some are still looking...and finding:
The Florida Times-Union
Thursday, May 6, 1999
Story last updated at 10:56 a.m. on Wednesday, May 5, 1999
Killer bees trapped at port
Unwelcome arrivals pose no threat
By Chris Scribner
Times-Union business writer
Several thousand African bees were caught and destroyed in Jacksonville
last month, state agricultural officials said yesterday.
African bees, commonly called killer bees, are more aggressive and
temperamental than their domestic counterparts, but officials think they
have captured them all. The potentially harmful bees were found April 23
in two traps at the Jacksonville Port Authority's Blount Island
terminal.
On Monday, agricultural inspectors brought a third trap from the
Northside terminal to their Gainesville lab, but the hive included no
African bees, said Laurence Cutts, the state's chief apiary inspector.
While swarms of African bees can be a danger to people, a handful of
them should not cause any problems, a University of Florida professor
said.
''Just having a few bees flying around is nothing,'' said Tom Sanford, a
beekeeping specialist at the university's Institute of Food and
Agricultural Sciences.
An established swarm of African bees, which can include about 10,000 to
20,000 bees, can be dangerous because if provoked, hundreds of bees
together will attack people and animals.
The bees, which are not more poisonous than domestic - or European -
bees, have been known to chase people for up to half a mile, said Glenn
Hague, African bee technician for the state's Division of Plant
Industry, who on Monday completed DNA analysis on 50 of the bees.
In the United States, five people - all of them elderly and with limited
mobility - have been killed by bee stings since 1990, according to
newspaper reports.
This was the third time in the past decade that African bees have been
found at the Jacksonville port, said Cutts, adding that the bees likely
traveled here aboard a container ship from Puerto Rico, which has an
established population.
There is no known African bee population in Florida, although swarms
have been discovered 17 times since 1983, when they first were found in
the port of Miami, said Cutts.
African bees migrated into the United States from Mexico in 1990 and
they are now in Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and California, said Sanford,
a professor in Florida's department of entomology and nemotology.
So far, the bees have not traveled eastward from Texas. ''The chances of
them establishing a population of bees in Jacksonville is remote,'' he
said.
The bees ''haven't migrated to Florida. The only ones we've found have
been hitchhikers off boats,'' said Hague.
The Blount Island discovery marks the first time that bees have been
caught in the agricultural department's traps - or bait hives as they
are called by the bee inspectors.
Previous swarms have been reported by ships' crews or dockworkers, said
Cutts. The hives have been used since 1985 and are checked every three
weeks.
Located most often at ports and along the interstates, there are 500
bait hives in the state, including 27 in Duval County. ''We try to
intercept the bees that come in'' to the state, said Hague.
This week the inspectors will put another 24 hives - which look like
oversize papier-mache flower pots and are filled with a pheromone that
attracts bees - on the JPA terminals.
The University of Florida Pest Alert WWW site at:
http://extlab7.entnem.ufl.edu/PestAlert/
05/06/99 - So Called "Killer Bees" found in Jacksonville Florida Port
No Evidence of Permanent Florida Population of African Honey Bees Yet
Found
A press release by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer
Services (FDACS) dated May 5,
1999 announced detection and destruction of two swarms of African honey
bees found near the port of
Blount Island in Jacksonville. Both were found in bait hives placed by
FDACS for intercepting these kinds
of honey bees that might come off ships. The bait hives were located in a
container yard holding cargo
shipped from Puerto Rico, which has an established African honey bee
population. An additional 24 bait
hives will be placed throughout the port and follow up inspections are
scheduled to determine if other
colonies exist.
This detection marks the first time in Florida that African bee swarms
have been detected in bait hives.
Previous swarms have been reported by ship s crews or dockworkers, who
have been alerted to look for
bees by state, USDA and customs officials. Swarms have been found 17
other times since 1983.
African bees are sometimes called "killer bees," according to the press
release, for their aggressive
defense of their hives. The "killer" term comes from their reputation in
many tropical areas, where these
defensive insects have been responsible for deaths of animals and people.
This has been picked up by
various media and spread liberally around the state and nation over the
years. Use of the term,
unfortunately, may skew the public's opinion and concern about this
particular detection of these
insects. This could lead to unjustified and unwarranted worries and
actions based on the sensationalism
of the "killer" label.
The detection of African (often called "Africanized,"or simply "AHB")
honey bees in bait hives does not
mean there is an established population in Florida. There is no evidence
of this yet in the Jacksonville
area or other parts of the state where bees from undetermined origin were
found on ships. One should be
very skeptical of calls or information suggesting anyone in Florida is
encountering or being threatened by
"killer" bees. "Killer" bees are a different variant of the common honey
bee, extremely difficult to
distinguish from other honey bees commonly found in the state. They are
capable of mass attacks, but
only near a nest. All honey bees of any kind should be approached with
caution and any nests
assiduously avoided. If honey bees attack, those affected should get
inside houses, automobiles, and
other enclosed spaces that bees cannot enter. Any stinging incident, no
matter the type of honey bee,
must be considered serious particularly if multiple insects attack. A
physician should be contacted
immediately for either allergic reactions (trouble breathing) from a
single sting or mass envenomation
resulting from multiple stings.
For more general information on these insects, see :
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/scripts/htmlgen.exe?DOCUMENT_MG113
For a more in depth and historical treatment see the APIS web site index
on the Africanized honey bee:
http://www.ifas.ufl.edu/~mts/apishtm/threads/ahb.htm
Tom Sanford
Extension Apiculturist
Publisher of APIS http://www.ifas.ufl.edu/~mts/apishtm/apis.htm
Department of Entomology and Nematology
University of Florida
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