Africanized Honeybees found in Northeast Alabama (WHNT)

[eppur_se_muova]

by: Tony Cortes

Posted: Jun 18, 2024 / 03:04 PM CDT
Updated: Jun 18, 2024 / 03:04 PM CDT

ALABAMA (WHNT) — The Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries (ADAI) has confirmed the presence of invasive honeybees in Alabama.

Feral swarms of Africanized Honeybees (AHB) were found in both Jackson and St. Clair Counties. These bees were caught by local beekeepers and have been killed to protect native Alabama honeybees.
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According to ADAI, Africanized Honeybees are different from European Honeybees (EHB) in their behavior, not their appearance. The organization warns that AHB can be highly defensive and pose a risk to humans and animals.
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ADAI urges the public to stay vigilant and to report any unusually aggressive bee behavior to them. It is important to avoid provoking any swarms and to seek professional assistance for the removal of bees.

If you believe you have found a colony of Africanized Honeybees, contact the ADAI’s State Apiary Unit at [phone] or [phone]. For any additional information about honeybees visit the ADAI website.
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more: https://whnt.com/news/northeast-alabama/africanized-honeybees-found-in-northeast-alabama/
https://agi.alabama.gov/plantprotection/apiary-protection-unit/

[werdna]

1. Africanized?

More like, Genetically Crossbred to Increase Profits at the Expense of Human Safety bees.

"Are African honey bees more aggressive?
African honeybees are much more hostile than European varieties, as their natural environment has far more predators looking to destroy hives for honey. Coordinated defensive manoeuvres enable African bees to better fend off these attacks."
https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/killer-bees-a-deadly-swarm.html

"The Africanized honey bees in the Western Hemisphere are descended from hives operated by biologist Warwick E. Kerr, who had interbred honey bees from Europe and southern Africa. Kerr was attempting to breed a strain of bees that would produce more honey in tropical conditions than the European strain of honey bee then in use throughout North, Central and South America. The hives containing this particular African subspecies were housed at an apiary near Rio Claro, São Paulo, in the southeast of Brazil, and were noted to be especially defensive. These hives had been fitted with special excluder screens (called queen excluders) to prevent the larger queen bees and drones from getting out and mating with the local population of European bees. According to Kerr, in October 1957 a visiting beekeeper, noticing that the queen excluders were interfering with the worker bees' movement, removed them, resulting in the accidental release of 26 Tanganyikan swarms of A. m. scutellata. Following this accidental release, the Africanized honey bee swarms spread out and crossbred with local European honey bee colonies. "
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africanized_bee