Killer bees in Texas?

[DoomsDave]

Howdyall:

That take on the snakes inspired this one.

A while back, when I still watched television, I remember a show about Africanized honeybees which had become established in Texas, especially around Houston. I recall also seeing a van with "bee control" or words to such effect and guys in white bee suits pulling up to what appeared to be a colony of honeybees nesting under a bridge.

So, my question is, what happened? Were there nightmarish "incidents" that made the City Fathers and Mothers of Hugetown "take the problem seriously"?

Here in California we had a bit of bee trouble, too. There was one case in San Bernardino in the late 1980's (when I lived there!) when some gardener pissed off a hive of bees which went on a rampage in a suburban 'hood and stung everyone in sight.

Anyway, curious to know.

I had a bee swarm take up residence at my place under an inverted 15-gallon nursery can, and the bee keepers came and took them away, gift-wrapped in a plastic bag.

[bubba]

Killer Bee's in Texas were the Big Press Thrill of the early 1990's'perhaps not altogether different from the Pythons in the Glades.African Bee's have already spread to So.Cal.Has it changed life as you know it?It perpertrated a few idiotic Scare Movies but that is about it as far as I know.If anybody knows anything different,please let us know.

[Tad]

I encounter a hive once a month average, at first it was a learning curve, now that we have had them for a few years(15) and know how/what to expect its no biggie.

The most unnerving is in spring and summer when they swarm and you can be standing out somewhere and a black cloud comes humming by, they dont get all riled up when they are in formation but is a little skeery, you just stand still and hope they keep on moving, the real thrill is hauling ass down the hi way and theyr swarming and your windshield just goes from clear to goo in a blink...they are highly annoyed by the turbos on diesel engines. we used to get dressed in the lil white suits and make a huge production about killing them, now I have found its ever so much easier to wait till after dark and you can dispatch them with the greatest of ease, a lot of people will say soap and water but judicious amounts of resmethrein or other simillarly spelled words is great too, I like the foamy types.

I think 40 is the most times I have been stung in a single sitting it was no fun and that was way back in the begining, now I hardly ever get stung, I think most deaths that have been attributed to this was people who were highly allergic and the very young and very old, and I dont think that there have been very many at all.

The Town of Hidalgo is the first siting in Tx its a border town and they have to be proud of something so they erected the largest killer be statue, and the local ice hockey (I know I thought it was dumb too) is called the "killer bees" so all in all yeah its somthing you should educate yourself on if your going to be out and about, theyseem to love old tires that are still on the rim half buried in a ditch bank, old fridges and of course the walls of my old house in mercedes. it just never did become the ultra danger like they thought it would, as the top of the food chain we adapted pretty fast and learned real quick that you could spray some chemicals on them and they die, WHO KNEW?

[amazondk]

The bees came through here a long time ago. And, as far as I know not much changed.

Tad, I am sure that the bees were bigger by the time they got to Texas.

dk

[Tad]

Actually Don they are a little smaller than regular bees, even the guys who supply the bees for melon fileds didnt seem to feel much of an effect by the introduction of the bee, lots more hype than it deserved I think.

[bubba]

Tad,That was a Great Post and that picture of Belushi is priceless.

[LJG]

I remember in a class I had in college called "Biology of the Honey Bee" (Yes, I spend 6 years in college taking ridiculous classes) that the term "hyper-defensive behavior" was used to describe the difference between European bees and Africanized bees. Other then that trait, they are better all around for bee keeping. Especially in the tropics where they first escaped in Brazil.

I know they are in SoCal as I saw two colonies at Doc Darians under his skywalk. I was going to wait until Gary was right under them and throw a rock at the hive to test the hyper-defensive behavior, but erred on the side of better judgment.

[amazondk]

I looked into the subject of africanized bees a bit. We have Mr. Warwick Kerr who brought the bees to Sao Paulo in 1956. The african bees were allowed to escape, the queen that is and started reproducing. These were pure african bees. What Kerr developed since was the africanized bees which in reality are an improvement in many ways. You can learn most anything on the internet.

dk

[Tad]

Tad,That was a Great Post and that picture of Belushi is priceless.

