, and pulled his socks over his pants to be sure the bees wouldn’t sting him anymore. We tried to get as much of our personal belongings OUT of the truck. We specifically wanted our cell phones so we could call someone to find out what to do. In the meantime my boyfriend dumped out the coffee cups – both cups were completely filled with bees. Dead bees! I had also brought a bottle of OFF bug spray in which we started looking for…we had a hard time finding it.
We decided we were going to call 911 since we had a cell phone signal and see if there was something we could do to get the bees out. 911 was pretty much a joke. They transferred my boyfriend over to Terminix Pest Control, which was closed! We were stranded in the desert and didn’t know what to do for our situation.
We called 911 back telling them Terminix was closed, my boyfriend had already been stung, and the bees were gathering in greater numbers. 911 decided to transfer us over to the Blythe area Fire Department.
At this point we had thousands of bees swarming our vehicle. We walked halfway down the mountain to get away from them while we tried talking to the Blythe FD. Luckily we had GPS coordinates to give them for our location. They didn’t really seem to know what to do either. They told us they would send a fire truck out! They would have never made it out into this area with a fire truck. The sand was deep and we were up a somewhat steep mountain. We told them they would need a 4x4 vehicle. So we waited for them on top of this mountain.
20-30 minutes later we still don’t see any sight of the fire department coming so we decided to try to do something ourselves. We finally found the OFF bug spray I had. My boyfriend proceeded to dump out anything that would be an attraction to the bees. I stayed halfway down the hill and tried to stay calm while still fighting off a bee or two.
About a half hour later I walked back up the mountain and my boyfriend had been spraying the vehicle and the bees with the OFF bug spray. He said the bees seemed to not like it much. He also decided to turn on the vehicle in which he said the bees seemed to not like that either. He said he got most of them out of the truck but was sure there were some left in our bags and whatnot. After all, there were so many bees in there they did get into all the nooks and crannies. So we decided to not wait for the fire department and proceeded to turn around and drive hoping all the bees would eventually fly out the window. As we are driving halfway out of the wilderness area the fire department calls us back and asks us if the sheriff’s had called us yet. We told them they had not. We also told them we had just gotten rid most of the bees and to not bother coming to help us. At this point we had waited over an hour for any response to our situation. I guess that’s how it is in the desert for emergencies. Oh well.
Point of the story is: we left the windows and doors open in the middle of the desert not realizing that it could’ve been a potential catastrophe. We should have not brought our coffees with us either. Both of us could’ve died from the bees and/or exhaustion from fighting them away. The sun was HOT and we were many miles from civilization. Africanized bees are not nice. We did nothing to provoke them yet they still attacked us. My suggestion to anyone going rock hounding or sightseeing in the desert is to never leave your vehicle open. It doesn’t matter if it’s only a crack of a window – DO NOT LEAVE IT OPEN! Be sure to bring at least a gallon of water per person, some bug spray, bee spray, a GPS, and your cell phone with you just in case. This was by far one of the worst experiences I’ve ever had and I hope that my story can help others out should they ever encounter such a thing.
Also, if anyone has any other suggestions on how to keep bees away I would love to hear about it. Thanks, Melissa
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