AFRICANIZED HONEY BEES IN SOUTHERN NEVADA

> Africanized Honey Bees arrived in Boulder City, Nevada, sometime in 1998. Their presence went unnoticed until the occurrence of an accident on September 19th of that same year- a homeowner surprised a colony of about 5,000 bees. Those bees then attacked every living animal and moving thing within a 150-foot radius.

> To maintain certified European colonies, requeening is mandatory and this involves the removal of the original queen from a hive and introducing a certified European queen supplied by a commercial apiary producer. By doing so, a beekeeper can prevent the complete takeover of gentle European honey bee hives by the AHB. Because the AHB is so prolific and will be present in great numbers in a colonized area, commercial European Honey Bee colonies can be viewed as a small gene pool surrounded by an immense gene pool of feral Africanized colonies. Therefore, the beekeeper's adaptation to the AHB threat is vigilance and frequent maintenance or 'working' of their European Honey Bee commercial hives. 

> Although, researchers have discovered that when many competing African drones are present in one area, a new European virgin queen introduced into a commercial hive may end up mating with an AHB drone rather than a European drone. Also, European queens mated to AHB drones produce highly defensive progeny, thereby suggesting that aggressive tendencies are carried by the AHB male or drone. Obviously, in view of these circumstances, requeening will not always be effective in maintaining a more docile European gene pool in the commercial hive.  

> As a forecast, Roger A. Morse (Bees and Beekeeping. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press. [p 175].1975) made this statement, "There is little justification for the concern that the Africanized bees will spread northward and into the United States." He based that prediction on his past research that uncovered reports of early importation of African bees to North America in the late 1890's, those bees did not successfully adapt nor did the African bee adapt in Poland. As a result of those importations, he also believed that African genes were subsequently introduced into colonies of bees in North America and Europe. 

> Hence, the Africanization of bees in the United States and Europe already occurred with aggressive behavior presumably 'tamed down' by hybridization. He is correct in that tropical bees do not adapt to northern temperate weather. However, what Morse did not foresee was the fact that Apis mellifera scutellata hybrids are very adaptable to southern temperate zone conditions. Further, after hybridization with European varieties, the feral AHB colony gene pool reverts back to the genotype found in South Africa, commonly known as the East African Honey Bee.

excerpts from: AFRICANIZED HONEY BEES IN THE HUMAN DOMAIN: ISSUES OF SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ADAPTATION IN SOUTHERN NEVADA By Daniel E. LeBas

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