Belushi was the bomb diggety, one of my favorites is in the greek resturaunt and he's pointing out to a customer that everyones eating a "cheeseburger, cheeseburger, cheesburger, cheeseburger, cheesburger" and Akroyds in the back slapping them down on the grill, toooo funny.

Killer bees or africanized bees, are a real threat here in the valley, but if you use your head and some common sense they are not the threat everybody thought they would be.

[Alan_Tampa]

we get them here in Tampa, too. Funny part is they are more active pollinators than the lazy un-africanized honey bees! Easily annoyed they are by loud sounds and commotion. A little smoke calms 'em down, just like their more mundane brothers; especially bong smoke.

Had a hive at my old job (of regular bees) that a friend with the bug bug collected, he put the queen in a paper grocery bag and drove around with it and its loyal followers in the cab of his truck, then put them in a cardboard box at my work till he was able to bring his proper beehouse. We ate the honeycomb like it was going out of style, so good. The bees were mild-mannered but a little smoke mellowed them out enough so that a suit or headgear was not required to harvest the yummy-goodies inside the hive.

The avocado trees at the property produced more fruit in the Year of the Hive than ever before.

That mite dealy got them after a while, kinda sad.

Alan

[BS Man about Palms]

Tad,That was a Great Post and that picture of Belushi is priceless.

Belushi was the bomb diggety, one of my favorites is in the greek resturaunt and he's pointing out to a customer that everyones eating a "cheeseburger, cheeseburger, cheesburger, cheeseburger, cheesburger" and Akroyds in the back slapping them down on the grill, toooo funny.

Killer bees or africanized bees, are a real threat here in the valley, but if you use your head and some common sense they are not the threat everybody thought they would be.

No Coke, Pepsi.

[edbrown_III]

I used to keep bees for amusement when I was younger. There is a large bee keeping infrastructure in the US. Lots of beekeepers follow the flowers from FLorida to Michigan and North through out the growing season. Its kind of a natural biological barrier that w ould absorb the effects of there spread north. Sort of dilutes the aggression out of the gene pool with european traits. This might be the lazy bees Alan is talking about.

Its funny how the press perspective on this hasnt evolved much at all since the 1950s with regards to bees boas viruses etc. None of these things ever took over the world since then. This is a barometer/measure of the degree of sensationalysm in the press that underlies the hyperbole of global warming, oil prices, immigration, Iran etc.

Best regards,

Ed

[amazondk]

Ed,

I read some time ago that many bees were dying off in the USA and that this was creating a problem for certain crops. If I remember right one of them was cranberries in Oregon. Do you know anything about this?

dk

[edbrown_III]

There were some pervasive diseases in the 80s a foul brood disease and tracheal mite. THese wiped out my colonies in FL.

Theres this sudden die off phenomena folks are alarmist about. Some even blamed it on cell phones. Theres a fairly large bee keeping community here so everything gets reported. There was alot in media a few months ago but nothing now but You raised my interest enough to atleast search.

Best regards,

Ed

[Really full garden]

When I arrived in Guatemala in the late eighties Africanized bees were to be feared.We had several encounters and they are certainly "enthusiastic" about eliminating any perceived threat. We still have several deaths a year from these encounters but it does seem their gene pool has been diluted over the years by more docile bees. I live in one of the most violent countries in the world and it is far more likely to be shot,hacked to death by machete or killed in a car accident."Killer Bees" are the least of my worries.

[amazondk]

Scott,

The machetes seem a lot worse than the bees. I did a bit of research and Guatemala is behind some other Central American countries with 47 deaths by homicide per 100,000 inhabitants, but ahead of Rio de Janeiro with 36 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants. Rio has had a decrease in violent crime in spite of the on going urban drug wars. At least these were the numbers I dug up. It would be better to worry about bees than bullets.

dk

[Tad]

out of curiosity Don, how did Mexico rank? I know locally were cranking them out left and right altho we are in a summer lul right now, I suspect things will get to popping for the fall harvest