I've seen AHB colonies in TX that were as bad as any that I've seen in
South America.  One group was a set of abandoned hives in San  Antonio.  You
couldn't get out of a vehicle without getting hit.  And  the stinging frenzy
was severe.

We filmed one colony as it went in to attack mode - had to leave the camera
 for several hours - the bees were attacking it and a white car - we had a
remote  to run the video camera.  Several days later, we drove back in to
the woods  in the white rental car to see if they'd calmed down.  Never got
out of the  car, as we approached, the colony that had barely any flight
suddenly exploded,  and the bees headed straight for the car (we hadn't even
attempted to get  out).  Within seconds, you could barely see out of the
windshield - coated  with bees, all attacking the black molding, trying to get in
to us.

That summer, we were working at SWRI, and the grounds crew asked us to
remove some feral colonies from irrigation boxes in the ground, etc.  Nasty
bees.

So, if you've never seen AHB behavior in the U.S., I can show you  some.

Actually, the first time I saw this behavior was in eastern MT in the
early 70s - two of the nastiest colonies you can imagine.  The gate to the
beeyard was 1/4 mile from the colonies.  Stop at the gate to open it, and  you
got hit.  Bill Wilson wrote about the distribution of AHB hybrids to  MT,
Dakotas, at that time; wasn't a good career move.  However, having seen  AHB in
S. America, TX - those two colonies in MT had the same aggressive
behavior.  So, I tend to think Bill was right.

Jerry

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