Dan Hendricks wonders if the fierceness of the africanized bee could be
partly or wholly derived from wild stocks of German black bees that were
present in the area where scutellata escaped.

   I can vouch for the German bee's fierceness. These were common in coastal
South Carolina before mites and strip logging of the hardwood forests.  They
were remnants of the original stock that beekeepers used before the Italian
bee became common for domestic use.

   One spring back in the "good ole days" I caught over 90 swarms in bait
boxes, and they were mostly feral black bees, also known as "swamp bees"
around here. Every now and then, you would find one of these hives that you
knew could possibly kill an unprotected person. I remember one hive that
hammered on our plastic helmets like a hail storm, and my helper and I both
agreed that these could be killers.

   I also remember a swarm that I captured, which showed no problems at
first, but which I put into a northern orchard for pollination. The grower
called me and told me no one could work in that orchard block. When I entered
the orchard, at least 200 yards from the beehives, they started hitting my
truck windshield. I quickly isolated the problem to that one hive, and moved
it to a yard where I'd had some vandalism problems.

   Later when the bee inspector came, I had 35 hives in that yard. When we
came to that hive, I told him, "We'll do this hive last."

    "Why?" he asked.

    "Because they are mean bees, and we won't be able to continue work after
we disturb them."

    He got huffy. "I've worked bees all my life and I'm not afraid of any
'mean' bees!"

    "This one LAST!" I insisted.

    When I opened the hive and puffed some smoke they all went down between
the frames, as usual, and I wondered if I hadn't overestimated them. Then,
about thirty seconds later, they started hitting the air, and smoke had no
further noticeable effect. A minute later they were covering us. After
looking at one frame, the inspector hurridly laid it down, and beat a retreat
to his car.

   I somehow got the hive closed and followed him out of the bee yard. He was
rubbing his sides to remove stingers from his clothes. "I've never been stung
on my ribs so many times in my life!"

   I've often wondered if the africanized bee really could be any worse that
the worst black bees I've seen. Of course not all hives were that way, but an
occasional one was murder.


Dave Green    SC  USA
The Pollination Home Page:  http://pollinator.com