Killer Bees - Lesson Plan with Questions

African honeybees are easily irritated and sting aggressively when provoked. In Mexico, They have taken over the hives of less aggressive local bees, and have stung several hundred people to death. In a poll, many persons living in the USA are concerned about the possibility of being stung by the killer bees.

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

KILLER BEE TEXT

Killer bee is the name given to a hybrid bee resulting from cross-breeding between Italian and South American bees with some South African Queen Bees or their progeny (offspring). The Italian and South American bees were very gentle but were not especially good honey producers, so several Brazilian scientists imported 46 South African Queen bees as part of a 1956 breeding program. These scientists hoped to combine the honey making capabilities of the African bee with the gentle natured Italian bees. Problems arose when 26 of the African queen bees escaped into the jungles of Brazil.

The African queens sated with local bees and the subsequent swarms have spread over 7000 miles during the last three decades moving throughout South and Central America. Currently, these types of "Africanized" bees have penetrated the U.S. border.

Africanized_Bee.jpg

In the Southern USA, cyclists and hikers have filmed the bees attacking, and in 2004 an agricultural worker was killed near Fort Bend Texas where random hives attract wild bees, some of them Africanized "killer bees."

African honeybees are easily irritated and sting aggressively when provoked. In Mexico, They have taken over the hives of less aggressive local bees, and have stung several hundred people to death. In a poll, many persons living in the USA are concerned about the possibility of being stung by the killer bees.

http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/stories/2007/11/05/story4.html

One problem entomologists have identified in controlling the killer bees, is the change of the genetic material of a communities local bees. After several years of development, the genes which contain African characteristics will be expressed due to dominance, and genes of the
gentle varieties will not be expressed. The African bees will produce hybrids for a generation or two, but the bees will slowly become more and more like the original African stock.

Entomologists, scientists, and beekeepers continue to try and control the spread of the bees. The U.S. Dept. Agriculture released hundreds of European bees into Mexico to encourage hybridization of young bees. Bee-catching teams have been deployed throughout Mexico to capture and destroy African Bee swarms.

Swarming_Bees.jpg

Many scientists believe there are zones where the African bees have become gentler. They recommend trapping the killer bee swarms, periodically changing the Queen in the hive to one that is European, and releasing large quantities of male drones to breed with the European Queen bees.

Since the swarm reports, people are showing more respect for the killer bees and do not antagonize them but avoid them entirely. There were only eight deaths reported during their 1985 crossing into Mexico.

http://thefacts.com/story.lasso?ewcd=1416b2523a77c21c

Bees are vital to the pollintion process of plants, and without bees and other insects many plants would not be pollinated each year. This would result in a tremendous decline in the plant populations of our planet. For this reason, plans for dealing with the aggressive and dangerous African bees must take into account the important service bees provide to people and all life on the planet.


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