> I would say my limited data set informs me that water meter are just as likely to be populated by European bees as the African crosses.

OK, but Kristen Baum's experience with AHB in Tucson is far from limited. Her first paper was out in 2007, and her latest "The influence of nest site selection on the population dynamics of Africanized honey bees in an urban landscape" is from 2017. 

The phenomenon was noted even earlier: Schmidt, J.O., Hurley, R., 1995. "Selection of nest cavities by Africanized and European honey bees." Apidologie 26, 467–475. They state:

European bees do have distinct
cavity volume preferences and they prefer nest cavity
volumes of at least 20 liters, but will sometimes accept 
cavities of 13 l, while rejecting cavities of 10 l or less volume.


In practical terms, the differences in
swarm behaviors between Af ricanized and
European honey bees enables the design
of different swarm traps for different situa-
tions. Since the 13.5 liter cavity is fully attractive
to Africanized honey bees, yet excludes two-thirds
of the European honey bees, it can
be used as a selective Africanized honey
bee trap. In addition to being mostly selective
for Africanized bees, smaller swarm traps
are less expensive to manufacture and ship,
easier to transport and deploy, less obtrusive,
and more resistant to damage.

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